This anthology, a revision of one published by Picador in the U.K. in 1998, contains 21 stories equally divided between urban and rural settings, mostly granting a view of life in modern China unlike anything presented to us by the news media. The perspective throughout the book is consistently childlike, without the ambivalence of most modern fiction in English: all women are exceedingly beautiful or plain; men are clever, dull or merely dutiful. Life follows the simple parameters of Communist dictum: birth, marriage, one child (two if it's a rich or aristocratic family) and death. Decidedly tame in tone and subject matter, the tales offer only mild, glancing criticism of Communism; they often focus on single characters who disrupt the social fabric through small "rebellions."

Some Information-David Su Li-Qun ix

A Few Words-Carolyn Choa xi

David Su Li-Qun-from Beijing Open

Cheng Nai-shan-Hong Taitai

Shi Tie-sheng-Fate

Wang An-yi-Life in a Small Courtyard

Wang An-yi -Between Themselves

Su Shu-yang-Between Life and Death

Su Tong-Cherry

Mo Shen-The Window

Wang Meng-The Lovesick Crow and Other Fables

Chen Shi-xu-The General and the Small Towm

Liv Xin-wu-The General adn the Small Towm

Liv Xin-wu-Black Walls

Wang Ceng-qi-Big Chan

Deng You-mei-Han the Forger

Zhang Jie-Love Must Not Be Forgotten

Zhou Libo-The Family on the Other Side of the Mountain

Zhao Da-nian-Three Sketrhes

Feng Ji-cai-The Tall Woman and Her Short Husband

Bai Xiao Yi-Six Short Pieces

Bi Shu-min-ONe Centimetre

Author Biographies

Acknowledgemens

permission Acknowledgements