An enthralling story of revolution, idealism, and a savage struggle
for utopia by one of China's greatest living novelists.
In 1898 reformist intellectuals in China persuaded the young emperor
that it was time to transform his sclerotic empire into a prosperous
modern state. The Hundred Days' Reform that followed was a moment of
unprecedented change and extraordinary hope--brought to an abrupt end by
a bloody military coup. Dashed expectations would contribute to the
revolutionary turn that Chinese history would soon take, leading in time
to the deaths of millions.
Peach Blossom Paradise, set at the time of the reform, is the story of
Xiumi, the daughter of a wealthy landowner and former government
official who falls prey to insanity and disappears. Days later, a man
with a gold cicada in his pocket turns up at his estate and is
inexplicably welcomed as a relative. This mysterious man has a great
vision of reforging China as an egalitarian utopia, and he will stop at
nothing to make it real. It is his own plans, however, which come to
nothing, and his "little sister" Xiumi is left to take up arms against a
Confucian world in which women are chattel. Her campaign for change and
her struggle to seize control over her own body are continually
threatened by the violent whims of men who claim to be building
paradise.
