Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh - discussion
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1StevenTX
This thread is for reviews and discussion of Mo Yan's short story collection Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh.
Please flag your post with the word "SPOILERS" if appropriate.
Please flag your post with the word "SPOILERS" if appropriate.
2SassyLassy
Back to Mo Yan. Different editions of this book have different numbers of stories, which seem to range from seven to twelve.
Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan, translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt
Short stories first published in various places over the years 1980 - 2001
This collection published 2011
Although this is a book of short stories, one of the most interesting short pieces is Mo Yan's own preface in which he discusses his writing and his themes. He reflects on their development from the early 1970s when he clumsily wrote about class struggle, through the initial slight lifting of content restrictions in the late 1970s, and into the early 1980s when he feels his writing took off. He says that although the short story is less respected than the novel in China, he takes even greater pride in his short stories than in his novels. The stories in this collection were written in the 1980s and 1990s. They shift back and forth in time both in sequence and in subject matter.
"Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh" is the story of Ding Shikou, suddenly laid off from his factory job after forty-three years, with one month to go until retirement. Called Shifu, or master worker, by his work team, Ding is suddenly left to fend for himself in the world of the new capitalism. Without a clue what to do, without an entrepreneurial inkling and without money, Ding sinks quickly. All around him he sees younger healthier laid off workers struggling too. Then, one day, realizing that in the new China even toilets charge a fee, Ding has an idea. If you've seen Zhang Yimou's film Happy Days, this short story is the basis of the film.
"Man and Beast" continues on from Mo Yan's novel Red Sorghum. Captured by the Japanese and taken to Hokkaido as conscript labour, Granddad, Yu Zhan'ao, escaped from the camp, spending five years living in a cave, dreaming of home, dreaming of revenge for his dead. To him, the red sun rising over the ocean each morning turned it into a sea of sorghum. On the very day the People's Republic was proclaimed, an event he knew nothing about, Granddad had his chance. His struggle with this opportunity is a moving tale of the nature of love and revenge.
"Soaring" is another in a long line of Chinese fables about arranged marriages. Hang Xi's beautiful sister will marry a mute so that Hang Xi can marry the mute's sister Yanyan. Yanyan had other ideas. After the ceremony, she ran out of the compound, down a lane and ...into the field, where wheat stalks bent in the wind, their flower tips dipping like waves in a ocean of green. Suddenly she took flight, landing in the treetops. The villagers struggle to get her down.
"Iron Child" goes back to the days of the Great Leap Forward, when every piece of scrap iron available was melted down to build improbable projects. Famine was creeping over Gaomi Township. The small children housed in the communal nursery watched as the adults built the new railway. Their hunger echoes Mo Yan's own tale of eating coal during the Famine. Whether he did or not, the anger at being a starving child comes through.
"The Cure" is a horrifying story of folk medicine, superstition and the lengths to which people will go for their families, set against the background of the Cultural Revolution. In his translator's note, Howard Goldblatt says it is an update of Lu Xun's story "Medicine". "The Cure" also appeared in Goldblatt's collection Chairman Mao Would Not be Amused, which is where I first read it.
"Love Story" is the meeting of two cultures. Twenty-five year old He Liping had been sent down to the country. There she met fifteen year old Junior, who fell in love with this exotic woman. Written with humour, at the same time Mo Yan says it allowed him "to explore the concepts of sadness and beauty", which is what all successful coming of age stories do.
Howard Goldblatt says Shen Garden is a metaphor for meetings of once married couples. That describes the situation in the story of the same name. For me, this was the least successful of the stories, so I'll give Mo Yan's take on it instead. He sees it as the story of
Lastly, "Abandoned Child" is another updated version of the perennial Chinese theme of unwanted children. A villager finds a baby abandoned in a field and takes it home. When he tries to turn over the infant to the authorities, he is met with mountains of red tape. Although many families in the village have more than one child, the villager is left to reflect on the policy of one child and what it is doing to girls in particular and society in general. Mo Yan says he sees population growth as China's most serious problem. This story is a good treatment of it.
All in all, a good collection of stories, full of satire, humour and a real regard for the people who must take the brunt of bureaucratic nightmares.
Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan, translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt
Short stories first published in various places over the years 1980 - 2001
This collection published 2011
Although this is a book of short stories, one of the most interesting short pieces is Mo Yan's own preface in which he discusses his writing and his themes. He reflects on their development from the early 1970s when he clumsily wrote about class struggle, through the initial slight lifting of content restrictions in the late 1970s, and into the early 1980s when he feels his writing took off. He says that although the short story is less respected than the novel in China, he takes even greater pride in his short stories than in his novels. The stories in this collection were written in the 1980s and 1990s. They shift back and forth in time both in sequence and in subject matter.
"Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh" is the story of Ding Shikou, suddenly laid off from his factory job after forty-three years, with one month to go until retirement. Called Shifu, or master worker, by his work team, Ding is suddenly left to fend for himself in the world of the new capitalism. Without a clue what to do, without an entrepreneurial inkling and without money, Ding sinks quickly. All around him he sees younger healthier laid off workers struggling too. Then, one day, realizing that in the new China even toilets charge a fee, Ding has an idea. If you've seen Zhang Yimou's film Happy Days, this short story is the basis of the film.
"Man and Beast" continues on from Mo Yan's novel Red Sorghum. Captured by the Japanese and taken to Hokkaido as conscript labour, Granddad, Yu Zhan'ao, escaped from the camp, spending five years living in a cave, dreaming of home, dreaming of revenge for his dead. To him, the red sun rising over the ocean each morning turned it into a sea of sorghum. On the very day the People's Republic was proclaimed, an event he knew nothing about, Granddad had his chance. His struggle with this opportunity is a moving tale of the nature of love and revenge.
"Soaring" is another in a long line of Chinese fables about arranged marriages. Hang Xi's beautiful sister will marry a mute so that Hang Xi can marry the mute's sister Yanyan. Yanyan had other ideas. After the ceremony, she ran out of the compound, down a lane and ...into the field, where wheat stalks bent in the wind, their flower tips dipping like waves in a ocean of green. Suddenly she took flight, landing in the treetops. The villagers struggle to get her down.
"Iron Child" goes back to the days of the Great Leap Forward, when every piece of scrap iron available was melted down to build improbable projects. Famine was creeping over Gaomi Township. The small children housed in the communal nursery watched as the adults built the new railway. Their hunger echoes Mo Yan's own tale of eating coal during the Famine. Whether he did or not, the anger at being a starving child comes through.
"The Cure" is a horrifying story of folk medicine, superstition and the lengths to which people will go for their families, set against the background of the Cultural Revolution. In his translator's note, Howard Goldblatt says it is an update of Lu Xun's story "Medicine". "The Cure" also appeared in Goldblatt's collection Chairman Mao Would Not be Amused, which is where I first read it.
"Love Story" is the meeting of two cultures. Twenty-five year old He Liping had been sent down to the country. There she met fifteen year old Junior, who fell in love with this exotic woman. Written with humour, at the same time Mo Yan says it allowed him "to explore the concepts of sadness and beauty", which is what all successful coming of age stories do.
Howard Goldblatt says Shen Garden is a metaphor for meetings of once married couples. That describes the situation in the story of the same name. For me, this was the least successful of the stories, so I'll give Mo Yan's take on it instead. He sees it as the story of
how a middle-aged man turns his back on the love of an earlier time and eventually compromises with reality. In today's society, many Chinese men who have achieved success, even fame, live hypocritical lives. Deep down, their existence is little more than a pile of ruins.
Lastly, "Abandoned Child" is another updated version of the perennial Chinese theme of unwanted children. A villager finds a baby abandoned in a field and takes it home. When he tries to turn over the infant to the authorities, he is met with mountains of red tape. Although many families in the village have more than one child, the villager is left to reflect on the policy of one child and what it is doing to girls in particular and society in general. Mo Yan says he sees population growth as China's most serious problem. This story is a good treatment of it.
All in all, a good collection of stories, full of satire, humour and a real regard for the people who must take the brunt of bureaucratic nightmares.
3rebeccanyc
As I said on your reading thread, Sassy, you've encouraged me to get back to Mo Yan and to (eventually) get this book.
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