Evoking Studs Terkel, Shen Fuyu delivers a rollicking deep dive into
working life in a small village in rural China, tracing the last 100
years of history.
Born in Shen Village in Southeast China, Shen Fuyu grew up in a family
of farmers. Years later, Shen, now a writer, returned to his hometown to
capture the village's rich history in the face of industrialization.
Through his own childhood memories and those of his ancestors, Shen
resurrects the working life of Shen Village through interlinked stories
of fifteen artisans as their lives intersect over the course of a
century. While Shen's view of his hometown and his heritage is tinged
with nostalgia, he does not romanticize it. Nor does he sugarcoat the
backbreaking difficulty of life in rural China, but he still captures
its small satisfactions and joys of loving one's work with a great deal
of care.
In an acerbic, earthy and unsparing style that swings from poignancy to
comedy, sometimes within a single paragraph, Shen evokes the spirits of
these workers--a bamboo-weaver and his beloved bull, a carpenter's
magical saw, the deserter who became the village lantern-maker and a
rebellious woman who beats up her own kidnapper.
A reflection on the vicissitudes of small-town life during the epic
shift from agricultural to industrial civilization, The Artisans
vividly details the hardships, friendships and communal mythmaking of a
disappearing community.
