Serve the People!

November 5, 2007
This spare, enigmatic novella of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution tells the story of the brief love affair between Wu Dawang, general orderly for a local division commander, and Liu Lian, the commander's bored wife. An ambitious model soldier of peasant origin, eager to move his family to the city, Wu Dawang is repeatedly instructed by his superiors that “to serve the Division Commander and his family is to Serve the People.†While the commander is away in Beijing for a two-month conference, Liu Lian initiates the affair with Wu Dawang through her subversive take on that Maoist slogan: whenever a sign saying “Serve the People†is moved from its accustomed place in the household, Wu Dawang is to attend to her needs immediately. Their delirious sexual liaison culminates in an orgiastic desecration of the images and words of Chairman Mao. Yan's satire brilliantly exposes the emptiness of Maoist ideals and the fraudulent ends for which they were used, but also relates a sorrowful tale of compromised relationships and modest hopes left unfulfilled. It was banned in China in 2005 for slander and for “overflowing†depictions of sex.

January 15, 2008
English-language readers now have the opportunity to read award-winning Chinese author Yan's "Wei Renmnin Fuwu", originally published in China in 2005 and subsequently banned. Yan records the story of Wu Dawang, a farmer turned Sergeant of the Catering Squad and General Orderly for the People's Liberation Army's Division Commander and his wife. The creed "To Serve the People" takes on new meaning for Wu Dawang when he learns that the Division Commander's much younger wife, Liu Lian, expects him upstairs whenever the household's "Serve the People" sign is moved from its usual location. Initial sightings of the stray sign begin innocently enough, but soon Liu Lian's expectations recall those of Potiphar's wife. Wu Dawang, however, is certainly no Joseph, becoming enwrapped in a torrid affair. Yan's work certainly contains its share of double entendres and may even be perceived as comedic at times, but on a deeper level, it offers a sociopolitical commentary on a way of life generally unfamiliar to Westerners. For larger public and academic library collections.Shirley N. Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2008
Set in 1967, at the height of Chairman Maos personality cult, this is the story of an affair. Wu Dawang, a country bumpkin who hoped the army would be the ticket to a city career, is his division commanders orderly (i.e., gardener, cook, and houseman). His watchword, omnipresent in his military setting, including on a sign on the commanders dinner table, is Serve the People! For Wu Dawang that service begins and ends with the commander . . . and the commanders enticing young wife, who one day informs Wu Dawang that whenever he sees the sign not in its usual place, she wants him upstairs. In the bedroom. He initially resists but, stuck in a passionless marriage, eventually accedes. She is relentless, but he is spellbound. Maybe both are addicted. The affair ends as suddenly and completely as it had started, and the lovers virtually never meet again. This passionate satire of clandestine, intimate privilege in an ostensibly classless, egalitarian society is exceedingly carefully written, so that it is at once funny, sad, and bitterly ironic on nearly every page. Oh, and sensual, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)