1966: Cornell East Asia Series

The year 1966 saw the start of a decade of social and political upheaval in China. In these eleven stories by poet Wang Xiaoni, the horrors, confusion, and utter disruption of the Cultural Revolution are just beginning. An educated family of six in the city is forced to get rid of their beloved collection of books, a starving abandoned boy obsessed with trains waits for his brother to return from Beijing, and an elderly and mentally unstable man is desperate to hide a personal history that has suddenly become a death sentence.

Wang brings a light touch to this painful subject matter, balancing a pervading sense of unreality with telling details that ring true to life even now. Elegantly rendered in English by award-winning poet and translator Eleanor Goodman, 1966 offers powerful, moving, and deeply human vignettes illuminating how this key moment in Chinese history was experienced by ordinary citizens.