50books_poc | #2, The Corpse Walker, Liao Yiwu, trans. Wen Huang

My first piece of advice: Do not read the foreword or introduction until you've read the rest of the book, as it makes it look like the kind of thing you got stuck reading in school and hated. This is not true! My second piece of advice: Read this book.

Liao Yiwu is a Chinese author who spent years in prison for writing a long epic poem about the Tianamen Square massacre. Wikipedia tells me the original work in Chinese is much longer.

The Corpse Walker, original title People from the Bottom Rung of Society, is a collection of Yiwu's interviews with people on the 'outs' in current Chinese society-- street musicians, professional mourners, people who held power during various iterations of the Communist government, and out-and-out criminals. Yiwu is an excellent interviewer, and he's chosen his subjects well.

One of the great things about this book is the slices of Chinese history. My favorite interview is with Master Deng Kuan, an abbot who was 103 years old at the time of his interview.

Let me tell you a story. A poor old lady named Wang lived near the temple. She secretly helped me for many years. Since I was a counterrevolutionary, she couldn't talk with me when there were people around. While I was working in the field, she would walk past me, and stop briefly, pretending to tie her shoelaces. Then, she would bang her sickle on the ground a couple of times to get my attention. After she left, I would dash over to the place where she banged her sickle, and pick up the corn bread she had left there for me. It was in January if 1960, the onset of a nationwide famine. Many folks in the village had already died of starvation. That lady squeezed food from her ration and saved it for me. She was the reincarnation of the Goddess of Mercy. Even now, I can still remember her courage and generosity and pray for her soul.

My second favorite is with a retired Communist Party official who worked in the countryside during some of the worst of the famine. The story is horrible, but the resilience and decency of the official and many of the people he worked with shine through.

We thought about food day and night and came up with many creative ways. For example, we gathered all the dry corn, wheat, and rice stalks, ground them into powder, and boiled them for a long time to extract starch. Then we used the starch to make pancakes. They tasted pretty good. We also sent people to collect urine. We then poured the urine into a big container and mixed it with garbage. After a week, there would be a layer of green algae floating on top of the mess. We scraped the thin layer out, added some water and sugar, and drank it. It didn't taste bad at all.

There are countless small mercies and casual cruelties, and it's amazing to see how small choices could change people's lives. As I continued reading, the sheer madness of living in a country where policies-- and lives-- changed overnight started sinking in. One of the most poignant stories is of a man who'd been a devoted Communist party official-- right until the tanks started rolling by his hotel room window in June 1989.

Highly recommended. The translation is readable, and the stories are well worth reading, often so vibrant and engaging I forgot I was reading non-fiction.