Interestingly this novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker
Asian Literary Prize in 2011, although I am not reviewing it here as part of that
shortlist, it makes its way onto my blog from the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
shortlist. First up on my journey through the riches of the Foreign Fiction
shortlist was Iceland, then onto Finland (even though translated from Italian),
then Germany and now I’ve taken a massive leap away from Europe deep into rural
China. I’ll be back in Europe soon though as I’ve just started Umberto Eco’s
latest.
Dream of Ding Village is written in very much a different
style and feel than the first three from the list and the nuanced
language at times did bring forth images of Chinese characters – a great leap
from the stark removed style of Alice by Judith Hermann, which I finished only
the day prior to starting this.
This novel is told through the eyes of a young dead boy, the
son of a local “blood merchant”. However the boy is not the central character here,
with the father Ding Hui, his brother Ding Liang and their father, commonly
referred to as Grandpa the main protagonists. The young boy’s death, from
poisoning, is the result of the local Ding Village residents taking revenge for
the outbreak of AIDS in their village. Ding Hui is blamed for the demise of the
village as he was the largest blood merchant, arranging blood donations from
the impoverished for cash payments from the Government (obviously with a nice
little retainer being kept by the merchant).
Unclean practices, an unregulated approach and a hankering
for wealth brings a whole district into the depths of an AIDS epidemic. We have
self-imposed quarantine, love affairs between sufferers, ignorance of the “fever”,
elaborate Chinese weddings and funerals,, a hope for a brighter future all set
to the passing of the seasons and the backdrop of failing crops, drought, land
clearing and more. However the deeper sub plot here is the rapid movement of
the Chinese bureaucracy into capitalist mayhem:
The government would have to do something for the people of Ding
Village. It couldn’t just ignore them, It couldn’t stay silent, blindly doing
nothing.
Because who ever heard of a government that saw and heard nothing, said
and did nothing, took no action and showed no concern?
This is a tragic tale of a community left alone to suffer
the horrific consequences of a corrupt and uncaring bureaucracy, a bleak
glimpse into how a tragic disease can be brought upon uneducated peoples, how
even in death corruption can continue (SPOLIER, this sentence only - the blood
merchant moves to trading coffins, then selling wedding licences for people
long deceased so they can be accompanied in the afterlife). The demise of the
village progresses at such a rapid pace because of simple activities
perpetrated by ignorant local power hungry officials , like the agreement to
allow the felling of trees to make coffins:
The trees of Ding Village
disappeared overnight.
All the mature trees were gone.
At first, it seems, there had been some discussion about only felling trees of
a certain size, those with trunks as broad as a bucket, say. But when morning
came, the villagers woke to find that even the smallest trees in and around the
village were gone. Anything that had a trunk the size of the circumference of a
bowl had been chopped down for timber. Discarded notices from the village party
committee littered the streets like fallen leaves after a windy evening. The
spring sun shone warm as usual, but without foliage or the shade of the trees,
the village felt scorching and unpleasant.
This is not an pleasant read with it’s dark themes and
obviously tragic heart but at the same time it is not a difficult read and
personally I thought some of the lighter references could have been omitted
with some of the caustic scathing sections beefed up a little. I don’t want to
be misunderstood here, as to write such a bold novel about such a tragic event
about a government not known for their liberal allowance of criticism is a
noble feat in itself. It is just a pity it took five years to be translated
into English. Not my favourite from this list so far but again a worthy
inclusion on any reading list.
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