Big Breasts and Wide Hips

Big Breasts and Wide Hips is a novel by Mo Yan. It won the Dajia Honghe Literature Prize in 1997 and was translated to English by Howard Goldblatt in 2005. The book uses an epic narrative structure that follows multiple generations of the Shangguan family to explore major events in 20th century Chinese history such as the Chinese Communist Revolution, the Chinese Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. In 1997, Big Breasts and Wide Hips won China's Master Literature Award.

Big Breasts & Wide Hips

First edition (Chinese)
Author	Mo Yan
Original title	丰乳肥臀
Translator	Howard Goldblatt
Language	Chinese
Genre	magical realism, historical fiction
Publisher	Arcade Publishing
Publication date	1996
Publication place	China
Published in English	2005
Media type	Print
Pages	552
ISBN	978-1611453430
OCLC	59544313

Characters

• Shangguan Lu, the mother.
• Shangguan Laidi, Eldest Sister, daughter of Shangguan Lu and Big Paw. Married to Sha Yueliang, then forced to marry Speecless Sun. Has a childwith Birdman Han. Mother of Sha Zaohua and Parrot Han.
• Shangguan Zhaodi, Second Sister, daughter of Shangguan Lu and Big Paw. Married to Sima Ku. Mother of twins, Sima Feng and Sima Huang.
• Shangguan Lingdi, Third Sister, also known as Bird Fairy. Daughter of Shangguan Lu and a peddler of ducks. First wife of Speechless Sun. Mother of Big Mute and Little Mute.
• Shangguan Xiangdi, Fourth Sister, daughter of Shangguan Lu and a doctor. Sold herself to a brothel during the famine in order to save her family.
• Shangguan Pandi, Fifth Sister, daughter of Shangguan Lu and a butcher. Married to Lu Liren. Mother of Lu Shengli. Later changed her name to Ma Ruilian.
• Shangguan Niandi, Sixth Sister, daughter of Shangguan Lu and a monk. Married to the American pilot Babbitt.
• Shangguan Qiudi, Seventh Sister. Shangguan Lu gave birth to her after raped by deserters. Adopted by a Russian Duchess.
• Shangguan Yunü, Eighth Sister, blind, daughter of Shangguan Lu and the Swedish missionary Pastor Malory. Shangguan Jintong's twin sister.
• Shangguan Jintong, 'me' in the novel, son of Shangguan Lu and Pastor Malory. Afflicted with breast fetishism.

Plot

At the turn of the 20th century a young girl Xuan'er is orphaned and raised by her aunt and uncle, who arrange to have her married into the Shangguan family of Northeast Gaomi Township in Shandong province. After marriage, Xuan'er becomes known as Shangguan Lu and is constantly harassed by her cruel mother-in-law to bear the family a male heir. Her husband turns out to be sterile, and Shangguan Lu ends up having seven daughters with different men (two by her uncle Big Paw, and then one each by a duck peddler, a doctor, a butcher and a monk; her seventh daughter came after Shangguan Lu was raped). Finally, after an affair with the Swedish Christian missionary Pastor Malory, Shangguan Lu gives birth to twins: her eighth (blind) daughter and her first son, Jintong.

During the war with the Japanese, Shangguan Lu's daughters begin to grow up and take different paths in life, as well as taking husbands of different political persuasions which ultimately pit them against one another. Shangguan Lu lavishes her motherly attention on her only son Jintong, nursing him constantly as he becomes obsessed with breasts and addicted to his mother's breastmilk, refusing all other food. After Shangguan Lu's breastmilk runs out, Jington keeps a goat with him at all times from which he suckles.

When Pastor Malory and Shangguan Lu are together at the church, they are surprised by soldiers from the Black Donkey Musket Band, who arrive and rape Shangguan Lu in the presence of her children. Pastor Malory, unable to bear the disgrace, climbs the church steeple and jumps to his death. Against her mother's wishes, first sister runs off with the swaggering, attractive leader of the Black Donkey Musket Band, Sha Yueliang.

Second sister marries Sima Ku, a village leader of the anti-Japanese resistance in North Gaomi who blows up a train bridge, killing many Japanese soldiers. This leads to reprisals by the Japanese, who kill nearly the entire Sima family, though Sima Ku and second sister manager to escape, leaving her son for Shangguan Lu to raise.

Shangguin Lu's third daughter becomes obsessed with a traveler known as "Birdman Han" who, during famine years, is able to shoot down birds with his slingshot and keep the Shangguan family fed. After he leaves, third daughter transforms into a kind of local deity and becomes known as Bird Fairy, and people come from all over the area to seek her advice and have their fortunes told. With Birdman Han gone, the Shangguan family is again starving and encounters many dead bodies on the side of the road during a long journey they take to a soup kitchen.

At this point Shangguan Lu takes her remaining daughters to the human trade section of the county market, where seventh sister is sold to a rich Russian aristocrat, and fourth sister volunteers to have herself sold into prostitution so that her family can "eat at least one decent meal." Soon after, the kind and just Commander of Communist forces Lu Liren and his "demolition battalion" take control of Northeast Gaomi Township. But, with the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, Sima Ku and his wife second sister return with his Nationalist troops which sweep back into the village and oust Lu Liren and the Communist troops from the village, humiliating him. Pandi gives birth to a child conceived with Lu Liren, and leaves her for Shangguan Lu to raise before leaving the village to go after Lu Liren.

