Rice Sprout Song

In a foreword given by David Wang, he explains the important background for this story, written as an anti-communist story set in the 1950s, just after the Land Reform Movement has taken place in rural China. The Land Reform was meant to liberate local peasant by redistributing land, "giving" each farmer his or her own plot to own. However, what was meant as a way for farmers to produce more in an area that had always been prolific, another threat of famine is on the horizon but no one, not even Communist Party members, are allowed to speak about the "deepening misery" the peasants must face.

What was interesting to me as I read through the story, is that on the surface the novel should be about celebration. There is, after all, a wedding and the impending New Years celebrations which is taken just as seriously, if...
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