Rickshaw: The Novel Lo-t'o Hsiang Tzu

(This book is also known as Rickshaw Boy and has had different translators. I read the version translated by Shi Xiaoqing and illustrated by Gu Bingxin that I bought in China. ISBN 7-119-00512) This is the great classic novel of exploitation in Old China, before the 1949 Revolution. It's also anti-individualist. It's the early 1930s and Xiangzi arrives alone in Beiping (Beijing) with dreams of making a living as a rickshaw puller. He is a loner who constantly struggles against forces beyond his control. On more than one occasion his rickshaw is destroyed and each time he tries to bounce back. Class struggle is woven throughout the tapestry of this story. I read this after Nawal El Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero. So what really caught my attention was the character, Joy, who enters in the last third of Camel Xiangzi. I decided to use both of these novels in my thesis on women forced into prostitution. Joy is sold to an army officer by her lazy greedy father. Joy learns that temporary "marriages" are the MO of her officer "husband." Each time he is transferred he just buys a new wife, because it's cheaper than hiring housekeepers and prostitutes, and he leaves them with the bills. When Joy returns home she's damaged goods and her father forces her to prostitute in order to support his drinking habit and her two younger brothers. Her life becomes hell on earth. I don't really want to spoil the ending. Let me just say that Chinese novels rarely have happy endings. In his 1954 afterword Lao She reflects back on how much China has evolved since those dark days and how "Today, nineteen years later, the working people have become masters of their own destiny." Tragically more than half a century later, while China has the fastest growing economy in the world, many of its citizens, especially girls, are much worse off. The great exploitation novel of 21st century China would be called Sweatshop Girl or Hostage Hooker. The protagonist would be a teenage girl from one of the inner provinces like Sichuan or Hunan. She would be forced to leave school and migrate to a city like Guangzhou. She would lie about her age to obtain a job in a sweatshop working around the clock, for pennies an hour, to support herself and send money home. Another worse, but unfortunately very common scenario (in Russia as well), she would be abducted walking home from school by a pimp from organized crime. When her parents try to find her the police sit back and do nothing because they are working with organized crime. A search engine turned up numerous articles about this. China is also the only country where more females than males commit suicide. Its one-child policy has led to a birth ratio of 119 males to 100 females. Rather than leading to a greater appreciation of women, who "hold up half of the sky," it has fueled a higher demand for trafficking in women. I am reading Will the Boat Sink the Water: The Life of China's Peasants by Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao. It was writ

This book absolutely deserves it's honor to be a Chinese classic. Yes, this book is a required text by many asian study courses, but there is a significant, and a great reason for it. Lectures only talk about the lives of the emperors and the lord of the dynasties. They lived wealthy lives, but what about the common people? even though lectures normally don't discuss the lives of the working people, that doesn't mean they aren't important. Rickshaw brings the hardships of the labors to life through a somewhat humorous and satire tone. It's is worth reading, both for a class or not. The main character Hsiang Tzu will take your emotion on to a roller coaster ride!

having read both versions i strongly prefer the older evan king translation for it's clarity and readability. this version was written, translated, and printed before the revolution under the title "rickshaw boy" by lau shaw. if you are new to this book try to find one of these increasingly scarce editions to read first. it is a tale simply told with easy running narration like in a first rate biography. it is a great portrayal of old china as seen through the eyes of the chinese.

Rickshaw, also known as Lo Tuo Xiang Zi, is considered as a classic in the world of modern Chinese literature. The author of this book is Lao She; the book was written in 1936. The story is set in Beijing. Time passes swiftly in this novel; the beginning to the end of the story is roughly five years. This novel is not just a story about rickshaw pullers, but a story about the social miseries in early modern China. Lao She's work is a real depiction of the ugliness and cold-heartedness of this world. The writing and description itself is what makes this novel an incredible reading experience. Lao She's literary prowess enables him to portray Xiang Zi's world to life. He describes the world of Xiang Zi, including the dust, the rain, the heat, the cold, the hearts of people, and the harrowing streets of Peking in vivid details. Insidiously, a political theme is implemented by Lao She. The condemnation voiced in the final lines of the novel clearly indicates his hate on individualism and left wing ideas. Nevertheless, the locus of focus in Rickshaw is Xiang Zi. Moment by moment, Lao She's eyes are fixed on Xiang Zi, and Xiang Zi's attention is always on the rickshaw.

Lao She (pen name for the Chinese author, 1899-1966) wrote this moving story about a rickshaw puller during the 1920s in Beijing, China. An earlier English translation by Evan King (1945) was BOMC choice but not a good translation. King changed the ending and did other things a translator should not do. This edition is good. For a view of the ordinary people, the underdogs and poor of China during difficult times this is a most helpful book.