Book description
Praise for the first edition:
". . . in the great tradition of Orwell and Solzhenitsyn; its true subject is the survival-and sometimes the defeat-of the human spirit in its lonely quest for integrity." -Time
"The almost childlike directness of Chen's tales. . . is captured in the very lightly…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
My future husband and I read excerpts of this book as undergraduates—great preparation for our post-graduation trek into China. We were determined to track down his great-aunt in Chengdu—no mean feat in the late 80s, given the absence of cellphones and internet.
A cover blurb notes this book is in the “tradition of Orwell and Solzhenitsyn” but I’d point instead to Heller (Catch-22) for context on China’s Cultural Revolution. “Chairman Mao is a Rotten Egg,” for example, reveals strategies that made sense when we met my then-fiancé’s great aunt. She shared how her husband was thrown in jail given his…
From Suzanne's list on The best books on Chinese tradition, revolution, and change.
If you love The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
Share your top 3 reads of 2026!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
190
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, you might also like...
Broken Boots, Redeemed Soul: A Veteran’s War with Sin and Salvation
Broken Boots, Redeemed Soul: A Veteran’s War with Sin and Salvation, is a raw and faith-centered memoir about life after military service—and the internal battles many never see. Brian Lofton shares his journey through addiction, shame, identity loss, and spiritual distance, revealing how the hardest struggles often begin after…
No Color Is My Kind
No Color is My Kind tells the stories of the desegregation of Houston, TX, in 1960, the life of civil rights leader Eldrewey Stearns, and the author's relationship to Stearns.
They met in a psychiatric case conference while Stearns was hospitalized at the University of Texas Medical Branch. After his…
