Review

Surrealist China
The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian

MA JIAN is best-known for Red Dust, which won the 2002 Thomas Cook Travel Award. He is, however, more of a novelist and THE NOODLE MAKER, originally written in the early 90s, is the first of Ma's novels to be available in English.

This brief book (178 pages) is a series of interconnected short stories, often surreal, about the absurdities of life in a China transitioning from Communism to its own form of capitalism. The stories include an actress who commits suicide on stage by being eaten by a tiger, a professional blood-donor, a hack writing political propaganda, a talking three-legged dog and an entrepreneur who turns an old pottery kiln into a crematorium.

Ma is typically referred to as a "dissident" writer, and there is definitely socio-political content here. The politics is, however, less interesting than the writing. Ma, like Mo Yan (for example, in Republic of Wine), seems to take a view of the world that resembles Gogol's: the humour is black -- and absurd, satirical and grotesque rather than funny; the characters are prone to philosophize rather than talk.

This is surely the writer's dilemma: writing that is too topical or too specific risks irrelevance as time and conditions move on.

Ma's stories, fortunately, do not need China to make or retain their impact. They may be based in China, but there is little that is uniquely Chinese about them. Failed writers, hen-pecked husbands, corrupt and stupid officials, injustice, lonely men, high-strung actresses can be found almost anywhere.

THE NOODLE MAKER will not be everyone's cup of tea. The sarcasm is biting; such gentleness as finds its way into Ma's world usually remains unrequited. But is sophisticated and thought-provoking and gives an inside-out view of China while somehow making the absurdities seem universal rather than strictly Chinese.

Peter Gordon
29/08/2004

Peter Gordon is editor of The Asian Review of Books.

Last Updated: September 7, 2004