Cleansing the Face

Name: Cleansing the Face
ISBN: 9787530683231

陶丽群Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House · ChinaFeb 2024

4.0

Word count: 41K words
Chapters: 6
ISBN: 9787530683231

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Summary

This is a realist novella by the renowned writer Tao Liqun, telling the daily life of Mo, an old woman who performs "face cleansing." The profession of face cleanser involves washing the bodies of the dying. Mo has done this work for over forty years, sending the dying away clean, yet she herself can hardly lead a normal life. She has had to learn to live with plants and animals that cannot speak, to live with loneliness and solitude, and to live with one illness after another. In this situation, the author uses quiet, meticulous prose to trace, bit by bit, the fate of Mo the face cleanser and to explore her process of coming to terms with her own destiny.

Editor's review

Tao Liqun's Clean Face is a quiet, profound collection of short stories that won the 8th Lu Xun Literary Prize in 2023. The work continues the author's consistent literary focus—turning her gaze to the customs of China's southwestern borderlands and the inner lives of ordinary people. The collection includes "Mother's Island," "Clean Face," and "Autumn Everywhere," which depict with delicate, restrained strokes the complex, resilient emotional bonds among women, family, and land.

As an editor, I believe the book's value lies not only in its literary honor but in the inward-looking narrative perspective it offers. Tao Liqun excels at uncovering the undercurrents of drama in seemingly ordinary daily life; her characters—whether women facing marital difficulties or individuals struggling between tradition and modernity—carry authentic and universal pain and dignity. Her writing has a "clean" quality: spare, precise, never sentimental, yet able to reach the heart in the smallest details. This narrative style makes heavy themes feel not oppressive but rather calm with the power of being understood and comforted.

For contemporary readers, Clean Face is like a freshly wiped mirror, allowing one to observe the neglected folds of oneself and the surrounding world. It does not offer answers but, through literature, invites readers to join in gazing at and contemplating life experience; its literary texture and intellectual depth are worth savoring repeatedly.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in contemporary serious literature that has won the Lu Xun Literary Prize
Literature lovers who appreciate delicate, restrained narratives rich in regional character
Readers concerned with women's destinies, family relationships, and rural change
Those who wish to engage in deep reflection and emotional resonance through reading amid a fast-paced life

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction who seek strong plots, fast pacing, and dramatic conflict
Readers impatient with rural narratives and quiet inner description

Reading tips

Read in a relatively quiet environment to better immerse yourself in the atmosphere and mood the work creates.
Try reading the stories separately, pausing after each to savor the details and lingering resonance.
Pay attention to how the author shapes character psychology and advances the narrative through small details such as everyday dialogue and environmental description—this is the essence of the book.

About the publisher

Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1958

Founded in August 1958 and restructured into Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. in 2009, Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House is known for publishing essays and fiction, and it hosts the journals Fiction Monthly and Essays. Its 757 titles in the library span classic works, culture, folk literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, foreign literature, and general biography. They include Lao She's Camel Xiangzi, Zhu Ziqing's selected essays and Classic Essays, Fu Lei's Twenty Lectures on Masterpieces of World Art, and a Chinese translation of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Rashōmon, as well as cultural and performing-arts titles such as the illustrated Biography of Liang Qichao and A Dictionary of Crosstalk. Its authors include Lao She, Zhu Ziqing, Wu Qichang, Fu Lei, Xue Baokun, Gao Yucong, Wei Zhiqiang, and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.

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FAQ

What is the theme of this book?

The book mainly explores the living conditions of ordinary people in the borderlands, focusing especially on women's resilience, dilemmas, and spiritual pursuits in family, society, and self-identity, while deeply portraying the complex relationship between people and land, tradition and modernity.

What is the author's writing style?

Tao Liqun's style is known for being delicate, quiet, and restrained. She excels at using precise details and plain description, embedding profound emotional tension and reflections on life within ordinary daily narrative; her language is clean and weighty.

Is this book suitable as an introduction to literature?

This is an excellent work of contemporary literary fiction, but for beginners its quiet, restrained narrative may require some patience. It is better suited to readers with some experience of literary reading who are willing to chew over the text deeply and engage emotionally.

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About the author

陶丽群 Author

Tao Liqun is a contemporary Chinese-language fiction author about whom little public information is available. Two works by this author are currently held in the database: Jing Lian (Clean Face) and Wanwu Cibei (All Things Are Compassionate). Both are classified on the site as social fiction, suggesting that the author's focus lies in real life and the human condition rather than in fantasy or genre-driven storytelling. Judging from the titles and the classification, the author appears to be concerned with how ordinary people navigate social relationships, dignity, and emotional shifts, and the writing may tend toward calm restraint, revealing inner lives through everyday detail. Because reliable information on biography, nationality, and awards is unavailable, no inferences are made here; this note addresses only the works themselves. Readers wishing to understand the author's style may begin with these two social novels and note their observation of lived experience and their treatment of human warmth.