My Bodhi Tree
by Xianliang Zhang
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Description
THE BOOK: 'A man searching for a cabbage finds he is pulling at a frozen corpse. Offered a bowl of hot water, he discovers a boiled baby curled up inside. Snapshots from the landscape of starvation cram My Bodhi Tree, the Chinese poet Zhang Xianliang's sequel to his bestselling Grass Soup. Here, Zhang covers one year out of the 22 he spent as a political prisoner : 1960, when Mao Tse-tung's policies triggered a famine claiming 30 million lives. A brilliant study of the psychology of show more survival, the book shows, too, how hunger dehumanised an entire generation, kickstarting the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution and after'. - New Scientist. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Chang spent a large portion of his life in one of Mao's forced labour camps; this is his "Ivan Denisovitch" story of how he survived.
His tale is exceptionally well-written (and well-translated), full of character, incident and minor details.
He presents MSG, the Chinese wonder flavouring, as a tool of death; convinced they are drinking soy soup, many prisoners consumed such great quantities that their kidneys shut down and they died.
Although scathing of the prison camps and the treatment of the inmates, there is something different about the way Chang talks about what happened, as if his writing about the period is some sort of personal catharsis, warm with his, and others', humanity; perhaps the Bodhi Tree of which he speaks is the show more book itself. show less
His tale is exceptionally well-written (and well-translated), full of character, incident and minor details.
He presents MSG, the Chinese wonder flavouring, as a tool of death; convinced they are drinking soy soup, many prisoners consumed such great quantities that their kidneys shut down and they died.
Although scathing of the prison camps and the treatment of the inmates, there is something different about the way Chang talks about what happened, as if his writing about the period is some sort of personal catharsis, warm with his, and others', humanity; perhaps the Bodhi Tree of which he speaks is the show more book itself. show less
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Author Information
15 Works 445 Members
Some Editions
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History
- DDC/MDS
- 365.45092 — Society, Government, and Culture Social problems and social services Punishment Institutions for specific classes of inmates Institutions for political prisoners and related groups of people
- LCC
- PL2837 .H762 .W613 — Language and Literature Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Chinese language and literature Chinese literature Individual authors and works
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 20
- Popularity
- 1,185,866
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- Dutch, English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 3
