Ge Fei is one of China’s most celebrated contemporary novelists, and his seminal work Peach Blossom Paradise has just been translated into English for the first time. The novel is surprisingly traditional for a writer who has a reputation for being experimental. Peach Blossom Paradise is a family saga with the heft of an epic that follows the life of a young woman who meets a revolutionary as the Qing dynasty collapses. This historical novel has added resonance today as the prospect of a new Cold War becomes plausible.
Americans could benefit from reading Chinese literature. Peach Blossom Paradise is a tale of collapsing regimes and political utopianism that provides a useful framework for thinking about Sino-American relations.
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