Feathered Serpent

ONE OF THE FOREMOST WORKS OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINESE LITERATURE

This beautifully portrayed epic family history spans one hundred years, from the 1890s during the later stages of the Qing Dynasty to the 1990s, traversing the experiences of five generations of women. Yu is the central character, whose life story is woven through the lives of her grandmother, mother, sisters, and niece. She loves her parents but at a tender age realizes they do not love her. After committing two unforgivable sins, she is sent away to live in the city but is soon abandoned. Yu's life becomes a quest for love; she is fragile but resilient, lonely but determined. Now, in the 1980s, Yu becomes caught up in the political storm and comes close to love but falls short. Her last chance at getting what she desires will ultimately come at a tragic cost.

A political satirist in the guise of a mystical writer, Xu Xiaobin masterfully creates an atmosphere where distinctions are blurred; memories of the past and present are intertwined; realities and illusions are fused without a clear trace; and events occur in unspecified places but tinted with fairylike imaginations.

Xu Xiaobin is a rare talent with a vast knowledge of history, religion, and culture, and occupies a unique place in modern Chinese literature. When Feathered Serpent won China's inaugural Creative Writing Award for women's literary fiction, it was described as a breakthrough, a record-setting novel in China's women's literature and the best fiction at the end of the century in China.

Xu Xiaobin, born in 1953 into an intellectual family in Beijing, is a member of the China's Writers Association. She spent nine years in the countryside and at a factory during the Cultural Revolution until 1978 when she entered the Chinese University of Central Finance just after universities had reopened and entrance examinations were held nation wide. She began publishing her writings in 1981. Currently she works as a staff screenplay writer at China's Television Production Center. She has published numerous fictions, novellas and collections of prose.

In this epic family history, Xiaobin portrays women across five generations with Yu (feather) as the central character whose life story is weaved through the lives of her grandmother, mother, sisters and niece. Beginning in the 1950s, Yu loves her parents but at a tender age she realizes that they do not love her in return. After committing two unforgivable sins, Yu is sent away to live with a woman named Jinwu but is soon abandoned by her as well. Through heavy manual labor Yu hopes to redeem herself and gain forgiveness from her mother. Yu finally returns to her family and finds work at a factory. Now in the 1980s, Yu becomes caught up in the political storm but still suffers and longs for love. Yu’s life is a quest for love, fragile but resilient, lonely but determined.

Like George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Feathered Serpent satirizes and criticizes the totalitarian regime of Chinese communism. To avoid and survive China’s fierce government censorship, Xu Xiaobin masterfully created a mystic and mysterious atmosphere where the distinction between past and present is blurred; memories of the previous and present lives are intertwined; realities and illusions are fused without a clear trace; and events occur in unspecified places, tinted with fairy-like imaginations.

Xu Xiaobin, born in 1953 into an intellectual family in Beijing, is a member of the China’s Writers Association. She spent nine years in the countryside and at a factory during the Cultural Revolution until 1978 when she entered the Chinese University of Central Finance just after universities had reopened and entrance examinations were held nation wide. She began publishing her writings in 1981. Currently she works as a staff screenplay writer at China’s Television Production Center. She has published numerous fictions, novellas and collections of prose. John Howard-Gibbon is a world renowned translator and Chinese literature scholar. Until recently he held the position of deputy-editor-in-chief of China Daily which is the largest and most authoritative English -language newspaper in China. He has translated many works from Chinese, notably Lao She's Teahouse and Chen Ran's A Private Life. Joanne Wang earned a BA in English literature from Shanghai; a MA in history in New York. She has worked as a freelance translator for more than ten years, in addition to having worked in publishing for a number of years and starting her own literary agency with a strong focus on Chinese writers.

Acknowledgments

Preface

Prologue A Clustering of Queens

Chapter 1 Twilight in God's Country

Chapter 2 Trial in Absentia

Chapter 3 Yin Lines

Chapter 4 Yuanguang

Chapter 5 Youth

Chapter 6 Empty Corner

Chapter 7 A Play

Chapter 8 The Square

Chapter 9 Moon Art Exhibition

Chapter 10 Forest of Tombstones

Chapter 11 CrossOver

Chapter 12 Finale and the

Epilogue 1

Epilogue 2

Epilogue 3

Main Characters

Historical Notes