Dream of Ding Village

This review is from: Dream of Ding Village (Paperback)Based on the true story of China's villagers who were encouraged to sell blood to make money; a few years after the initial prosperity, the unsanitary methods of blood collecting led to widespread AIDS.Narrated by the dead son of one of the 'bloodheads', the novel exposes the utter corruption that permeated this activity. From the individuals setting up their own 'clinics' - and making a vast profit by re-using needles and taking more blood than they should, to later crooked dealings in coffin selling...This was an interesting and indeed horrifying expose of these events, but I felt quite detatched from the people who make up the story.

"Dream of Ding Village" by Yan Lianke is a very well-written and well-translated book. The prose is easy to read and comprehend, despite the heavy subject matter.The book is about a rural village suffering from the AIDS epidemic. The epidemic was brought to the villagers by unregulated entrepreneurs who bought blood from almost everyone in the village. There was an economic "boom" in the village that led to a major disruption in their farming lives. The father of the narrator was one of the most prolific and dangerous blood buyers. The book follows the reaction of villagers as he rises through party ranks to become a major corrupt politician in the county. His own father, the narrator's grandfather, struggles with his son's rise because he knows it was at the cost of the AIDS epidemic. The grandfather attempted a relief effort for the villagers, but otherwise, there was very little help from the government. Nearly every character in "Dream of Ding Village" is tragic in one way or another. Some of the descriptions are heartbreaking.The author and the translator create wonderful images. Reading the book, it was easy to imagine the village's courtyards, threshing grounds, and the dusty paths leading to and from. The book is full of tragedies both great and small. It is certainly not for the faint of heart. Some reviewers have compared Yan Lianke to Camus or Kafka. Unfortunately, this book is neither absurdest nor allegorical. It is based on true, tragic events.

Money, food, sex, family traditons and superstition dictate Chinese society. The spread of HIV/AIDS by selling blood is unique to Henan province.

Yan Lianke is a writer I will keep in mind over the coming years. His prose is very bare, but the images are sharp and powerful. The story is tragicomic in the best sort of way, equal parts lamentable and understandable. And the subject matter is utterly heartbreaking. A powerful and refined account of a serious issue, addressed in only the way good fiction can.Absolutely worth reading.

A warning this is a bleak tale; it flows from an historical event the spread of HIV AIDS infection in Henan Province through careless blood collection procedures. When word reached high government officials that AIDS had come to China and was spreading rapidly the initial reaction was to deny and ignore, not unlike what happened in other countries. That was the real world, Yan Lianke turns those events into a masterful tale about the nature of mankind; so how to read Dream of Ding Village enjoyably?In a way, it is a tender story narrated by Ding Qiang a murdered twelve year old son of Ding Hui who observes the happening in Ding Village through the interactions of his loved and admired Grandpa Ding Shuiyang, the Professor. This approach will allow you to observe the horrible events that follow with some detachment.An alternative would be to read what follows in the tale as a cleaver step by step advancement by a low level peasant to the pinnacle of possible wealth and success by just understanding the possibilities opening up and taking advantage of them without moral reservation – a highway to success (with a bump in it).Yan Lianke combines these happenings into what for me took on the nature of a Page Turner, you may find the same joy in this Dream of Ding Village.

AIDS ravages small town China. At first it appears to be little more than a well-written case study, but as Yan Lianke pulls you deeper into the machinations of how it started and whose responsible; the small village of Ding comes alive.. Pain, heartbreak and despair set in, as evetyone slowly succumbs to the disease . . . Old grudges and grievances survive, as does love. Dream of Ding Village isn't just a very good look into how AIDS ravaged China, but a window into small town Chinese life, warts and all . I highly reccomend Dream of Ding Village to all interested in China's rise and the price it payed and continues to pay for it.