Product Description

With this translation of the 1929 novel Rainbow(Hong), one of China's most influential works of fiction is at last available in English.
Rainbow chronicles the political and social disruptions in China during the early years of the twentieth century. Inspired by the iconoclasm of the "May Fourth Movement," the heroine, Mei, embarks on a journey that takes her from the limitations of the traditional family to a discovery of the new, "modern" values of individualism, sexual equality, and political responsibility. The novel moves with Mei from the conservative world of China's interior provinces down the Yangtze River to Shanghai, where she discovers the turbulent political environment of China's most modern city.
Mao Dun writes with the conviction of one who has lived through the events he is describing. Rainbow provides a moving introduction to the contradictions inherent in the simultaneous quest for personal freedom and national strengthening. Vividly evocative of the period in which it was written, it is equally relevant to the China of today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #484599 in Books
• Published on: 1992-05-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 255 pages

From Library Journal
Written in 1929 by one of modern China's best novelists, this work masterfully intertwines the political turbulence of 1920s China with the ideological awakening and romantic vicissitudes of a young Szechuanese women, Mei. Five years of her life, beginning with high school in conservative Chengtu, carry her from an early arranged marriage to her unfaithful cousin, through her escape to a job as a schoolteacher outside Chungking, to her life as an activist for women's freedom and government reform in racy, liberal Schangahi. Through Mei, "a mirror reflecting other people's ideas," Mao surveys in documentary-like fashion the iconoclastic ideas of the New Thought Tide. By her 23rd year, Mei, while unfulfilled in love, is fully engaged in activist stuggles, ready to break free from traditional mores as she plunges into an anti-government, anti-foreign riot. This naturalistic novel of youthful revolutionary zeal resonates strongly with events in China today.
- D.E. Perushek, Univ. of Tennessee Libs., Knoxville
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

About the Author
Shen Yanbing (1896-1981), better known by the pen name Mao Dun, was a member of the generation that created a truly vernacular Chinese literature in the early twentieth century. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he was named Minister of Culture. Madeleine Zelin is Professor of Chinese History and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. She is the author of The Magistrate's Tael (California, 1984).

Customer Reviews

not my kinda thing
this book is highly touted as a great example of mao dun's socialist realism. well even if it is, i didn't much care for it. i found the heroine to be really irritating, and just her whole experience wasn't something i found myself very interested in. if it weren't for the fact that i had to read this book for class, than i highly doubt i would have finished it. even so, it's not altogether bad or anything, it's just not my thing. hence the review of 3 stars. also, just to note, i don't really like modern Chinese literature as a whole. that may have something to do with why i didn't like this work very much.