Wang Shuo

Perplexing, mysterious, hypnotic. Playing for Thrills is the story of Fang Yan, a down-and-out gambler who finds himself accused of a decade-old murder. In trying to establish an alibi, Yan discovers that there is a gap of seven days for which he cannot account. His investigation leads him to some dubious characters, but as he begins to investigate that missing week, he runs into more mysteries. Who is the mysterious woman he allegedly spent the week with? What role did the man in the striped shirt play? Identities shift and become confused. Recalling film noir, the fiction of Roberto Arlt and the movie Memento, Playing for Thrills is a strange story of one man's attempt to uncover a past, yet frustrates both protagonist and reader in the way the facts to be uncovered become clearer yet less helpful the deeper one goes.… (more)

While I really liked Wang Chao's Playing for Thrills, I found Please Don't Call me Human mostly dull and difficult to get through. This may be just a case of it not really being intended for me. Human has a strong satirical element, especially as concerns China's loss of the 2000 Olympics, and I suspect if I had a deeper appreciation of Chinese culture and history, more of the humor would have rung true.

The plot, what there is of it, involves a private group calling themselves the Mobilization Committee (MobCom) organized around redeeming China's international reputation by proving that China has the toughest fighter in the world. To that end, they recruit a young man, who happens to be the son of one of the members of the Boxer Rebellion, and put him through all sorts of routines and diets in order to make him the ultimate fighter.

Despite the interesting premise, it mostly felt like a lot of strange stuff happening with little reason, the characters are mostly caricatures, and there's never a sense of anything really being at stake. It did have its moments, but overall I think it was not really intended for a non-Chinese audience.… (more)

A political satire aimed squarely at China's nationalism. After a particularly humiliating defeat by a foreign fighter who bested all that China could throw at him, it was decided that MobCom (Shortened from National Mobilising Committee) needed a latter-day Big Dream Boxer. A descendant from the legendary fighters of the Boxer Rebellion must be found and trained to take on this fearsome adversary. MobCom will stop at nothing to line their own pockets from endorsements and any other way they can make money out of the event while offering up ridiculous training methods for the unfortunate candidate. Taken away from his life as a pedicab driver and also his family, Tang Yuanbao is as passive an individual as you're ever likely to encounter. Accepting everything because it's for the good of the nation he tries to accomplish all that is set before him.

There were some quite amusing sections in this book but there were also a few more that were quite a slog to get through. There's not much subtlety to the satire as it's all pretty much of the in your face variety. Not sure how much effect the translation had but I suspect even a very good one wouldn't have altered my lack of enjoyment with this read.… (more)