Short stories
我的遙遠的清平灣
Not translated into English
Shi Tiesheng · 1983
Synopsis
A young Beijinger sent to the countryside, the narrator, tends the oxen at Qingpingwan, a hamlet in Shaanxi, with an old man of the village, old Po. When it rains or snows, the two take shelter in the cowshed. The work is not heavy but it wears one down: one has to get up several times in the night to look after the animals. The narrative dwells on the life of this poor village rather than on the political turmoil of the time.
Context
The text appeared in the first issue of 1983 of the journal Qingnian wenxue. It received the national short story prize and, together with another prize-winning story the following year, made its author known, according to Chinawriter. It continues the texts born of the sending of educated youths to the countryside, but through the eyes of just one of them, and puts the era at a distance to paint the poverty and simplicity of the village, in a writing close to prose. No separate translation of it has been found; Anne Curien translated other stories by the author for Gallimard in 2004.
Who it is for
A short story, brief and without emphatic plot; its author can be read in French in the collection Fatalité, published by Gallimard.
Prizes and reception
According to Chinawriter, this prize was then among the most esteemed, and it launched the author's career.