Author Description

"Xiao Su's sad, funny, wonderfully humane story is a parable of coping. Banishing middle-class sentimentality, Xiao simply tells how people, most of them peasants, deal with the blows life buffets them with." Fraser Sutherland This volume features "Liu Chunshui the Moral Model," a story by Xiao Su, one of China's finest storywriters of the day. For village chief Luo Rihuan, getting someone from his village selected Moral Model of the Year has been a 15-year-long, arduous journey and he is immensely proud of himself when his last nominee Liu Chunshui wins the title. Liu Chunshui's mother-in-law is also proud of this great honor to her family. As the village chief and the town's publicist go to interview him and photograph him, however, Liu Chunshui hides himself away as if he hates the title, and as the Moral Model tells his story be prepared for a shocking revelation!