The corpse walker: real life stories, China from the bottom up

Description

A compilation of twenty-seven extraordinary oral histories that opens a window, unlike any other, onto the lives of ordinary, often outcast, Chinese men and women. Liao Yiwu (one of the best-known writers in China because he is also one of the most censored) chose his subjects from the bottom of Chinese society: people for whom the "new" China--the China of economic growth and globalization--is no more beneficial than the old. Here are a professional mourner, a trafficker in humans, a leper, an abbot, a retired government official, a former landowner, a mortician, a feng shui master, a former Red Guard, a political prisoner, a village teacher, a blind street musician, a Falun Gong practitioner, and many others--people who have been battered by life but who have managed to retain their dignity, their humor, and their essential, complex humanity. Liao's interviews were given from 1990 to 2003.--From amazon.com.;The professional mourner -- The human trafficker -- The public restroom manager -- The corpse walkers -- The leper -- The peasant emperor -- The Feng Shui master -- The Abbot -- The composer -- The rightist -- The retired official -- The former landowner -- The Yi district chief's wife -- The village teacher -- The mortician -- The neighborhood committee director -- The former red guard -- The counterrevolutionary -- The Tiananmen father -- The Falun gong practitioner -- The illegal border crosser -- The grave robber -- The safecracker -- The blind Erhu player -- The street singer -- The sleepwalker -- the migrant worker.