Through a unique combination of anecdotes, wide-ranging literary analysis, cultural commentary, and interviews, author Yang Qingxiang identifies certain core problems faced by his generation, and asks how they might be solved. Yang’s frank, sincere, and often unflattering assessment of contemporary Chinese society offers an illuminating and large-scale analysis of the new society that has taken shape over several decades of post-Mao economic reform, and its relevance has only been affirmed since it was first published in 2015.
Chapter 1- A True Sense of Failure.
Chapter 2- Historical Nihilism.-
Chapter 3- The Mask of Resistance.
Chapter 4- A Silent Multiplicity.-
Chapter 5- Waking from the Petty-Bourgeois Dream.
Chapter 6- What is to be
Done?.
Qingxiang Yang () is a poet and literary critic based at Renmin University in Beijing, where he is a professor of literature. He is a recipient of the 8th Lu Xun prize for criticism, and has served on the judge's panel for the Mao Dun Literature Prize. He has published several poetry collections, and is considered one of the most representative and best-selling poets of his generation. In English, he is the co-editor of The Sound of Salt Forming (University of Hawaii Press, 2016), a collection of translated short stories by 80s generation Chinese writers.
Todd Foley (Translator) holds a PhD in East Asian Studies from NYU, where he teaches courses on Chinese literature, film, and translation. His translations include I Love Bill and Other Stories by Wang Anyi (Cornell University Press, 2023) and Yu Huas latest novel City of Fiction (Europa Editions, 2025).
