Jia’s banned novel republished
- Source: Global Times
- [20:54 August 16 2009]
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The original version of The Abandoned Capital published by Beijing Publishing House. Photos: CFP
By Du Guodong
Celebrated writer Jia Pingwa’s controversial novel The Abandoned Capital is back on the shelves after being banned 16 years ago due to its “vulgar style” and explicit sexual content.
The novel was at the time nicknamed the modern version of Plum in the Golden Vase, a famous Ming Dynasty novel renowned in Chinese literary circles for its salacious content.
Set in ancient Xi’an, The Abandoned Capital centers on the life of protagonist Zhuang Zhidie and his affairs with several women. It gives a vivid description of modern society especially the conditions of intellectuals.
Unlike Jia’s previous novels about peasantry in northwest China, The Abandoned Capital is an urban novel based on the contemporary lives of intellectuals in the 1980s.
“Jia Pingwa is a brilliant writer who has published many works of great influence in the literary circle and the republished The Abandoned Capital is being packaged as a trilogy this time,” assistant to the president of the Writers Publishing House, Liu Fang, told the Global Times.
Since its original publication, Jia has been the center of much controversy and criticism.
