Red Dust A Path Through China

by JIAN, MA

• ISBN13: 9780385720236
• ISBN10: 0385720238
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-12
• Publisher: Anchor

Summary

In 1983, at the age of thirty, dissident artist Ma Jian finds himself divorced by his wife, separated from his daughter, betrayed by his girlfriend, facing arrest for "Spiritual Pollution," and severely disillusioned with the confines of life in Beijing. So with little more than a change of clothes and two bars of soap, Ma takes off to immerse himself in the remotest parts of China. His journey would last three years and take him through smog-choked cities and mountain villages, from scenes of barbarity to havens of tranquility. Remarkably written and subtly moving, the result is an insight into the teeming contradictions of China that only a man who was both insider and outsider in his own country could have written. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Author Biography

Ma Jian was born in 1953 in Qingdao, China. He currently lives in London.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>

Table of Contents

A Note on Names	vii
Red Walls	1	(58)
53 Nanxiao Lane
The Frozen Blue Sky
A Man of Thirty
Men in the Dark
Writing My Self-Criticism
Mixing Blood and Urine
Launch of the Campaign Against Spiritual Pollution
Back in the Public Security Bureau
Leaving Nanxiao Lane
Dust Storm	59	(44)
Emerging from the Gate of Hell
First Steps
Living in the Night
The Gold-Digger
Stuck in Suoyang
Resting in the Gale
The Living and the Dead
Lure of the Distance
Drifting Through the West	103	(30)
Hairdressing in Golmud
Fishing on Qinghai Lake
Racing Down the Ravine
Meeting Ma Youshan
The Girl in the Red Blouse
A Country in Ferment	133	(34)
Back to the City
Night Sprinkler
River of Ghosts
The Wind-Blown Soil	167	(36)
City of Tombs
Lost in the Wastes
Flies in Scrambled Eggs
Wandering Down the Coast	203	(28)
House of Memories
Time Is Money
Day and Night
Building a Park Within a Park
The Opening Ceremony Becomes the Closing Ceremony
Walking to the End of the World
The Abandoned Valleys	231	(30)
The Silent Beat of the Drum
Entering a Strange Circle
Abyss of Desire
Rain Over the Leprosy Camp
Mountains Behind Mountains
Life at the Border	261	(28)
Old Shabalu
Into the Jungle
From Traveller to Fugitive
Selling Chiffon Scarves in a Traffic Jam
A Land with No Home	289
Buddha and the City
Same Path, Different Directions
The Woman and the Blue Sky
In the Sky, on the Road
Road and Direction