Official Career I
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Summary
This is a political novel of officialdom. Qiao Buqun, director of the comprehensive division of the Taolin Municipal Government Research Office, is a man of outstanding talent and by all rights the obvious choice for director of the government office's comprehensive division—yet he is shunted off to serve as a deputy director in the government office's discipline inspection and supervision office.
This is a third-tier office, far from the leadership and the core of power, and his career prospects are grim. Qiao Buqun, a scholar at heart, had once disdained climbing the official ladder, but the realities of life eventually made him recognize that a person needs to strive for advancement.
On this platform Qiao Buqun throws himself into his work and achieves results, and by deftly leveraging certain connections he once again comes to the leadership's attention. Before long he is promoted to Party member of the government office and head of the discipline inspection group…
Qiao Buqun's former colleague at the policy research office and friend Qin Huaihe passes the provincial newspaper exam and becomes a reporter, while Cai Runshen, director of the secretariat division of the policy research office, proves highly adept at scheming and astonishingly latches onto Executive Vice Mayor Fu Disheng, a towering figure. The three young men of officialdom each set off down a different career path…
In this sprawling novel, the author uses the raw ecology of office life as his backdrop and Qiao Buqun's turbulent career as his throughline, objectively and faithfully recreating how great officials and petty functionaries, tycoons and ordinary folk both inside and outside the halls of power approach and pursue power, money, and beauty in their differing ways, laying before the reader a vivid, endlessly varied and entertaining panorama of office life and human affairs that will leave them utterly engrossed.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in exploring contemporary Chinese social structure and bureaucratic culture
- Literary fans who enjoy realist fiction and seek depth and authenticity
- Working professionals within the system or large organizations who wish to reflect on their own situation through literature
- Adult readers with some social experience who can appreciate the complex human relationships and strategic wisdom in the work
Not a good fit for
- Casual readers seeking light entertainment and fast-paced plotting
- Young readers with little interest in officialdom or politics, or limited social experience
Reading tips
- Read it as a cross-section of society rather than a simple story, and focus on the institutional and cultural logic behind the characters' actions.
- Compare the book's depictions with your own observations of organizational behavior; deeper resonance and insight may follow.
- Don't rush the plot—the extensive dialogue and detail are key to building atmosphere and revealing the rules, and deserve careful savoring.
About the publisher
Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House is a publisher known for its literary titles, with a catalogue spanning foreign literature, world classics, classical Chinese literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and mystery and detective fiction. Judging from the more than 1,100 books in the database, the press publishes foreign classics such as Crime and Punishment, Snow Country, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Letter from an Unknown Woman, as well as Chinese classical and modern literary works including Lu Xun's Wandering and A Madman's Diary and Wu Jingzi's The Scholars. In terms of translators and authors, translations by Cao Guowei and Tan Jinghua appear in its foreign literature titles, and the authors involved include Dostoevsky, Kawabata Yasunari, Conan Doyle and Zweig. Its publishing character lies in introducing Chinese and foreign literary classics side by side, balancing popular and serious works and attending to both readability and literary value. Public information is limited; the above is a brief overview based solely on the books in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 领导也是人（自序）
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
- 六
- 七
- 八
- 九
- 十
- 十一
- 十二
- 十三
- 十四
- 十五
- 十六
- 十七
- 十八
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About the author
Xiao Renfu (born 1960) is a Miao writer from Chengbu, Hunan, and a member of the China Writers Association. He formerly served as vice chairman of the Shaoyang Federation of Literary and Art Circles and chairman of the city's Writers Association. Drawing on institutional life and social reality, his fiction focuses on officialdom and the ups and downs of bureaucratic careers, rendering the workings of power and human nature through closely observed personal and professional relationships. His novels include Guan Yun, Weizhi, Xinfu, Daiyu and Shitu, as well as the historical novel Li Hongzhang; 17 of his works are held in this collection. Known for his sustained engagement with institutional themes, he has been called "the foremost writer of Chinese office novels." His work spans social fiction and historical narrative, combining accessible storytelling with sober observation of contemporary reality.
