pickWas this 1954 collection of short stories by ideologically faithful cadres of the Chinese Communist Party full-on Maoist propaganda? Yes. Was it an interesting insight into the historical processes and concerns of the early Chinese Revolution? Also yes.
It doesn't seem any more jingoistic to me than many western movies of the post WWII period, and probably less so than, say, the Top Gun films.
The stories focus on the shift from traditional 👇
"The evening sun was being swallowed up by the far horizon. A northwest wind was stealthily ruffling the grass till the plain looked like a racing sea, while the dark clouds gathering overhead resembled the calfskin roof of a tent. Everybody knew the autumn rain was at hand."
- On the Kholchin Grasslands, by Malchinku
I'm making good progress with The One Who Did Not Ask, enjoying it and it's possible I'll finish it today, despite needing a little break from it.
Rather than picking up one of the other books I'm currently reading, I've picked up a "new" one. It's a short story collection published in 1954 by the People's Republic of China's state publisher, the Foreign Languages Press, so all the stories will be "ideologically sound", but I'm hoping that ?
Registration and Other Stories by Contemporary Chinese Writers | 
There is also an ethnic inclusivity in several of the stories, which focus on Mongolian and Kazakh people and how their cultures are to be respected whilst 👇 3w
While a couple of the stories are nothing more than propaganda, mostly they do have human stories to tell and I'm glad to have read them. 3.5 ⭐ 3w