(This book concerns a young girl who wishes to avoid the m...)
This book concerns a young girl who wishes to avoid the marriage her parents have arranged for her, and illustrates the conflicts in China between more traditional values and newer notions of equality.
https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Betrothal-X-Gao/dp/0835120511
1954
高晓声
Gao Xiaosheng was born on July 8, 1928, in Wujin District, Changzhou, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China to a peasant family. His father, a middle-school teacher, was killed by Japanese soldiers during World War II, leaving a family impoverished.
With the aid of his father's friends, Gao Xiosheng was able to complete middle school. In 1948, he entered a Shanghai Law Institute, majoring in economics. After 1949, he enrolled in the Southern Jiangsu Journalism School.
At the start of the 1950s, Gao Xiaosheng worked as a teacher. His first short story was published in the People’s Republic of China in 1954. Three years later he and some of his colleagues launched the literary magazine "The Explorers". Unfortunately for Gao, the Chinese government was then undergoing the "Cultural Revolution" under Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung, and "The Explorers" was condemned by Chinese authorities. For his role in starting the magazine, and possibly for his fiction as well, Gao was forced to work in the Chinese countryside for over twenty years. His reputation as a writer was eventually rehabilitated, however, and by 1979 he had begun to win national prizes for his work. By 1987 he was included in a delegation of Chinese authors visiting West Germany (now Germany). In that year, an English translation of a book-length collection of his short fiction "The Broken Betrothal" was published.
Gao is the author of short stories "Misfortune" (1957), "Bond of Hearts" (1979), "Li Shunda Builds a House" (1979), "The Doctor" (1979), "All the Livelong Day" (1979), "Chen Huansheng’s Adventure in Town" (1980), "The Briefcase" (1980), "The River Flows East" (1981), "Chen Huansheng Transferred" (1982).
Gao Xiaosheng was one of the earliest Chinese writers to be known outside his home country. He stands out among Chinese writers in his use of black humor and satire in the portrayal of peasants. His best- known peasant character, Chen Huansheng, has been canonized in contemporary Chinese literature. His allegorical stories are also notable, which challenge the conventional notion of realism. His stories have appeared in languages such as English, German, Dutch, and Japanese.
(This book concerns a young girl who wishes to avoid the m...)
1954Gao Xiaosheng was a member of the Writers' Association, a Jiangsu Province Branch.
In 1956 Gao Xiaosheng married Qian Suzhen.
