by Shelley Civkin Richmond Public Library

Forbidden books in the time of Mao

While on vacation, I read the most delightful novel called Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie. This 197-page treasure is a beautifully petite book sporting an exquisite cover. While it’s said that you can’t judge a book by its cover, this book proves that theory wrong.

The story takes place during China’s infamous Cultural Revolution, a time when Mao banishes thousands of people to the countryside for “re-education” by the poor peasants. In reality the “re-education” turns out to be manual labor under extreme physical circumstances. Two teenage boys are among the outcast “intellectuals” (enemies of the people), their only sins being that they possess a high school education and rich, successful parents. The speaker of the book (who is never named) and his friend Luo are extremely clever and make the best of their drastic situation by claiming every self-serving opportunity they can. Humorously written, the author exposes the ignorance and superstition of the uneducated country folk by involving Luo and his friend in a variety of seemingly harmless antics.

Exiled to the remote mountain called Phoenix of the Sky, Luo and his friend are given the job of traveling to the closest city once a month to watch movies and then come back and perform dramatic retellings of them for the villagers. This, of course, is a treat for the boys, who, along the way meet up with the little Chinese seamstress (also unnamed). Luo falls desperately in love with her, despite her innocent, unworldly ways. Trading favors with each other and with agreeable villagers, the speaker and Luo find ways to facilitate Luo’s ongoing clandestine affair with the little seamstress.

One day Luo and his friend stumble upon a secret cache of books, items coveted by many, but banned by the Communists. The books belong to “Four Eyes”, the only young man in the village with glasses. Sensing the intrinsic value of these forbidden books and the excitement trapped within their pages, the speaker and Luo offer to do Four Eyes’ dirty work for him on the condition that he lend them some books. Enchanted and transformed by the works of Balzac, the boys are initiated into a world of love, sensuality and freedom. Hoping to civilize the little Chinese seamstress, Luo reads to her from Balzac and other authors, expanding her world as well.

The story is basically very simple and the antics delightfully innocent. Author Sijie is a master storyteller, choosing the path of openness over calculation. Having himself been “re-educated” in the early 1970s, Sijie moved to France in 1984 and wrote this, his first novel. Translated from the French by Ina Rilke, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress won great acclaim and many prizes in France.

This was one of those surprise gifts - a book by an unknown foreign author that captured my heart and imagination from page one. Even the tiny size of the book and its glorious cover won me over right away. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a literary treasure in a desert of mediocrity. Don’t miss this one! For other popular reading suggestions, be sure to check out Richmond Public Library's Web site at www.yourlibrary.ca/goodbooks/ .

Shelley J. Civkin is the head of the Readers' Advisory Department at the Richmond Public Library.