Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes

Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes (Chinese: 一九三四年的逃亡; pinyin: Yījiǔsānsì Nián de Táowáng) is a novella by Su Tong, first published in 1987.^[1] In 1990 it was published by Yuan-Liou Publishing Co. [zh] (遠流出版公司) in a collection with the novella Raise the Red Lantern (which there is titled under its original Chinese title, Wives and Concubines, which is also was the title of the entire volume).^[2]

Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes
Chinese	一九三四年的逃亡
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yījiǔsānsì Nián de Táowáng Wade–Giles I1-chiu3-san1-ssu4 Nien2 te T'ao2-wang2

This, told in the first person, is about an impoverished peasant family.^[3]

The novella was translated into English by Michael S. Duke, and this translation was published as a collection of stories by Su Tong, named Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas, published by William Morrow & Company in 1993. This collection also includes the novellas Raise the Red Lantern and Opium Family.^[4]

Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes and Opium Family take place in a fictional location called "Maple Village". Yingjin Zhang of Indiana University compared Maple Village to Yoknapatawpha County.^[5] This location is in the south of the country.^[6]

Plot

The narration focuses on Grandmother Jiang.^{[note 1][7]} She is married to Chen Baonian,^{[note 2]} who goes to the city to do business. Jiang finds a woman Chen Baonian is cheating on her with, Huanzi^{[note 3]}. Jiang and Huanzi get engaged in a conflict.^[6] Grandmother Jiang has seven children.^[8]

The story is set in 1934. The year is used as a dividing line between pre-industrialized and industrialized society in the country, and Liu Zaifu stated that the year was not considered important in Chinese history, but that it is within the work.^[9]

There is a narrator who talks about his family.^[10] The narrator does not reveal his name, and feels that he does not have a great existence compared to his family.^[8]

In the story there is a farmer named Chen Wenzhi^{[note 4]}, who engaged in voyeurism.^[11]

By the end of the novella, six of the children are dead.^[8] Sabina Knight^{[note 5]} wrote that "fatalism" is a feature of the work.^[10] Xiaobing Tang states that the family experiences "gradual but no less violent disintegration and dispersal".^[8]

Reception

Xiaobing Tang, in Chinese Modern: The Heroic and the Quotidian, described the novella's plot as "complex and seminal".^[7]

In Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes and Opium Family Duke had stated "that wherever the English seems strange it is because the Chinese was also purposefully so".^[4] Gary Krist of The New York Times felt these translations had a "rambling nature" that became "merely awkward, unrevealing and occasionally tedious."^[4] Because of Duke's statement, Krist was unsure whether the awkwardness came from Su Tong or from Duke.^[4] Publishers Weekly stated that a "hand-me-down quality of oral history" where the reader is unsure of the truth is reflected in Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes.^[3]

Notes

Names in other languages

1. Jiang: simplified Chinese: 蒋; traditional Chinese: 蔣; pinyin: Jiǎng; Wade–Giles: Chiang³
2. Chen Baonian: 陈宝年; 陳寶年; Chén Bǎonián; Ch'en² Pao³-nien²
3. Huanzi: 环子; 環子; Huánzǐ; Huan²-tzu³
4. Chen Wenzhi: 陈文治; 陳文治; Chén Wénzhì; Ch'en² Wen²-chih⁴
5. Sabina Knight: She was formerly known as Deirdre Sabina Knight, and her Chinese name is: 桑禀华; 桑稟華; Sāng Bǐnghuá