7.8 /10 1 Votes7.8
Original title 马桥词典 Dewey Decimal 895.1/35 21 OCLC 51294122 | 3.9/5 Goodreads Originally published 1996 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pages 400 pp (Eng. trans. edition) ISBN 0-231-12744-8 (Eng. trans. edition) Novels Dictionary of the Khazars, Red Sorghum, To Live, Wives and Concubines, Life and Death Are Wearing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Dictionary of Maqiao (Chinese: 马桥词典; pinyin: Mǎqiáo Cídiǎn) is a novel written by Chinese writer Han Shaogong. It was first published in 1996 and has been translated into English by Julia Lovell. Yazhou Zhoukan selected it as one of the top 100 greatest Chinese novels in the 20th century.
Maqiao is a village in Hunan province, China. This novel is written in the form of a dictionary, or more accurately, encyclopedia. It collects 115 ‘articles’ on Maqiao village life from the perspective of a young student sent there by the Down to the Countryside Movement. These ‘articles’ do cohere into a story.
After the book was published, some critics claimed that it violated the copyright of Pavic's novel, Dictionary of the Khazars. The author, Han Shaogong, brought a defamation case against the critics and won this case.