Name: Dream of Ding Village
ISBN: 9780802119322

Lianke Yan

A previously banned work based on a true scandal finds an impoverished village targeted by a blood-selling operation that leads to a catastrophic outbreak of AIDS and decimates an entire community. By the award-winning author of Serve the People!

Dream of Ding Village

Dana Kraft

This was an interesting and difficult book for me. The story made me think about justice, death and living a good life, but I assume my notions of those things are very different from what People in rural China would think. I'm reading books translated to English to broaden my perspective and I feel particularly ignorant of Chinese culture. The events in this book are so surreal that I'm not sure what is "real" and what is a commentary on the actual events that the book portrays. 

In the face of incredible tragedy, people seem to be easily distracted by material and/or trivial things. Is that because they want the distraction or because they just can't help it. The story seems to point the the latter explanation. I found it interesting that the AIDS epidemic almost became an afterthought. The phrase "well I won't live mich longer anyway..." was uttered so frequently that it was almost meaningless. If that applies to everyone, then what difference does it make in anyone's life? I feel like the answer in the book is 'not much'. Should a tragedy like this change people? If so, how and why? Like I said - interesting and difficult at the same time.