The Banquet Bug [Paperback]

Russians have long been notorious for their satirical view of life under the Communist Party government and their willingness to invent jokes about it. For example: "After waiting five hours in line to buy meat, in the dead of winter, Igor begins to snap. He starts jumping up and down, yelling, "I can't stand it anymore! This developed socialism sucks! The system is totally corrupt!" After a couple of minutes, a grim-looking type in a black trenchcoat approaches Igor, shakes his head slowly, points his finger to Igor's temple mimicking a pistol, then walks off without saying a word. Igor comes home especially dejected. His wife asks, "What's the matter? Are they out of meat again?" "Worse," Igor says. "They're out of ammo."

The Chinese are not as well known for cynically humorous self-criticism, but Yan Geling's THE BANQUET BUG adds admirably to an emergent wave of such books from Ma Jian (THE NOODLE MAKER), Ha Jin (THE CRAZED, WAITING), Dai Sijie (MR. MUO'S TRAVELING COUCH), and Annie Wong (THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF DESIRE). Ms. Yan tells the story of Dan Dong, an emigrant from rural China into Beijing, where he has become a married but unemployed factory worker. Dan and his wife, Little Plum, live in an unused part of the factory, subsisting on canned goods that have passed their expiration date, electricity tapped from the nearly defunct factory, and industrial waste water of indeterminate but suspect quality. One day, Dan inadvertently gets invited to a media event that includes a sumptuous banquet of exotic dishes along with an envelope containing "money for your troubles," the Chinese way of buying good press coverage. Thus begins Dan's new career as a "banquet bug," a person who falsely represents himself as a journalist in order to enjoy the banquets and receive the money for his troubles.

The bulk of Ms. Yan's novel follows Dan's misadventures as he gradually evolves into a poor man's journalist, inadequately educated for the role but instinctively honest in his desire to report truth and express outrage at corruption and injustice. No matter what Dan does or how uninformed he is, he miraculously manages to make the right decisions and say the right things, each time gaining more credibility and greater access to important people; in this, his character is reminiscent of Kosinski's Chauncey Gardiner in BEING THERE. Along the way, Dan Dong meets the renowned artist and fellow landsman Ocean Chen, the ruthlessly ambitious reporter Happy Gao, a foot massaging prostitute named Old Ten, and a small collection of oppressed individuals and rapacious businessmen who each want Dan to write news stories that will help them. Even as Dan practices his own form of banquet crashing deceit, he sees that those he meets simply want to use him for their own ends. In Ms. Yan's China, nearly everyone is both a user and a prostitute, living without principles and selling themselves for whatever gain it affords them. Truth is utterly relative, a product of each individual's particular motivations and objectives, further perverted by State censorship and editors' fears of government sanction.

As Dan becomes increasingly worldly from his journalistic experiences, his moral decline is contrasted with that of his oddly childlike wife, Little Plum. Throughout the book, Little Plum offers an almost saintly presence - uneducated, unassuming, undemanding, forbearing, and unwaveringly persevering. When confronted, she demonstrates flashes of anger and instinctive peasant savvy, but otherwise, she seems so devoid of affect and oblivious to her husband's unfaithfulness as to be almost robotic. In the end, however, it is Little Plum to whom Dan Dong will ultimately return after his two years' exposure to the workings of modern Chinese society - the unjust factory manager who has just upgraded to a Lexus even as he claims he is unable to pay his workers, the sleazy property developer Mr. Wu, the suffering peasants looking for justice in the capital city, even the self-serving guards at a car dealership who threaten to rape Little Plum.

Yan Geling's story is filled with trenchant observations about modern Chinese life, presented in a low key, satirical voice. Whether she is riffing on China's penchant for abstruse statistics and its materialistic perceptions about art (Happy Gao chooses as a gift from Ocean Chen one of his largest paintings based on her computations of the market value per square inch of the master's work), spoofing a saleslady's real estate pitch for an as yet unbuilt complex ("She is like an instructor of Marxism, teaching beautiful ideas of communism, helping you see things far beyond the way they appear now, so you can enjoy them in advance while they are still beautiful ideas."), or simply remarking the moral emptiness of modern Chinese life (Just tell him there's no right or wrong in China; it all depends on who you know."), Ms. Yan is an entertaining and spot-on observer. She wraps her commentary in a creative and engaging story line filled with memorable characters. The end result is a delightful read as well as education in the manners and mores of the "new China" - I heartily recommend THE BANQUET BUG to those interested in China and anyone who enjoys a well-told tale from a different culture. I recommend as well Ms. Yan's earlier novel, THE LOST DAUGHTER OF HAPPINESS, a stunning book that made me an instant fan.

I probably should not be rating this novel, as I am the author's husband and therefore profoundly biased. But at this writing I am one of the few people to have read (and edited) the novel, and I would like to share its content with you to help you determine if this novel is for you.

The Banquet Bug is the first novel by Chinese novelist Geling Yan written directly in English. It deals with the phenomenon of the "banquet bug": people in today's China on the fringes of society who masquerade as journalists in order to take part in the many banquets -- and jouralistic payoffs -- that are a feature publicity events and product launches in most major cities of China today. The protagonist, Dan Dong, is an ingenue from a remote rural area of China now living in Beijing, and he falls into the banquet bug lifestyle after being laid off from his factory job. Along the way, he meets a variety of characters: a pushy, hardboiled female journalist who won't leave him alone; a temperamental, emotional abstract artist and his gold-digger fiancee; a foot-massage girl whose sister has suffered a terrible injustice; a well-spoken dwarf and fellow "journalist" who may be a real journalist, a fellow banquet bug or a police spy; a real estate mogul who styles himself as a provider of attractive, affordable housing while cheating home buyers and construction workers; a family of peasant farmers who have suffered terrible grievances at the hands of village officials; and the corrupt, indifferent son of a high Central Government official who can move heaven and earth with a call to his father, if he cares to do so. Dan comes face to face with the contradictions of China today, particularly opulence and excess of the cities versus the oppression and grinding poverty of the rural areas. Dan soon feels that everyone wants a piece of him ... and then he begins to suspect that someone is watching him.

This book is poignant social satire and a picaresque novel in the best tradition of Saul Bellow. It is a lively, enjoyable read, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

I stumbled on The Banquet Bug by Geling Yan in my "local independent book store." I just spent two weeks in Hong Kong and two days in Macau, so I am fascinated with anything Chinese right now. I want to better understand this vast culture and how it currently manifests.

I just finished reading the book and I am stung by the hugeness of what Geling Yan reports, of the layers and complexity she exposes, in a book presented as a "comedy" and "entertaining." This book is a brutal commentary on life not only in China but in the United States. What is presented here could be written anywhere that the disparity between rich and poor continues to stretch, anywhere where the politicians and builders are corrupt, anywhere where some people have to sell their own blood to live.

This book ends with strong, gentle acclaim for Motherhood, for Little Plum, in her outspoken wisdom, nonjudgment, and innocence. The last word, "Good" is a knife to the soul. Has he compromised his principles, or does he continue to know that what matters can never be bartered, purchased, or sold?