Balzac and the Little
Chinese Seamstress,
by Dai Sijie
Delightful and moving story of two young men
sent to a remote village for "re-education" during the Cultural Revolution.
Their re-education means carrying buckets of excrement up the mountain as well
as mining coal. Life improves a bit after the head man discovers their talents
for storytelling and sends them each month to town to watch the current movie,
then re-create it in telling it to the villagers. In town they meet the little
seamstress and start to re-educate her by reading to her Balzac and other
forbidden western literature that they manage to obtain. A freeing of the
spirit occurs for the boys, and an unexpected result for the little
seamstress.
-Nancy
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