Officialdom Unmasked (simplified Chinese: 官场现形记; traditional Chinese: 官場現形記; pinyin: Guānchǎng Xiànxíng Jì; Wade–Giles: Kuan-ch'ang hsien-hsing chi), is a late-Qing Chinese novel by Li Baojia (Li Boyuan). The theme of the work is the disintegration of the late Qing dynasty civil service bureaucracy as it is deteriorating.[1] The novel was translated to English in 2002 in an abridged format by T. L. Yang and published by Hong Kong University Press.
Donald Holoch, author of "A Novel of Setting: The Bureaucrats", wrote that the novel is very long with a "bewildering" amount of content, and therefore he argues that discussing the novel is difficult.[2] Officialdom Unmasked has over 600,000 Chinese characters. It has over 800 dramatis personæ and many episodes.[2] Holoch wrote that the work "integrates the decline of the state, the status of women, the bureaucratic personality, the role of imperialism, and the commercialization of human relations."[3]