Sima Ku and his Nationalist troops remain in control of the village. An American soldier, Babbitt, is with them. He and Sima Ku conduct a parachute demonstration where the two of them jump from the top of Reclining Ox Mountain. During the demonstration, Babbitt lands on sixth sister and the two fall in love. A large, extravagant wedding with huge amounts of food is arranged at which Babbitt shows a movie from a projector that he had brought which has the entire village enamored. Days later, during another showing of the film, Lu Liren's troops mount a surprise attack on Sima Ku and rout his men, taking Sima Ku, Babbitt, second and sixth sisters, and many of the other villagers prisoner in a mill house. When Shangguan Lu tries to enter the mill house, the Sima battalion attempts to escape and second sister is killed. Sima Ku and Babbitt are to be handed over to Communist authorities, but during a crossing of the Flood Dragon River on a raft, Sima Ku manages to escape. Sixth sister insists on going with Babbitt, and the two are eventually executed.

A Communist VIP comes to the village and, with Lu Liren and fifth sister, encourages poor peasants to come up on stage and air their complaints against the wealthy, landowning villagers. This results in Lu Liren pronouncing a death sentence for Sima Ku and second sister's young twin girls, Sima Feng and Sima Huang, who are both shot in the forehead next to the river. Sima Liang, manages to escape.

During the civil war that ensues, Lu Liren forces the villagers to evacuate North Gaomi Township during winter on a long march during winter to the Da'ze Mountain. Many of the villagers die of hunger or exposure during the march. Shangguan Lu decides that even if a war is raging that her family must turn back, and on the first morning of 1948 they cross the Flood Dragon River back into the village. In the years that follow, Sima Ku is discovered when he reveals himself to save Jintong from a savage beating by his schoolmates. Sima Ku is executed by firing squad.

First sister who had been married to Sha Yueliang, is forced to marry the crippled, mute, Communist soldier known as Speechless Sun. Speechless Sun is abusive and cruel to first sister. Birdman Han then unexpectedly shows up and he and first sister begin an affair. When Speechless Sun discovers this, first sister kills him with a door bolt. She is allowed to give birth to the child she conceived with Birdman Han before she is executed in front of a crowd of ten thousand people.

Working as part of a commune during the Great Leap Forward, Jintong meets fifth sister again, who has taken on a new name, "Ma Ruilian" who conducts agricultural experiments such as inseminating rabbits with sheep sperm. Commander Long, who supervises Jintong, is an aging virgin and wants Jintong to sleep with her. When, at gunpoint, Jintong is unable to become aroused, Commander Long kills herself. Jintong overcome with remorse, then has sex with her corpse and "granted her final wish." He escapes punishment for murder and rape when a flood washes away her body. However, the journal of his seventh sister, who had returned after being sold to the Russian aristocrat, is later found and Jintong is sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Upon re-entering society, Jintong is still dependent on his now old and frail mother, and still unable to hold down any food other than breastmilk. His mother tries to help him finally become a man at the age of 42 by sending him to Old Jin, a single-breasted woman who runs a recycling center. Jintong ends up nursing from her and though she does successfully seduce him, he is eventually cast out when Old Jin's husband returns and threatens to kill them both.

In the 1990s, Jintong takes up with "Parrot Han," the son of his first sister and Birdman Han, and becomes entangled in he and his wife's political machinations to secure bank loans from the city's powerful mayor to support their bird sanctuary. When Jintong fails at this, he is again cast out and returns to his mother. By this time, Northeast Gaomi Tonwship has decided to demolish the Shangguin family hut to make way for an amusement park, but the demolition is halted by the last minute arrival (in a helicopter) of Sima Liang, Jintong's childhood friend, who has become a rich businessman in the new modern China. Sima Liang sets Jintong up as the owner of a shop selling women's brassieres, which Jington names "Unicorn" after a famous radio announcer that he remembered from the days of the Cultural Revolution. Jintong eventually loses the shop when the radio announcer's daughter tricks him into marriage and then quickly divorces him, leaving Jintong with nothing. The story ends with Jintong entering a church and meeting his long-lost half-brother, Paster Malory's other child, who is now a priest himself.

Reception

Big Breasts and Wide Hips received critical acclaim from Western literary critics who praised Mo Yan's inventive storytelling and use of his unique style of hallucinatory realism^[1] to describe the surrealism the average Chinese peasant felt living under the Japanese occupation.^[2][3] Contributor for The Guardian, Paul Mason declared Mo Yan to be the Chinese equivalent of Thomas Pynchon, concluding that Mo Yan was "unlike any of the great living authors."^[4]

Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post praised Mo Yan's dedication to feminism throughout the novel, but offered numerous reservations about the quality of the novel. Most of Yardley's criticism focuses on the stale prose and clumsy characterization of Jintong.^[5]

Mo Yan received criticism from The New York Review of Books for the novel's treatment of sensitive events such as the Great Leap Forward, in which the author "had fun with the craziness but leaves out the disaster."^[6] Other reviewers have pushed back on this characterization, noting that "Mo Yan’s intended readers know that the Great Leap Forward led to a catastrophic famine, and any artistic approach to historical trauma is inflected or refracted."^[7]

Themes

John Updike, in a review for The New Yorker noted that the novel contains many scenes of war, sexual violence and famine that serve to illustrate the "crushing misery of Chinese existence in the last century."^[8]

The female characters symbolize Chinese endurance, and "a maternal love so large that it is conflated with the nation," while history itself is explored as bodily trauma, as the "female body provides the site to nurture the family members as they follow their inevitable confrontations and conflicts in the ensuing political struggles and historical evolution."^[9] The author uses the male narrator and anti-hero Jintong, on the other hand, to symbolize weakness and dependency in Chinese society through his lifelong addiction to breastmilk.^[10]