Human desire is like a crocodile, it will expand rapidly if it is not controlled

The Crocodile, the latest work by Nobel laureate Mo Yan, uses symbolism and realism to tell the story of corrupt overseas officials and their relatives and friends. The crocodile is a metaphor for the expanding desire of the human heart, and Mo Yan got inspiration from the pets kept by the young people in the neighborhood. In the south, there are many ponds where crocodiles are raised, just like pigs and chickens, and made into various leather products. Crocodiles also have a special habit of not growing up in a small space, and if the environment is enlarged, it will expand rapidly. "Human desire is like a crocodile. If it is not controlled, it will expand rapidly without any limit." In previous public events, Mo stressed the contemporary and social effects of drama, which should be relevant to the present and arouse the audience's thinking, otherwise it cannot be called a success.

After winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012, Mo Yan cut back on his fiction. In addition to the short story collection "Late Bloomers", Mo Yan's new works are mostly plays. Jin Yi, published in People's Literature in 2017, is a Chinese opera script. Speaking of his turn from novelist to playwright, Mo Yan recalled that he had a strong interest in opera as a child: when he could not borrow books in the countryside, he could only go to the movies once or twice a year, but often watched the village opera troupe. In recent years, the visit to Shakespeare's former residence has aroused his dream of a dramatist, "In front of Shakespeare's tomb, I swore in the face of Yu Hua and Su Tong that I would become a playwright and distinguish myself from them." They sneered and scorned me."

Filial Piety: A Collection of Zheng Shirang's Short Stories

Han. Written by Zheng Shilang. Translated by Zhao Yang

Citic Spring tide 2023-4

"효진" is a common female name in South Korea, if there is no special explanation, it is often translated into "filial piety", the girl's father in the book when naming her stressed: filial piety, do your best, and let the child do his best to filial piety themselves. This collection of nine short stories focuses on East Asian social culture, workplace stress, social anxiety, and family of origin. Many of the passages in the book sound like phrases you've heard in everyday life, like "You're lucky you're married to me. I'm not very macho."

In these stories, the author focuses on the topic of women and marriage, shows the self-awakening and pursuit of women in the patriarchal society, and also shows the reality of ordinary Korean life through the narrative full of fantasy and black humor, and expresses the ideal of friendship, mutual assistance, and longing for peace in combination with history and imagination. The author Jung Se-lang was born in Seoul in 1984. In 2010, he published "Dream, Dream, Dream", which made him enter the literary world. In 2013, he won the Creation Novel Award for "So Close", and in 2017, he won the Hankook Ilbo Literature Award for "Fifty People". She describes her novels as "stories of healing when you're tired."

Fulfilling the Order: Having Everything and Having Nothing.

Translated by Alec McGillis and Zeng Chuyuan

New Classic Culture | Wenhui Publishing House 2023-6

In just over two decades, Amazon has risen to become the world's largest Internet company, the second-largest private employer in the United States, and its "fulfillment centers" for warehousing and transportation have spread around the world and reshaped the way people live. In a decade-long investigation, veteran US journalist Alec McGillis has witnessed how the company, once a symbol of technological progress, has grown into a capital monster that has defied the state. It brings the convenience of "one-click order", but also causes a series of chain reactions: the real economy continues to decline, and traditional communities have been withered; Squeezed by monopolies, small and medium-sized retailers are struggling; Workers are trapped in a high-pressure efficiency system and lose their dignity as workers. Through the eyes of drivers, deliverymen, sorters, manufacturers, politicians, lobbyists, activists, and artists, the author writes the stories of ordinary people in the Amazon empire and reveals the rifts of social division with real data.

In particular, the book highlights the problems of regional inequality and economic agglomeration - where profits and growth opportunities that were once distributed across the country are increasingly moving to the home base of these dominant companies. A "winner-take-all" economy creates a "winner-take-all" region. Today, almost all the rich cities are on the coast. Since 1970, wage growth in the largest cities has been almost 20% higher than in other cities. But more importantly, regional inequalities make it impossible for one part of the country and another to understand each other.

Income Inequality

[E] Richard Wilkinson [E] Translated by Kate Pickett and Zhou Yuan

Mingshi Lucida | Beijing United Publishing Company 2023-4

Well-known public health experts Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett show the social problems caused by income inequality and class differences in their latest work, "Income inequality", and strongly demonstrate that the greater the gap between the rich and the poor, the more stressful life people face, the more health problems, and pay more attention to the negative impact of income inequality on everyone's mind.

In a previous book, The Wrath of Equity, the authors found that societies with greater income inequality tend to have worse health outcomes: shorter life expectancy, higher rates of infant mortality, mental illness, illicit substance abuse, and obesity. Greater inequality also hurts social relations: there is more violence (measured by homicide rates) and higher incarceration rates; People trust each other less, and community ties are weaker. Inequality also hurts children's life chances: more unequal societies have lower levels of child happiness and educational achievement, higher teenage birth rates, and less social mobility.

