In this book, people of all ages and walks of life describe what they experienced and witnessed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. As their world is turned upside down, hapless victims of communist political correctness struggle to survive the persecution of authorities, neighbors, co-workers, friends, and even family. The stories are written in a very straight-forward style---they need no dramatic language to grab the reader's attention. These shocking tales often seem too bizarre to be real, and yet they serve as an important reminder of how cruel and petty the human race can become under the leadership of a tyrannical despot. The reader will surely find this book one of the most memorable reading experiences of his life.

In 1890, Fragrant Lotus is a young Chinese girl who loves her grandmother very much. But one day her grandmother decides it is time that she bind her granddaughter's feet, a tradition going back a thousand years, and Fragrant Lotus' life changes forever.

Though having bound feet is exceedingly painful, her grandmother does an extremely good job and through the beauty of her feet, Fragrant Lotus is able to move up through society and gain wealth, power, and prestige normally out of reach for the lower-class. However, the Communist revolution is coming.

Where once Fragrant Lotus was the epitome of female beauty, in the 20th Century, footbinding becomes a symbol of the "old" China...a China that the government wants to escape. Fragrant Lotus continues to 'stand up' for footbinding, but it is a losing battle.

In this book of fiction, the author draws comparisons between the bound feet of Chinese women and the "bound" minds of modern China after the Communist revolution. Readers of Chinese fiction, literary fiction, historical fiction, and those interested in Chinese history will devour this novel.

What a treat it is to stumble upon a master storyteller! Feng Jicai tells this story with brilliant wit and intelligence. Kudos to the translator as well. He uses historical references to fill the reader in on the tradition of foot binding, as well as weaves a creative plot. The book focuses on Fragrant Lotus, a girl who has her feet bound in the golden lotus style, and her father-in-law, who collects daughters-in-law to serve his foot fetish. He and his other "lotus loving" friends have contests and long debates in their quest for the perfect bound feet. Fragrant Lotus eventually reigns supreme in the family by virtue of her stylish feet, but Jicai uses an ironic twist at the end of the book to ask the reader an underlying political question-- why the people of China have participated in things that caused them to suffer, such foot binding and the Cultural Revolution, and why social change often comes about with cruelty. This question is all the more touching because Feng Jicai's family was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.

Subtitled "a novel of foot binding", this book was first published in China in 1986 by the enormously popular Chinese writer, Feng Jicai and translated into English in 1994.

Told as a "once upon a time" story, the writer skillfully combines myth, reason and a compelling tale while bringing the reader into the world of the "three-inch golden lotus", the tiny bound feet of Chinese women.

Everything I have ever wondered about this fascinating custom is right here in this book. From the agonies inflicted upon young girls whose childhood includes broken bones and searing pain to the high esteem these tiny feet bring them as adults, it's all here, including the group of men who erotically adore them.

Set in the early part of the 20th century, Fragrant Lotus has her feet bound by her grandmother as an act of love and tradition. Later, her small feet catch the eyes of a wealthy man who makes her the bride of his oldest son. The women of the family all compete in family "foot contests" at which "lotus loving" friends of her father-in-law spend hours debating the fine points of the history of foot binding and its many nuances.

Through the years, Fragrant Lotus becomes the head of the family and comes face to face with the changing movement to outlaw foot binding.

At only 229 pages, this book is a great read on many levels. The writer really captures the world he has set out to describe, does a excellent job of characterization and keeps the tension high with his minute descriptions of the foot contests. He also has a way of making this all into a satirical tall tale as the concepts of truth and reality are constantly explored. Deceptively simple, this story has a far deeper meaning as a metaphor for the cultural revolution as standards of beauty change.

Highly recommended.

Every chapter tells us a different story of individuals, as they spent or lost their lives during the 10 years of Cultural Revolution in China.
The stories brought to us from Feng Jicai are really upsetting, showing another time that reality could overtake our all immaginations. He break the "silk veil" on the real stories happened during the Cultural Revolution and give us a real insight on why the current Chinese culture and people's behaviour has been so greatly affected by that period.

If you really want to know more about China, beside the economic development datas and political commentaries, read it.
Just a remark: I did not give it a five-star rating (the content deserves it all) because the translation to English is sometimes "imaginative" (well, in a sense that makes it more Chinese, sounds like some pages of China Daily)

The narratives in this collection of oral histories about the Cultural Revolution are varied , well-ordered, and of a good length. Feng includes victims, perpetrators, "non-participants." Particularly fascinating/ horrifying is the chapter about the infamous #63 torture block. The author also includes some striking, though possibly one-sided, interviews with people born post-1976. Feng himself seems to have a bit of a saviour complex, and his commentary struck me as overdone and interfering - particularly the trite maxims he insists on including after each narrative. He is most interesting in the interview at the end of the book, during which he discusses his methodology and "Documentary Literature".

Chihua Wen's oral histories of children during the Cultural Revolution (The Red Mirror) is less varied, but has a lighter touch, and therefore comes off as more richly poetic. Cheng Jung's Wild Swans is a good companion to these oral history style books, as it offers a detailed and incisive analysis along with its personal story. Ten Years of Madness is a good collection of narratives, but I wish Feng's commentary had been more analytical and less Holy.

Feng Jicai's accounts of the Chinese Cultural Revolution are the best that I have ever read and can be found in "Ten Years of Madness" and "Voices in the Whirlwind". I require his work for my course on Modern China. Unfortunately, this book seems to suffer from translation problems that might have been avoided if a more experienced translator had taken on the project. It is still a tale worth reading if merely to remind us of the unpredictability of life and as an addendum to Feng's other works on the Cultural Revolution. I believe that Feng never intended this book to be listed as a book for children.