Lianke Yan

In 1967, at the height of the Mao cult, Liu Lian, the pretty, bored young wife of a powerful Division Commander in Communist China, artfully seduces Wu Dawang, the household's lowly servant, directing that every time the household's wooden "Serve the People!" sign is removed from its usual place on the dinner table, the obedient soldier must attend to her needs. Original.

Serve the People!

Rowena Wiseman

I was captivated already when I read in a review that Yan Lianke's novel Serve the People had been banned in China because it 'Slanders Mao Zedong, the army, and is overflowing with sex ... Do not distribute, pass around, comment on, excerpt from it or report on it.'

Set in 1967, Serve the People is about Wu Dawang, a low-ranking soldier who works in the house of the powerful Division Commander. While the Division Commander is away, his wife Liu Lian seduces Wu Dawang by leaving a sign for him on the kitchen worktop with the political slogan 'Serve the People' - to let him know she wanted some servicing up in the bedroom. It starts off as a frightening chore for Wu, but then turns into a beautiful and somewhat complex love affair.

Serve the People was a surprisingly accessible and humorous introduction to contemporary Chinese literature that reflects on the absurdity of Mao's regime. Whilst there is a serious backdrop to the novel, it avoids being heavy, instead allowing us to enjoy Wu Dawang's dream to escape peasantry and climb the military and Party ranks and have a lively romp along the way.

Serve the People!

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