Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

This book is a gem, set during the dark days of China's Cultural Revolution, in which novels, particularly novels from the non-communist world, were banned. Two young men from 'bourgeois' families are sent to the remote mountains of Szechuan for a political 're-education' which takes the form of sharing the back-breaking and frequently dangerous work of the peasants. During their stay on Phoenix Mountain the young men's 're-education' takes on another form as they discover an illicit cache of European classic novels, including the works of Balzac and Flaubert. Through the pages of these novels they are able to enter a world of sensuality and sensitivity far removed from the harshness of Mao's China. They use the stories learned from Balzac to win the attention of the book's most delightful character, the Little Seamstress herself, a wild and beautiful mountain flower. The effect on the Little Seamstress of the French stories, the way she too is re-educated, generates one of the most important and poignant strands of this novel's plot. There are many moments of humour in Sijie's book - for instance, when the character Four-Eyes attempts to turn a bawdy folk-song into Maoist propaganda. There are moments too of stunning beauty, as in Sijie's description of the Little Seamstress swimming in the mountain pool, and moments towards the end of the novel of intense pathos. Despite the book's short length, Sijie manages to achieve a narrative of great emotional power as he celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the face of tyranny: Mao's great ideological apparatus is no match for the capacity of young men to fool around, cheat authority, and pursue friendship and love - and Sijie shows that no grey life-denying dogma can ever repress the great tide of life that surges through every appearance in this beautiful novel of the Little Seamstress herself.

Two city youth are sent to a distant mountain to be "re-educated" by the peasants during China's Cultural Revolution, but the discovery of a small cache of western books changes both their lives and the life of a young seamstress they befriend in a neighboring village. This slim volume tells a rich and warm story although set during one of the bleakest and most turbulent historical periods. The author himself was a "youth sent for re-education" during the Cultural Revolution, and his description of the smells and textures of rural China and its villagers and beaurocrats are exquisite, but then so is his wonderful tale of the magic of good literature.

Set in the midst of China's Cultural Revolution in 1971, this debut from Sijie (who himself was sent to be reeducated from '71-'74) tells the story of two urban teenage boys who are sent to reeducation camp and the beautiful peasant seamstress they meet and become enamored of. Through a series of semi-adventures the boys end up with a secret cache of translated popular French novels (Balzac, Dumas, et al). As corrupting pieces of bourgeois culture they are dangerous totems to posses. However as tools to engineer mental escape from the mind-numbing rigors of manual labor, they are worth their weight in gold to the boys.

One of the boys comes up with the notion that reading these sophisticated and thrilling stories to the seamstress will help improve and transform her beyond her humble roots. And it does, though not in the way that they (or the reader) may expect. On its surface it's a simple tale told in elegant and simple prose. If that were all there were to it, I'd dismiss it as so much fluff, however... there is too much symbolism involved to leave it at that. From the boy's assigned task of hauling pails of excrement up a hill, to the seamstresses encounter with a snake, there are many many indications of another level of meaning.

One could make a good case that the one boy symbolizes China's late '90s headlong rush into embracing Western values, and the other boy is his complicit accomplice. Together they use their gift of gab to fill the uneducated peasant girl's head with visions of a world beyond her imagining, via the stories they tell based on the French novels. The one boy plays a game with her of tossing his glittering keychain (symbolic of the riches waiting back in the city) into the water, where she dives for it, scarring her hand in one attempt. But she doesn't learn her lesson, as the boy and temptation lead her to further suffering (she has an abortion). Finally, she is transformed and exhibits the true selfishness necessary to get ahead in the newly urbanizing China. That's just off the top of my head, but I think there's definitely something there, otherwise it's just a cute little story.