A review of “Book War” by Wang Ping

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This is a short story by Wang Ping detailing his reading interests in classics in 1960s. The detailed incident took place in the 1960s during the intense “Cultural Revolution” in China. The government under Cultural Revolution banned people from reading books and going to school. People, in turn, opted to read secretly. The voice in the story secretly exchanged books with her neighbor (girl), and this was done at night. On realization that her daughter engaged herself in secret readings, she banned the book and buried them. Tireless, at twilight, the author continued with the war on books by retelling classic stories to relations, friends and making of stories of his own.

The story is an illustration of the power of regime in banning readings in a country. It is unaccepted for the government to ban schools and books. According to the government by then, the books and other educational resources from other countries “poisoned” the nation and so was catastrophic. Even the author’s mother buried such books and concealed them from her daughter.

Fearing the actions from the government, the authors’ mother hid the books. Upon realizing that her daughter had discovered and was secretly reading, she destroyed the books, in fear of the government. It is usually people to behave in this way when such occurs. The author, Wang Ping, uses many metaphors. For example, he says “time bomb” for the books her daughter read and also uses “Book war” for reading and telling stories to his siblings, friends, and neighbors.

The story is painful consequences following the government’s ban on books and school in China in 1960 regime. The majority of the public maneuvered their ways to read free publications on their own. The author is delighted in playing a successful part of his own in this “Book War”.