Opium Family
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Opium Family (Chinese: 罂粟之家; pinyin: Yīngsù zhī Jiā) is a novella by Su Tong, first published in 1988.[2]
| Opium Family | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 罂粟之家 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 罌粟之家 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | The Family of the Opium Poppy[1] | ||||||
| |||||||
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 Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes.[3]
This story is about an opium poppy-growing family that experiences hardship; this work is told in both the first and third person perspectives.[4]
Opium Family and Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes take place in a fictional location called "Maple Village". Yingjin Zhang of Indiana University compared it to Yoknapatawpha County.[5] This location is in the south of the country.[6]
Story
Reception
In regards to Opium Family and Nineteen Thirty-four Escapes, Duke had stated "that wherever the English seems strange it is because the Chinese was also purposefully so".[3] Gary Krist of The New York Times felt the translations had a "rambling nature" that became "merely awkward, unrevealing and occasionally tedious."[3] Because of Duke's statement, Krist was unsure whether the awkwardness came from Su Tong or from Duke.[3] Publishers Weekly praised how Opium Family shifts perspectives and wrote that Opium Family is "the most structurally and thematically complex of the novellas."[4]
Notes
Names in other languages
- Liu Chencao: simplified Chinese: 刘沉草; traditional Chinese: 劉沉草; pinyin: Liú Chéncǎo
- Chen Mao: 陈茂; 陳茂; Chén Mào
- Liu Laoxia: 刘老侠; 劉老俠; Liú Lǎoxiá
- Lu Fang: 卢方; 盧方; Lú Fāng