Leaving Liangzhuang

Name: Leaving Liangzhuang
ISBN: 9787516809976

梁鸿Taihai Publishing House2016

4.2

Word count: 257K words
Chapters: 14
Series: The Liangzhuang Trilogy
ISBN: 9787516809976

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Summary

Leaving Liangzhuang is a work of nonfiction by Liang Hong that completes and complements her earlier book, China in Liangzhuang. Where the first book portrays the elderly, women and children who stayed behind, this one follows the villagers who left Liangzhuang and scattered across the country as migrant workers. Over more than two years the author traveled to Xi'an, Nanyang, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen and other places, visiting hundreds of Liangzhuang migrant workers in more than ten provinces and municipalities, and shaped the book from nearly two million characters of interview recordings and photographic and written materials. The book centers on 51 people, 26 of whom have worked away from home for over 20 years and 15 for over 10 years, with an average of about 16.7 years of migrant labor. The chapters are organized by city: the Deren Stronghold and street businesses of Xi'an; funerals, fortune-telling and pyramid schemes in Nanyang; pump calibration and blind dates in Inner Mongolia; "respectability" and lawsuits in Beijing; the "robots" on assembly lines in Zhengzhou; telephone salespeople and a nine-year-old worker in the south; the death of Xiaozhu and the fight for his rights in Qingdao; and finally the Spring Festival back in Liangzhuang. The author places each individual back within the community of Liangzhuang: how they left, how they moved on, how they made a living, how they saw the city and their hometown. Her questions go beyond suffering itself to how identity is prescribed and shaped. The prose is plain and restrained, yet it reveals the most detailed and most unavoidable side of contemporary China.

Editor's review

很多人是从《中国在梁庄》开始认识梁鸿与梁庄的，但那本书只写了一半的梁庄。留在村里的人被看见了，走出去的人却还在城市的缝隙里“隐形的在场”。《出梁庄记》补上的正是这一半：作者跟着乡亲的脚印，从西安的街头摊子一路走到青岛的工地与南方工厂，把散落在十几个城市里的梁庄人重新连成一个村庄。这本书的力量不在控诉，而在“在场”。她记录一个人怎样被欠薪、怎样打官司、怎样在出租屋里过年，也记录他们对“回不回去”的犹豫；写苦难时不渲染，写温情时不煽情。阎连科说，一个村庄遍布在一个国家，其足迹是一个民族命运的当代画像。读这本书，你会明白所谓“中国经验”并不抽象，它就藏在某个梁庄人在异乡的房租、工钱和一张回家的车票里。理想国这一版经过全面修订并增补新序，另附别册收录关于“梁庄”议题的评论与对谈，适合与《中国在梁庄》《梁庄十年》对读。

Who it's for

A good fit for

关注乡土中国、城乡流动与社会现实的非虚构读者
新闻传播、社会学、人类学等专业的学生与研究者
写作爱好者，想学习田野访谈与口述材料如何组织成文
从农村走进城市、对“故乡与异乡”有切身感受的读者

Not a good fit for

希望读到轻松故事或虚构情节的读者
对大量人物访谈、口述实录式叙述缺乏耐心的读者
期待系统理论分析而非个案记录的读者

Reading tips

先读“写在前面”与第一章，弄清梁庄的地理、人物关系与作者的写作动机，再进入各城市章节
可把书中的主要人物列一张简单关系表，随读随补，便于在十几个城市间串起同一批人的命运
与《中国在梁庄》《梁庄十年》按出版顺序对读，能看到同一村庄十余年间的变化
读完后不妨回想自己身边的外来务工者，把书里的追问带回现实，而不是止于感慨

