THE DRAGON’S VILLAGE, which is an autobiographical novel, deals with China’s land revolution. It was first published by Pantheon in 1980, and the paperback was brought out by Penguin USA in 1981. Since then it has been steadily selling 3000 copies a year. Many schools use it as required reading in courses in literature, history, sociology, political science, women’s and minority studies, and Chinese Studies.

What the reviews say about THE DRAGON’S VILLAGE:

The New York Times Book Review (May 4^th, 1980):

 “With both empathy and realism, Mrs. Chen breathes life into the poor but often petty people of Dragon Village…(She has) broken loose from the old and stultifying world of political apologies, and begun to plumb the depths of individuals who participated in the momentous struggles of the last 40 years…”

The Chattanooga Times (June 21st, 1980):

“…this book can easily complement such works as Snow’s RED STAR OVER CHINA, Clubb’s TWENTIETH CENTURY CHINA and Hinton’s FANSHEN.”

The New Republic (June 7th, 1980):

“Chen’s novel is to be preferred over William Hinton’s classic documentary of revolution in another Chinese village at approximately the same time (Fanshen), for Chen evinces an appreciation of the sociological complexity of village relations which Hinton, as an apologist for the Chinese Communist Party, totally lacks.”

Focus Megazine (Spring 1983):

"Yuan-tsung Chen was raised in a wealthy Shanghai family, educated in a Western missionary school and grew up in as cosmopolitan a fashion as any Chinese could in the years before 1949. In 1949 Chen, at the age of 17, found herself facing a difficult choice. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had just achieved victory in the civil war and wealthy families such as hers were fleeing the mainland of China for Taiwan, Hong Kong, and points beyond. Many young people -- rich as well as poor -- found themselves intoxicated with the opportunity to rebuild a once-great but now weak and war-torn China. She chose to stay and within a year had volunteered to be a land reform cadre in western Gansu province. The Dragon's Village is essentially an account of that experience.

Chen originally wrote up her experiences in Chinese during the 1950s. She continued to write unpublished, as far as I can determine -- until the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Fearing she might be found out and attacked for her writings, which did not adhere to the narrow ideological guidelines of the period, she destroyed everything. In 1972 Chen, her son, and husband (Jack Chen, son of China's former Foreign Minister Eugene Chen) came to the United States. It was here, after several years of work on her English, that she rewrote and published the Dragon's Village.

Objectives

In the short time usually reserved for studying China, the vastness of its civilization and history force teachers to be highly selective as to what they will teach. The Dragon's Village can aid in that selection process, for it succeeds in two crucial ways. First, the novel structure allows for character development. There are no one-dimensional revolutionary heroes here. Each individual is three-dimensional; down-to-earth; easily identifiable; full of self-doubt, misgivings, and weaknesses in addition to heroism. In many ways American students will find these people recognizable and will readily relate to them. Consequently, I have found students are anxious to finish the book in order to find out what happens to the characters. This not only heightens interest but makes the story less foreign.

Chen's second success is equally important, for the story clarifies what I would consider to be the most important characteristics of modern and contemporary China:

• the nature of Chinese life and society in various social strata prior to 1949;

• the conditions that fostered a communist movement;

• the objectives of the Chinese communists;

• the reasons for their victory; and

• the changes brought about by the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.

This book does not provide an instant course on China. Rather, what Chen has accomplished in a thoughtful, clear, exciting, and at times, quite moving way, is to touch on all of these themes."

A. Tom Grunfeld
Empire State College
State University of New York

A Penguin Book

ISBN 0-14-005811-7

Available at Barnes & Noble DRAGON'S VILLAGE