to Beijing, we meet people whose lives have been transformed by their country's turbulent recent history.Cheng Nai-shan writes about the present-day life of the former Shanghai upper class and their children. Sent to work on a rural commune at age fifteen, Wang An-yi now writes about the struggles of the urban underclass. Wang-Meng, once exiled to Tibet, now writes award-winning, character driven stories. Mo Shen had been a railway porter before emerging as a writer after the fall of the Gang of Four. With these and seventeen other writers represented, The Vintage Book of Contemporary Chinese Fiction is a literary testament to a post-revolutionary nation in transition.

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