''Red Sorghum: A Novel of China'' () is a Chinese-language novel by Mo Yan. Its five parts were published serially in various magazines in 1986 and republished together as a single novel in 1987. It was Mo's first novel and remains one of his best-known works. The novel is a compilation of five novellas: "Red Sorghum", "Sorghum Wine", "Dog Ways", "Sorghum Funeral", and "Strange Death". "Red Sorghum" was published in '' People's Literature'' (Issue 3, 1986), "Dog Ways" was published in the April 1986 issue of ''Shiyue'' ("October" magazine); "Sorghum Wine" in the July 1986 issue of ''PLA Arts'', "Sorghum Funeral" in the August 1986 issue of ''Beijing Wenxue'' and "Strange Death" in the November–December issue of ''Kunlun'' magazine. The novel was translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt in 1993 as ''Red Sorghum: A Novel of China'', but has also been referred to as "The Red Sorghum Clan" in some sources. ''Red Sorghum'''s plot revolves around three generations of the

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

family between 1923 and 1976. The narrator tells the story of his family's struggles, first as distillery owners making sorghum wine and then as resistance fighters during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

. The novel also details civil disputes between warring Chinese groups, including rival gangs and political powers. The book also refers to the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

and the 1972 resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. As the principal crop of

province's Northeast

Gaomi Gaomi () is a county-level city of eastern Shandong province, China, under the administration of Weifang City. It is the hometown of writer and 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mo Yan, who has set some of his stories in the region. Admin ...

Township (the author's hometown), red sorghum ''(

sorghum bicolor ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the grass genus ''Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain is used as food by humans, ...

)'' frames the narrative as a symbol of indifference and vitality. Amidst decades of bloodshed and death, it grows steadfast to provide food, shelter, wine and life. Mo Yan employs a terse style in the novel that is characterized by brevity and non-chronological storytelling written in the first-person. The work contains elements of folk-tale that blend into myth and superstition, placing it in the magic-realist genre.

Adaptations

The novel was read by director

Zhang Yimou Zhang Yimou (; born 14 November 1950) is a Chinese filmmaker.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retrieved 21 August 2008. A leading figure of China's Cinem ...

, who proposed to Mo Yan to make two of the sections ("Red Sorghum" and "Sorghum Wine") into a film. In 1988, the resulting film '' Red Sorghum'' was presented during the competition and won the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear () is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic an ...

at the

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

. In 2014, it was adapted as a

TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

, directed by Zheng Xiaolong. Excerpts of the novel were included in the 2016 Chinese literature anthology '' The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature'' edited by Yunte Huang.

References

{{Authority control 1986 Chinese novels Novels by Mo Yan Chinese novels adapted into films Chinese novels adapted into television series Magic realism novels Postmodern novels Novels set in Shandong