Eight tragic stories involving eight people born before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and suffering in the “new society” created by the Communists are the subjects of Yang Kuisong’s latest book. Calling their collective tale The Story of the Marginalized, Yang separates his cast from the “mainstream” and “revolutionary” groups lionized by the socialist regime.
Holding down occupations such as police officer, teacher, doctor and sales rep, Yang’s characters are representative of the countless, faceless “nobodies” that failed to get a mention in official histories of post-revolutionary China. A professor and historian specializing in contemporary Chinese history, Yang’s account of these eight tragedies reveals a unique approach to research and, perhaps, a more representative reflection of the historical experiences of tens of millions of ordinary Chinese in the years after 1949.
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