Ma Jian
Author of Red Dust: A Path Through China
About the Author
Ma Jian was born in 1953 in Qingdoo, China. In 1986 he moved to Hong Kong, where he published novels, essays, short stories & collections of poetry & reportage; edited political & cultural magazines & founded a publishing company. He currently lives in London. (Bowker Author Biography)
Works by Ma Jian
Three Kingdoms 2 copies
Associated Works
Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers: An Anthology (2007) — Contributor — 146 copies, 6 reviews
McSweeney's Issue 42 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern): Multiples (2013) — Translator/Contributor — 64 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Ma Jian
- Legal name
- Ma Jian
- Other names
- 馬建 (traditional Chinese)
马建 (simplified Chinese)
Mǎ Jiàn (pinyin)
Mǎ Jiàn (Wade-Giles) - Birthdate
- 1953-08-18
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- China
- Birthplace
- Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
- Places of residence
- Qingdao, China (Birth)
Hong Kong (GB ∙ 1986-1997)
Germany (1997-1999)
London, England ( [1999]) - Relationships
- Guoping (Pseudonym, Ex-Ehefrau)
Nan-Nan (Tochter)
Flora Drew (Partnerin, Übersetzerin)
Members
Reviews
The Noodle Maker: A Novel by Jian Ma
This strange, hallucinatory novella deals with the terrible legacy of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, through the eyes of a repellent bureaucrat named Ma Daode. Despite his attempts to forget, he is haunted by events of the past that sabotage his current success. The novella is episodic in structure and certain chapters worked much better for me than others. I disliked the extended sequence in the brothel, which made a point about corruption but needn’t have been so lengthy and repulsive. Towards the end, though, the barriers between past and present seemed to collapse and events build to an almost apocalyptic battle between the living and the dead. In this fashion, Ma Jian conveys the horrific violence of the Cultural Revolution, an extraordinary civil war in which family members turned on one another while all claiming to be fighting for the same thing. The Cultural Revolution, as I understand it, was an artificially manufactured conflict, intended to disrupt inter-generational solidarity, end respect for tradition, and undermine any possible opposition to the communist regime. It did so at the cost of millions of lives.
Once Ma Daode’s attempts to distract himself from intrusive memories fail, incendiary scenes like this ensue:
The theme of reckoning with a brutal totalitarian past, while coping with a repressive authoritarian present day, reminded me of Svetlana Alexievich's [b:Second-Hand Time|26854453|Second-Hand Time|Svetlana Alexievich|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1448954026s/26854453.jpg|27225929]. The chasm between the generation who committed atrocities during the Cultural Revolution and those who are too young to know what it was echoes the Russian experience. ‘China Dream’ certainly isn’t a systematic effort to collect a range of testimonies, rather it focuses on one fictional figure who represents a whole generation. The result is vivid, frightening, sometimes funny, and always visceral. Definitely not an easy read, but a striking one. Although I preferred Yan Lianke’s [b:The Four Books|25658483|The Four Books|Yan Lianke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461169286s/25658483.jpg|42038317], I think the two complement each other. Lianke considers the horrors of the Great Leap Forward, Jian those of the Cultural Revolution. Both authors are enthusiastically suppressed by the Chinese government.… (more)
Once Ma Daode’s attempts to distract himself from intrusive memories fail, incendiary scenes like this ensue:
Director Ma raises his microphone again to say, “Let us thank the relevant leaders for allowing these parents to realise their China Dream, and thank our foreign sponsors for their generous support. Fifty years ago this place was a mass grave filled with nameless bodies, but today it is a Garden Square on which we celebrate golden anniversaries! The China Dream eradicates all dreams of the past and replaces them with brand-new dreams! As I look out at your smiling faces, I can’t help but think of my own mother and father who lie buried in the ground beneath us. Sadly, the relentless struggle sessions they were subjected to proved too much for them to bear, so they are not able to join us today.” As more tears fill his eyes, he tries to snap back to his senses. “Of course, the past must be buried before the future can be forged. Only then can our dreams come true. Only then can young people experience the beauty of love...”
“Our daughter was murdered in the violent struggles of the Cultural Revolution,” the old man says, his voice ringing out like a bell.
The theme of reckoning with a brutal totalitarian past, while coping with a repressive authoritarian present day, reminded me of Svetlana Alexievich's [b:Second-Hand Time|26854453|Second-Hand Time|Svetlana Alexievich|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1448954026s/26854453.jpg|27225929]. The chasm between the generation who committed atrocities during the Cultural Revolution and those who are too young to know what it was echoes the Russian experience. ‘China Dream’ certainly isn’t a systematic effort to collect a range of testimonies, rather it focuses on one fictional figure who represents a whole generation. The result is vivid, frightening, sometimes funny, and always visceral. Definitely not an easy read, but a striking one. Although I preferred Yan Lianke’s [b:The Four Books|25658483|The Four Books|Yan Lianke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461169286s/25658483.jpg|42038317], I think the two complement each other. Lianke considers the horrors of the Great Leap Forward, Jian those of the Cultural Revolution. Both authors are enthusiastically suppressed by the Chinese government.… (more)
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- Works
- 16
- Also by
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- ISBNs
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