About the publisher

Taihai Publishing House China · Founded in 1997

Founded in 1997 and based in Beijing, Taihai Publishing House takes “building cultural bridges and promoting cross-strait unity” as its mission, focusing on Taiwan-related studies, social sciences and humanities, Chinese and foreign history, and literature. Judging from the 709 titles in the database, its publishing centers on foreign literature and classic works, with attention to Eastern philosophy, architecture, and social culture. Representative books include Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha and Steppenwolf and the four-volume Hesse literary series, Liang Sicheng’s A History of Chinese Architecture, Lao She’s Teahouse (unabridged classic edition), Sun Wu’s The Art of War, and collections by W. Somerset Maugham, Yasunari Kawabata, and Yukio Mishima. Its authors include major foreign writers such as Hesse, Maugham, Kawabata, and Mishima, as well as Liang Sicheng, Lao She, and Sun Wu. Its publishing features complete presentation of classic texts and series-based organization of foreign literature; public information on its Taiwan-related studies titles and authors is limited.

Preface
Main Characters
Chapter One: Liangzhuang: Village Talk; Leaving Liangzhuang
Chapter Two: Xi'an: Deren Stronghold; Drifting; Robbery; A Fight; Little Angel; They Don't Want Us; Faking It; Shame
Chapter Three: Nanyang: A Funeral; Raindrops on the Eaves; The Fortune-Teller; Tradition; The Legend of Xiaohai; Joining Up; Pyramid Schemes
Chapter Four: Inner Mongolia: Henan Pump Calibration; White Teeth; Grudges; Pulling Up Seedlings; Blind Dates
Chapter Five: Beijing: Respectability; Walls; Henan Village; Going to Court; A Tree in the Yard; Millionaire; Security Guard
Chapter Six: Zhengzhou: "Machine" People; "The Autistic"; Phoenix Men; Fox Spirits
Chapter Seven: The South: I'm Not a Shenzhener; Telephone Salesperson; Behind Every Door Is a Factory; Building a Career; The Nine-Year-Old Worker; Back to Zero; The Eyeball Came Out
Chapter Eight: Qingdao: Xiaozhu; Cyanide; Ghost; The One in 2,000; Resistance; An Unnamed Death; The Forty-Year-Old "Old Woman"; The Last House in This Village
Chapter Nine: Spring Festival in Liangzhuang: "Old Party Committee"; Gou Guochen Sues the River God; Black Girl
Afterword
Appendix: Main Characters
Supplementary Booklet, Liangzhuang: Leaving Liangzhuang, Seeing China, and More

FAQ

《出梁庄记》和《中国在梁庄》是什么关系？

两书同属梁鸿的“梁庄”写作。《中国在梁庄》写留守在村的老人、妇女与儿童；《出梁庄记》写离开梁庄到各地打工的乡亲，追踪他们的工作、流转与心态。两书合起来才是完整的梁庄，建议按顺序阅读。

这本书是虚构小说吗？

不是。它属于非虚构写作，基于作者两年多、走访十余省市数百位打工者的访谈与图文资料整理而成，书中人物多为真实乡亲，只是部分姓名做了处理。因此阅读时更接近口述实录与社会观察。

不同版本有什么区别？

2013年花城出版社首版，2016年理想国·台海出版社推出精装修订版，增补新序并对图文做了修订，另附别册《梁庄》。2025年中信出版集团又出新版。版本信息请以实际版权页为准。

没有社会学背景能读懂吗？

完全可以。全书以人物故事和现场访谈为主，语言平实，几乎不用学术术语。作者的分析多融在叙述中，普通读者也能顺畅进入，反而是很好的社会观察入门读物。

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About the author

梁鸿 Author

Liang Hong is represented in this Chinese book database by three works, spanning such fields as social fiction, classic works, and medicine, which shows the range of the author's writing subjects. The representative works include Erosion, I Don't Want to Be Absent from Any Tragedy or Comedy in This World, and A Study on the Equity of Maternal and Child Health Services in China. The first two lean toward social fiction and classic works, focusing on the relationship between people and their real-life circumstances; the latter turns to medicine and public health, discussing equity in maternal and child health services. According to the available materials, Liang Hong's nationality, dates of birth and death, educational background, and personal experience are not clearly recorded, and public information is limited. A fuller understanding of the author and the works therefore awaits more reliable information; for now, only the works and categories in the database can outline the general contours of the author's writing.