![]() The story twists around Kai, a successful young propagandist, and Teacher Gu and Mrs. ![]() Not all are lucky enough to escape the regime’s ever-vigilant eye, however. Indeed, China’s effort to remake its repressive political past-to whitewash itself-is a theme that animates the novel.Īs the title implies, most of Li’s heroes and heroines are broken creatures and marginalized misfits. The real town’s name has since been changed to White Mountain, because, as Li said in an interview, the name Muddy River is so ugly. She sets her tale amid the semi-urban sprawl of a place called Muddy River, which is modeled on her husband’s hometown. In her debut novel, The Vagrants, Li, winner of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the pen/Hemingway Award, returns to the story of China in the spring of ’79. Everyone else remained silent or, better yet, became invisible. ![]() The Cultural Revolution had recently ended, and the constitution guaranteed freedom of speech-but only for members of the party. No one knew how the Communist Party would respond. In 1979, when Yiyun Li was six years old, a group of Chinese human rights activists posted nineteen articles on a brick wall in Tiananmen Square. ![]()
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