Wild Cat: Stories of the Cultural Revolution

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher and librarian in Winnipeg.

Peng, himself a witness to and survivor of China’s Cultural
Revolution, acts as first-person narrator in five of the 12 stories in
this collection. The confusion and suffering of ordinary citizens
confronted by zealous officials intent on enforcing Mao’s ideology
provide material from which Peng draws fascinating portraits of everyday
life.

Representative victims of the Cultural Revolution include the barren
Zhao-di, driven to madness and murder in her longing for a child; Uncle
Da-fu, a tobacco farmer forced to destroy his beloved tobacco plants for
“the good of the state”; Secretary Bao, forced to destroy a
squatter’s ramshackle “African Village” before the impending visit
of the vice-premier; con man Wild Cat and gambler Wei Chang, wondering
why it is so difficult to be decent men when they are denied jobs and
status because of ancestry; the schoolboy, who, in wanting to become
“The Youngest Reactionary” and a hero, betrays his father; and a
typewriter owner, who, if discovered with this foreign capitalist
symbol, could be imprisoned or killed. Peng writes about betrayal,
violence, sex and prostitution, corruption, crime, and other negative
aspects of human behavior using appropriate language to realistically
depict characters and events.

In spite of the human suffering shown, humor and compassion permeate
these portrayals of ordinary people trying to survive extraordinary
events. Wild Cat provides often painful glimpses into the complex
history of the modern world and pays tribute to the human spirit which
survives even the harshest conditions.