 First edition | |
| Author | Eileen Chang |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jeanyee Wong |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons |
Publication date | 1955 |
| Publication place | Hong Kong (China) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 182 |
| LC Class | 55-7292 (1st Edition) |
The Rice Sprout Song is a 1955 novel by Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing).[1] It was her first attempt at writing fiction in English and with it, she addresses political issues relevant to early 20th Century China in a far more direct approach than she was ever akin to.[2] The novel depicts the extreme ruthless nature of the land redistribution movement of the Communist regime. The novel highlights the horrors and suffering it caused a southern agrarian village in early 1950s China[3] and hinges on the lives of a large family of peasant landowners in the countryside. In doing so, the novel portrays several elements of a traditional Chinese family structure and the prominent culture of that era. The novel portrays the various and severe implications that the larger political institutions surrounding them impose, primarily the famine that led to the subsequent suffering of the peasants. It describes the desperation of ordinary farmers in the face of hunger in detail, and by analyzing the causes of hunger, highlights the contradiction between farmers' needs and government control, as well as the conflict between human nature and system.[4] In the novel, there is also the cultural and organizational construction of the government in the countryside. Although it is also a means for the government to control the countryside, it obviously has no distinct theme of "hunger" because of its social progress.
The novel depicted the circumstances that a certain extreme communist policy had on the people in an intimate and vivid way by capturing the intricacies and rituals of family life as well as provide an accurate portrayal of the voices of countryside peasants. In doing so, Chang undoubtedly insinuates anti-communist ideologies and sparks a discourse about the dangers of communism as well as a retrospection at the harsh decisions of the communist party. The communist government was depicted to be the new landlord with proportionately more power and greed, wherein regardless of the peasant's hard work they never have enough to eat.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:2was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ David Der-Wei Wang, "Foreword," in Eileen Chang, The Rice Sprout Song (California: University California Press, 1998), vii-xxiv
- ^ Goldblatt, Howard (September 1999). "The Rice-Sprout Song. By Eileen Chang. Foreword by David Der-wei Wang. [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998 (1955). 182 pp. Hard cover $40.00, ISBN 0-520-21437-4; paperback $14.95, ISBN 0-520-21088-3.] - The Rouge of the North. By Eileen Chang. Foreword by David Der-Wei Wang. [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998 (1966). 185 pp. Hard cover $40.00, ISBN 0-520-21438-2; paperback $14.95, ISBN 0-520-21087-5.]". The China Quarterly. 159: 760–761. doi:10.1017/s0305741000003659. ISSN 0305-7410.