Dream of Ding Village

by Yan Lianke

Book Overview

Officially censored upon its Chinese publication, and the subject of a bitter lawsuit between author and publisher, Dream of Ding Village is Chinese novelist Yan Lianke's most important novel to date. Set in a poor village in Henan province, it is a deeply moving and beautifully written account of a blood-selling ring in contemporary China. Based on a real-life blood-selling scandal in eastern China, Dream of Ding Village is the result of three years of undercover work by Yan Lianke, who worked as an assistant to a well-known Beijing anthropologist in an effort to study a small village decimated by HIV/AIDS as a result of unregulated blood selling. Whole villages were wiped out with no responsibility taken or reparations paid. Dream of Ding Village focuses on one family, destroyed when one son rises to the top of the Party pile as he exploits the situation, while another son is infected and dies. The result is a passionate and steely critique of the rate at which China is developing and what happens to those who get in the way.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802119328
• ISBN13: 9780802119322
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A beautifully written story about the tragic HIV/AID's crisis in rural China

This story is about a small village suffering the after effects of communism in which they sold their blood to better their lives. The consequences of this arrive years later as people in the village start dying. This awfully true tale about community, family, and chinese culture is eloquently described.