Continuing this focus, the new book further explores the causes of these psychological problems and social stresses, including how the concept of inequality enters our minds, how it raises anxiety levels, how people react to it, and the consequences of varying degrees of mental illness and mood disorders. The income gap affects the poor more profoundly than the rich, and the lower you are in the social class, the greater the pressure. While inequality disproportionately affects those near the bottom of the social ladder, the authors emphasize that most people suffer from it in some way - and that inequality makes everyone more involved in competition for social status and more insecure.

The Web of Luxury: Huizhou Salt Merchants, Social Classes, and Economic Practices in the 18th Century

Translated by Wu Yulian and Lin Lei

Qiwei · Social Sciences Academic Press, 2023-1

This book examines the 18th century salt merchants of Huizhou, and tells how, through the circulation of goods, they formed a network of close ties between their hometown of Huizhou, their residence in Jiangnan (Yangzhou, Hangzhou), and Beijing. During his reign, Emperor Qianlong intentionally or unintentionally extended his influence to the economic and cultural fields of local society through this network, including the hinterland of Jiangnan and the remote countryside of Huizhou.

The emperor often appointed salt officials to manage the production of these exquisite objects. The salt merchants' extensive network allowed them to work with the most skilled craftsmen. Nothing was more important than meeting Qianlong's standards - the ultimate goal of local artisans and the basic criteria by which merchants employed them. As the rising Huizhou salt merchants more actively participated in the luxury consumption culture of Jiangnan, salt merchants influenced and even constructed the tastes and fashion trends of the time. These merchants eventually became literate and well-informed "general people" who played a crucial role in the economic, social and cultural world of 18th century China.

Children of the Middle Ages

Translated by Nicholas Aume and Tao Wanyong

Gezhi Publishing House | Shanghai People's Publishing House 2023-5

In this book, the author uses a history of children in medieval England to show the similarities and differences between the life of children in the past and the life of children in the present, from the beginning of the mother's pregnancy and childbirth to the adulthood of the child. The book discusses the importance of baptism, birthday and age, as well as the family life of the child, including nurturing, food, clothing, sleep and the plight of the poor; The book also Chronicles the misfortunes of childhood, from disability, abuse, and accidents to illness and death. There are also special chapters devoted to the study of medieval children's songs, toys, and literature.

The examples of medieval children's literature are interesting. The widely known "Magic Flute" fairy tale has been around since the early 16th century, in which a motherless boy named Jack is given three magical gifts for helping a poor old man: a bow that always hits its target, a flute that makes everyone dance, and a spell that makes his stepmother fart when she is angry. He plays the flute, returns home with his dancing animals, and uses magic to overcome his abusive father and stepmother. In the 13th century, a boy and a girl appear clothed at the edge of a mine, their skin pale green and their words ununderstood, and are taken back to a knight's house without eating anything except pods. The boy soon died, but the girl survived. She gradually got used to a normal diet, lost her skin color, and later married.

As a direct counterpoint to Philippe Alies' The Century of the Child: Children and Family Life under the Old System, Aume highlights the importance of childhood in medieval society: in the Middle Ages, childhood was clearly considered a distinct cultural period of life, and children were considered to be special and distinct from adults. Nicholas Orme is emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter, UK. His research focuses on medieval studies and Tudor history, focusing on the history of medieval English education, the Church and the history of children.

Lady of the Guo State on a Spring Excursion: Moments of Life of the Beauties of the Tang Dynasty

By Huang Xiaofeng

Henan Fine Arts Publishing House 2023-4

This book is an art history scholar Huang Xiaofeng's review of the famous painting of Lady Guo State on a Spring excursion. Starting from the historical and literary images of Lady of the Guo State, through the formation of the title of the painting and the collection of the painting, readers are led to interpret the historical details contained in this work.

The author focuses on interpreting the many mysteries shrouded in this work from both artistic and historical aspects, for example, who is "Lady of the Guo State"? What is the relationship between her and Lady of the Guo State on a Spring Excursion? Whose work is this? The author pointed out that the lady of Guo State was not a court woman, nor did she live in the palace, but a "foreign destiny woman" of the highest rank. It would have been strange for the court painter Zhang Xuan to have been instructed to paint her travels. It's easy to think about it from another perspective. In the late Tang Dynasty, Madame Guo had become an abstract symbol of the beauty of the Tang Dynasty, a symbol of the court of Xuanzong and even the tragedy of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the "traveling picture of women in Guo State" recorded by Zhang Yanyuan cannot be ruled out as the tracing and imagination of the middle and late Tang Dynasty.