A novel with donkeys as heroes? Unlikely as it sounds, The Audible Annals of Abudan is a great read. Comic, but with very dark undertones, this is a satire about a side of China (or at least its far-western fringes) that will be unfamiliar to readers, and an eye-opener. The translation is lively and the narrative is pacy. I definitely recommend it.
— Nicky Harman, translator of novels by Jia Pingwa, Yan Geling and others
In The Audible Annals of Abudan, Liu Liangcheng weaves a tale of the clashes that arise when rural tradition is pressed by the demands of a rapidly modernizing state. Despite the determination of officials to use the machines of progress to grind individuality under its wheels, human quirks and desires prove surprisingly resilient, and a chorus of donkeys provides an inspirational, if jarring soundtrack.
— Ed Teja, author, the Southwest Surreal stories
The Audible Annals of Abudan recounts absurd tales of stark realities in an ancient village engulfed by a rapidly modernizing city and its oil rigs. Rife with the “dark humor” that characterizes contemporary Xinjiang literature, Liu’s novel exposes the exponential extraction of natural and cultural resources literally hollowing out China’s ethnically diverse western regions.
— Professor Robin Visser, author, Questioning Borders: Eco-literature of China and Taiwan
* * * * *
Doomsday is coming, every donkey knows it.
Hell-bent on creating a modern, donkey-free county, the authorities give Abudan and other villages a quota to fill: trade in three donkeys for one motorcycle. Before their hides are turned into pricey gelatin, the obstreperous beasts join in one last, spontaneous vocal protest – branded a “Mass Braying Incident” by paranoid cadres.
Hopes soar when oil is discovered nearby. Dirt-poor villagers dream of riches digging the trench for the historic West-East Gas Pipeline. Their dreams shattered, Abudaners quietly turn underground, lured by lucrative relics. But not Yüsup and Zhang Wangcai. One a Uyghur at the top of the social ladder and the other a Han at the bottom, they dig their own tunnels for spiritual reasons, a transgression the state fears even more.
Here in Abudan, the entire concept of an underground movement turns out to be rather literal. It undermines everything.
By times earthy, scathing and fantastical, The Audible Annals of Abudan by Liu Liangcheng – author of the Chinese million-copy bestseller One Man’s Village – masterfully exposes how rapacious oil drilling, forced modernization, and desperate subterranean quests devastate the lives of Uyghur peasants in Xinjiang.
凿空 is a Chinese novel by Xinjiang-based Liu Liangcheng (刘亮程), newly translated into English by Jun Liu (刘浚) and Bruce Humes. The working title is The Audible Annals of Abudan. To request an excerpt or information about foreign language rights, contact Yilin Press’s Ms. Yvonne Wang (王玉强) at wangyuqiang@yilin.com
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