Frog - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mo Yan (literally "don't speak") is the pen name of Guan Moye. Born in 1955 to a peasant family in Shandong province, he is the author of ten novels, including Red Sorgum, which was made into a feature film; dozens of novellas; and hundreds of short stories. Mo Yan is the winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature. He has won virtually every Chinese literary prize, including the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2011 (China's most prestigious literary award), and is the most critically acclaimed Chinese writer of his generation, in both China and around the world. He lives in Beijing.

Howard Goldblatt, widely recognized as one of the best translators from Chinese to English, has received the National Translation Award as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work. He lives in Colorado.

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Copyright © 2009 by Mo Yan

Translation copyright © 2014 by Penguin (Beijing) Ltd

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Translated from the original Chinese edition by Howard Goldblatt

Originally published by Shanghai Art and Literature Publishing House.

English-language edition first published by Penguin Group (Australia) in association with Penguin (Beijing) Ltd

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Mo, Yan, 1955-

[Wa. English]

Frog: a novel / Mo Yan ; [translated by Howard Goldblatt]

p. cm

ISBN 978-0-698-18266-0

1. Childbirth—China—History—20th century—Fiction. I. Goldblatt, Howard, 1939- translator. II. Title.

PL2886.O1684W32713 2015

895.13’52—dc23

2014038473

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Dramatis Personae

Tadpole and Gugu’s family

GUGU, or WAN XIN, midwife

JIN XIU, cousin of Xiaopao, business partner of Xiao Xiachun

LITTLE LION, Gugu’s medical intern

WAN KOU, aka Eldest Brother, brother of Xiaopao, father of Wan Xiangqun

WAN LIUFU, father of Gugu, soldier and doctor, founder of the Xihai Underground Hospital

WAN MAN, sister of Xiaopao

WAN XIANGQUN, air force pilot, nephew of Xiaopao, son of Wan Dakou

WAN ZU, or XIAOPAO or TADPOLE, nephew of Gugu

WUGUAN, cousin of Xiaopao

YANYAN, daughter of Xiaopao

Chen Bi’s family

AILIAN, mother of Chen Bi

CHEN BI, classmate of Xiaopao

CHEN E, father of Chen Bi

CHEN ER, daughter of Chen Bi

CHEN MEI, daughter of Chen Bi

Other Characters (in alphabetical order)

TEACHER CHEN

DU BOZI, a villager/fisherman

FAN, carpenter

FANG LIANHUA, Wang Jiao’s wife

FLATHEAD, rafter, son of old classmate of Xiaopao

GAO MEN, village beggar

GENG XIULIAN, wife of Zhang Quan

HAO DASHOU, the clay-doll maker

HUANG JUN, aka Melon Huang, hospital director, the son of Huang Pi from Hexi Village

HUANG QIUYA, doctor at health centre, enemy of Gugu

DOCTOR LI

POLITICAL COMMISSAR LI

LI SHOU, son of Teacher Yu, younger schoolmate of Xiaopao

CHIEF LIU, Armed Forces Bureau

LU HUAHUA, village beggar

LU MAZI, civil administration clerk

LÜ YA, brigade commander

POSTAL DIRECTOR MA

NING YAO, commune security chief

QIN HE, brother of Qin Shan, beggar/actor, boat pilot, clay-doll maker

QIN SHAN, commune Party secretary, brother of Qin He

QIU, commune Party secretary (and Qin Shan’s successor)

SESAME TWIST, wife of Yuan Sai

DIRECTOR SHEN, Bureau of Health

COMMANDER SUGITANI, Japanese Army

SUGITANI AKIHITO, mentor to Xiaopao

TIAN GUIHUA, old midwife

WANG DAN, daughter of Wang Jiao, twin of Wang Gan, classmate of Xiaopao

WANG GAN, son of Wang Jiao, twin of Wang Dan, classmate of Xiaopao

WANG HUAN, the bean curd peddler

WANG JIAO, owner of a horse and cart, father of Wang Dan and Wang Gan

WANG JINSHAN, aka OLD WANG, the school cook

WANG RENMEI, daughter of Wang Jinshan, wife of Xiaopao

WANG XIAOTI, Gugu’s fiancé, Air Force pilot, traitor

WANG XIAOMEI, a seventeen-year-old girl from Wang Village, Director Huang’s lover

SECRETARY WU, commune Party secretary, 1980s

WU JINBANG, school principal

XIAO BI, office manager of bullfrog farm, sculptor

XIAO SHANGCHUN, stretcher-bearer in the Eighth Route Army, commune granary watchman, Windstorm Rebel Corps Commander, enemy of Gugu, father of Xiao Xiachun

XIAO XIACHUN, classmate of Xiaopao, son of Xiao Shangchun, entrepreneur

XIE BAIZHUA, restaurant owner

XIE XIAOQUE, the son of Xie Baizhua

COMMANDER XU, Eighth Route Army

TEACHER XUE

YAN, assistant director of the commune

YANG LIN, county Party secretary

CHAIRWOMAN YANG XIN, family-planning committee

YANG XIONG, county chief, son of Yang Lin

TEACHER YU

YUAN LIAN, village Party secretary

YUAN SAI, son of Yuan Lian, classmate of Xiaopao

ZHANG JINYA, Party secretary of Dongfeng village

ZHANG QUAN, from Dongfeng village

BOOK ONE

Dear Sugitani Akihito sensei,

It has been nearly a month since we said goodbye, but I can relive virtually every moment of our time together in my hometown as if it were yesterday. With no concern for age or physical frailties, you crossed land and sea to come to this out-of-the-way spot and engage in literary conversations with me and with local fans of literature; we were deeply moved. On the second morning of the year, you favoured us with a presentation in the county guesthouse auditorium that you called ‘Literature and Life’. With your permission, we would like to publish a transcription of the taped lecture in the local publication Frog Calls, so as to make available to those who were unable to attend in person a chance to appreciate and learn from your use of language.

On the morning of the first day of the year I accompanied you on a visit to my aunt, an obstetrician for more than fifty years, and though she spoke too quickly in her accented Chinese for you to grasp everything she said, I am sure she left a deep impression on you. In your talk the next morning you cited her often in support of your views of literature. You said you came away with an image of a doctor racing across a frozen river on a bicycle; another of her with a medical kit slung over her back and an open umbrella in one hand, trouser cuffs rolled up, as she forces her way through a mass of croaking frogs; yet another of a doctor laughing joyfully as she holds a newborn infant in her hands, her sleeves spattered with blood; and finally one of a doctor with a care-laden face, a cigarette dangling from her lips, clothing rumpled . . . you said that all these mental pictures sometimes come together into a single image and at other times split into discrete fragments, like a series of carvings. You urged local literature fans to create poignant works of art out of my aunt’s life, either in fiction, in verse, or in drama. Sensei, your encouragement has produced a creative passion in many of us. An associate at the county cultural centre has already begun a novel about a village obstetrician, and though my understanding of what my aunt accomplished is much greater than his, I do not want to enter into a competition and will leave the writing of a novel to him. What I want to do, sensei, is write a play about my aunt’s life. On the night of the second, when we were talking as we sat on the kang at my house, I experienced an epiphany thanks to your high praise and detailed analyses, as well as your unique insights into the plays of the Frenchman, Sartre. I want to...