Publisher's Synopsis
"With unadorned prose and utmost compassion, Qi portrays a range of characters beset by fortune and misfortune . . .Red Guard Fantasiesoffer glimpses of How to Be Chinese, now that instructions from theLittle Red Bookno longer apply."-Gloria Frym, author ofDistance No Object
Take a wild ride through contemporary Chinese society, which continues to accelerate at a blistering, unrestrained pace decades after the end of the Cultural Revolution.Red Guard Fantasiesblazes a new trail in contemporary literature by forcing a reconciliation between China's new urban sensibility and its centuries of tradition. The results are certainlynotpredictable. Shouhua Qi's stories are witty, poignant, absurd, and shocking. Part autobiographical, they offer a masterful depiction of the myriad world of jaded entrepreneurs, overzealous cops, karaoke addicts, dog lovers, liberated coeds, and frustrated urbanites who move in and out of China's colorful neon-lit cities and dusty rural villages, transitioning from one world to the other.
Shouhua Qi shows a China that is both superficial and plastic, as well as profoundly righteous and moralistic. He offers a powerful look at a society hanging on for dear life as it continues to shape its own culture at breakneck speed while holding on to its traditions lest they be buried or a skyscraper built upon them.
More than anything,Red Guard Fantasiesis a deeply personal and powerfully moving elegy for China's lost generation.
Shouhua Qiwas born in Nanjing, China. He is associate professor of English at Western Connecticut State University.
