Pingle County Chronicles Author: Yan Ge Publisher: Shanghai Joint Publishing Company

Introduction · · · · · ·
The New Yorker Book of the Year, The New York Times Book of the Year

Yan Ge's new Chinese novel "Pingle Town Series" is back

A postmodern "Three Words and Two Shots" A small town in western Sichuan with ups and downs and the times behind it

Recommended by Zhai Yongming, Yu Hua, Alai, Li Zishu and Danbao

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【Highlights of the Work】

★Welcome back to Pingle Town! Winner of the New Yorker Book of the Year, the New York Times Book of the Year, and the Asia Weekly Top Ten Chinese Novels of the Year, Yan Ge's new Chinese novel, the "Pingle Town Series", has returned after many years. ——Yan Ge is a highly regarded novelist in the Chinese-speaking world. She has created a unique "Pingle Town Literary World" with vivid words and pioneered a unique style of contemporary Chinese novels. She has won the Mao Dun Literature Newcomer Award, the "Top 20 Future Masters" of People's Literature, the British PEN Translation Award, and the Warwick Women's Translation Literature Award Silver Award. She is one of the five judges of the Dublin International Literature Award and participated in the selection of the Irish National Laureate as a final judge. As "one of the few powerful narrators of our time", she writes in Chinese and English, exploring her unique position in the time and space framework of ancient and modern times and China and the West. Pingle County Chronicles is her latest Chinese novel which took her eight years to write. The story takes place in East Street of Pingle Town. This time, Pingle Town has shed its previous religious and mythological atmosphere of secrets or carnival-style scandals. Yan Ge tells the last story of the "Pingle Town Series" in the tone of a storyteller.

★The return and departure of a young woman, a small town in western Sichuan with ups and downs and the era behind it. The literary archives of Pingle Town written in virtual local chronicles "leave a version of my own for the era I live in". ——The novel takes the young girl Chen Diju and the retiring deputy director of the county chronicles office Fu Qihong as the two protagonists, and the multiple repetition structures connect the in-depth sections of the life of the citizens of Pingle Town and the official society. Yan Ge uses his realistic skills in the market and folk ethics to realistically reproduce the vivid texture of daily life, and writes the sudden change of the fate of the Fu and Chen families and the social power struggle behind them in a particularly sighing way. Through "the disappearance of an insignificant little person", it outlines the social prosperity and the fluctuation of people's hearts around 2010, reflecting the era marks such as urbanization and the development of the Internet economy, and is more about human relationships, folk ethics, moral dogmas and the dreamlike world of life.

★A postmodern "Sanyan Erpai". Classical parody with modern core, a brand-new experiment in contemporary Chinese novel art. ——Yan Ge consciously modernized the Sanyan Erpai vernacular novel, constantly using the "Dear readers"-style clichés to construct virtual storytelling situations, and cleverly using various old-style poems and rhymes, blending the classical and modern senses, presenting a subtle irony and postmodern collage effect. "This so-called 'speaking of justice' voice that has been echoing in the background of our literary tradition, expressing the bias, narrow-mindedness, self-contradiction and misogyny of this voice - is this the authoritative voice that we as readers and listeners should listen to and believe in? This is a question I want to leave behind."

★ "This is our destiny." Zhai Yongming, Yu Hua, Alai, Li Zishu, and Dan Bao jointly recommended that "the power of reshaping dialects and contemporary stories is extremely amazing." —— "The Pingle County Chronicles gives the small life experienced by our generation the breadth and sorrow unique to epics, with crises and mysteries. For the changes of the times experienced by our generation - and the subtle sense of passing when looking back, and the disillusioned pride when looking forward - no book is more moving, more real, and more full of details than this. Destroying the withered and rotten, the mud and sand are mixed together, the sense of impermanence and evolution coexist, the choices are endless and there is no other choice, this is our destiny."

The cover was designed by the emerging designer Xihe and drawn by the illustrator BEIBEI, showing a lively sense of life and unique artistry. ——The cover illustration is based on the core image of the book, "pig", which represents the daily life of fresh, spicy and popular food and the vulgarity of the market, as well as the various desires of the characters in the book; when the cover is unfolded, it looks like a topographic map of Pingle County, with everything in it.

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【Content Introduction】

Pingle County Chronicles is the latest novel by writer Yan Ge, and also the finale of his "Pingle Town Series". The book has a total of 14 chapters, and the story takes place on East Street in Pingle Town. With Fu Qihong, the deputy director of the County Chronicles Office who is about to retire, and his daughter-in-law Chen Diju as the two protagonists, the story strings together the growth and separation of a pair of young men and women and the ups and downs of the officialdom in the town. Everyone has their own thoughts and wants to be perfect but cannot. When these two lines intersect, they weave into a carefully designed trap, which dissects the game within the game, and the cruel mechanism of life and death is about to be triggered. The whole novel is like a literary archive of Pingle Town, panoramically recording the overall picture of East Street in Pingle Town around 2010 and the fluctuations of people's hearts, reflecting the urbanization of the town, the development of the Internet economy and many other traces of changes in the times.

Pingle County Chronicle is a postmodern "Three Words and Two Shots". Yan Ge consciously modernized the Three Words and Two Shots novel, using the tone of a storyteller to unfold the narrative, skillfully using various old-style poems and rhymes, and using the humorous and vivid Sichuan dialect, making the novel text rich in layers and space, and at the same time extremely fun to read, showing a strong ability to reshape modern Chinese and contemporary stories.

【Recommended by famous experts】

Pingle County Chronicles shows Yan Ge's extraordinary realistic talent and language skills, and writes the drama and suspense inherent in daily life in great detail. Yan Ge is so close to the characters she writes about that while reading, you will feel as if you are living on East Street in Pingle Town with them without any time difference. This is our life, and everyone has an unknown fate. Reading Pingle County Chronicles makes me feel the vastness and permanence of life.

——Yu Hua

Yan Ge left his country for many years and lived in Chengdu, England, writing about the past of the small town of Pidu. Using English and Sichuan dialects in a dual personality, Pingle County Chronicles not only writes about daily life, but also has a grand narrative with great ambition. It uses the form of chapter novels, local chronicles, and various classical and modern methods to maturely leverage the depth of small town life. The power of reshaping dialects and reshaping contemporary stories is extremely amazing.

——Zhai Yongming

Opening this modern "Gongguoge", the form of Sanyanerpai brings a postmodern text. Moreover, more importantly, from the form to the plot and character development, "Pingle County Chronicles" makes the small life experienced by our generation have the breadth and sorrow unique to epics, with crises and mysteries. For the changes of the times experienced by our generation - and the subtle sense of passing when looking back, and the disillusioned pride when looking forward - no book is more moving, more real, and more full of details than it. Destroying withered trees and rotten wood, mud and sand are mixed together, the sense of impermanence and evolution coexist, the choices are endless and there is no choice, this is our destiny.

——Pale Leopard

Yan Ge's writing has shown us a new possibility. Dialect is a shell, a shell that carries thoughts. It provides a possibility of expression, but also creates a limitation of expression. However, Yan Ge easily breaks through this limitation of expression.

——Alai