Dongni

Dongni is the second volume of Di An's "Dragon City Trilogy." Like West Decision, it tells the story of the Zheng family in the silent northern industrial city of "Dragon City," but it hands the first-person narration to the cousin Zheng Dongni. In Dongni's eyes, the Zheng family looks different again: her parents quarreled endlessly for years, and beneath the family's warmth lie old matters no one wants to mention; after high school she drifted overseas, married the PhD holder Fang Jinghui, and thought she had finally grasped stability of her own, only to have her marriage break down and end in divorce after she gave birth to a sick child. For custody of the child and her ex-husband's property, she schemes and fights every step of the way, repeatedly clashing with her cousin Xijue, who has always protected her. In one fierce quarrel, Dongni impulsively reveals a secret the Zheng family has carefully guarded since the grandparents' generation, leaving an indelible wound on the person who cares most about her. At the story's end, Dongni gives up much and loses much; the only thing left is still her courage and passion that fear no hurt. She sets out again with her own secret, and Dragon City becomes the desolate stage on which she makes her entrance. In a flamboyant and blazing female voice, the book writes through the trauma of the family of origin, women's tug-of-war between family affection and selfhood, and people's repeated questioning of the proposition of "home."