A compilation of twenty-seven extraordinary oral histories that opens a window, unlike any other, onto the lives of ordinary, often outcast, Chinese men and women. Liao Yiwu (one of the best-known writers in China because he is also one of the most censored) chose his subjects from the bottom of Chinese society: people for whom the "new" China--the China of economic growth and globalization--is no more beneficial than the old. Here are a professional mourner, a trafficker in humans, a leper, an abbot, a retired government official, a former landowner, a mortician, a feng shui master, a former Red Guard, a political prisoner, a village teacher, a blind street musician, a Falun Gong practitioner, and many others--people who have been battered by life but who have managed to retain their dignity, their humor, and their essential, complex humanity. Liao's interviews were given from 1990 to 2003.--From amazon.com.

"This translation composed of ten new piees and sixteen pieces that were originally published in Chinese in Taiwan as part of 'Interviews with People from the Bottom Rung of Society,' published by Rye Field Publishing Co., Taipei, in 2002"--Colophon.

The professional mourner -- The human trafficker -- The public restroom manager -- The corpse walkers -- The leper -- The peasant emperor -- The Feng Shui master -- The Abbot -- The composer -- The rightist -- The retired official -- The former landowner -- The Yi district chief's wife -- The village teacher -- The mortician -- The neighborhood committee director -- The former red guard -- The counterrevolutionary -- The Tiananmen father -- The Falun gong practitioner -- The illegal border crosser -- The grave robber -- The safecracker -- The blind Erhu player -- The street singer -- The sleepwalker -- the migrant worker.