Cloud and Mist Town

老九Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House · ChinaAug 2026

Rating 3.0
Word count
223K words
Chapters
39
ISBN
9787532179961

Tags

Social Fiction Portrait GalleryStreet LifeGrassroots PortraitsVeteranWomen of the NightComplex HumanityDesire and StruggleSocial CritiqueDocumentary NarrativeTurbulent Era

Summary

Told in a documentary style, the novel follows two unusual groups—demobilized soldiers led by the protagonist Brother Five and women of the demimonde—as its main threads, portraying the many characters of Yunwu Town, from government leaders and officials at every level, merchants and bosses, down to ordinary townsfolk, villagers, and migrant workers. It depicts the joys and sorrows and extraordinary fortunes of the women; the absurdity and shamelessness of some officials; and the hardships and compromises, desires and aspirations of the common people. All manner of social forces collide and mingle here, with endless rights and wrongs, grudges and debts of gratitude.

Recording everyday town life, the author sketches a panorama of ordinary people at the bottom of society against the historical backdrop of a turn of the century. The work also weaves in a wealth of folk ballads, proverbs, and allusions that linger in the mind, giving it a rich flavor of life and strong local character.

Editor's review

"Yunwu Town" is writer Lao Jiu's latest novel. Set in a fictional small town in southern China, it weaves a panorama of social change spanning half a century. Through delicate prose and a distinctive narrative structure, the work tightly interlaces individual fates with the tide of the times, portraying ordinary people's perseverance, struggles, and transformation amid the fog of history.

As a novel with a strong realist flavor, the literary value of "Yunwu Town" first lies in its solid detail. The author's depiction of the town's scenery and social customs is incisive, creating a reading atmosphere that is both authentic and slightly alienated. Second, the novel adopts a multi-strand narrative; several seemingly independent storylines ultimately converge at key points, revealing hidden and profound connections among the characters. This structural ingenuity enhances the text's layering and room for interpretation.

Reading this book, readers can not only follow the characters' footsteps and feel the pulse of changing times, but also appreciate the author's deep insight into the complexity of human nature. There is no absolute opposition between good and evil; every character faces their own dilemmas and choices under specific circumstances, and their stories together form a deep elegy about memory, forgetting, and reconciliation. For readers who love literary quality and seek a deep reading experience, "Yunwu Town" is undoubtedly a work worth savoring repeatedly.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read in a relatively quiet setting to immerse yourself in the atmosphere the novel creates
  2. Pay attention to recurring images (such as clouds and mist, the river, the old house), as they often carry symbolic meaning
  3. Pause briefly after each chapter to consider the relationship between characters' motivations and the historical context

About the publisher

Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1952

Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House takes modern and contemporary Chinese literature and folk literature as important publishing directions, while also covering social novels, classic works, and prose and miscellaneous writings, and has long introduced foreign literature and philosophical works. Its books include masterpieces such as Lao She's Teahouse and Camel Xiangzi, Lu Xun's Call to Arms and Wandering and Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk, and Xiao Hong's Tales of Hulan River, as well as translations such as Gilles Deleuze's Nietzsche and Philosophy, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Pillars of the Earth trilogy. Its authors include Lao She, Lu Xun, Xiao Hong, Zhou Ying, Liu Yuyu, and Jiang Yi, reflecting a publishing character that balances original literature, academic translation, and general reading.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 第一章 家乡古镇
  3. 第二章 为了生计
  4. 第三章 军队生活
  5. 第四章 退伍返乡
  6. 第五章 矿山打工
  7. 第六章 邂逅老同学
  8. 第七章 筹备歌厅
  9. 第八章 招兵买马
  10. 第九章 歌厅开业
  11. 第十章 青妮
  12. 第十一章 会议总结
  13. 第十二章 黑大姐
  14. 第十三章 洋老鼠
  15. 第十四章 十三妹
  16. 第十五章 小芳
  17. 第十六章 凤儿
  18. 第十七章 花儿
  19. 第十八章 羊羊
  20. 第十九章 鸽子
  21. 第二十章 采花郎
  22. 第二十一章 燕子
  23. 第二十二章 大洋马
  24. 第二十三章 小纤
  25. 第二十四章 英
  26. 第二十五章 曼丽
  27. 第二十六章 苏小小
  28. 第二十七章 二灿
  29. 第二十八章 佳佳
  30. 第二十九章 浪浪
  31. 第三十章 小梅
  32. 第三十一章 白虎
  33. 第三十二章 船长
  34. 第三十三章 胖妞
  35. 第三十四章 小鱼
  36. 第三十五章 果果
  37. 第三十六章 闹鬼
  38. 第三十七章 落幕
  39. 后记

FAQ

Is this book a mystery novel? Cloud Mist Town is not a mystery novel in the traditional sense. Although it contains suspense, its core lies in revealing the depth of history and society through the characters' fates; its literary and intellectual qualities outweigh dramatic plotting.
Has the author Lao Jiu written other well-known works? Lao Jiu is a writer who has attracted considerable attention in recent years, known for a solid realist style that focuses on how ordinary people live amid great historical change. Cloud Mist Town is a full-length novel he worked on for many years.
How difficult is the novel to read? The language is highly literary and the narrative pace is slow, requiring some patience. But the characters are vivid and the emotions sincere, and once you enter the story's world, the reading experience is deeply rewarding.

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About the author

老九 Author

Lao Jiu is an author included in the Chinese book database, but publicly available information about him is limited. His nationality, dates of birth and death, real name, and English name are not clearly recorded, and the only verified work in the database is the single title Yunwu Town (Cloud and Mist Town). This work is classified as a social novel, suggesting that his writing focuses on the circumstances of characters and changing relationships in real social life, with a small town or a particular community as the narrative space. Based on the available information, Lao Jiu's writing remains at the stage of having one work included, and readers cannot yet form a complete picture of his overall creative trajectory, stylistic development, or output. As the only confirmed representative work so far, Yunwu Town is the main entry point for understanding this author, and its subject matter shows the basic features of social fiction, namely using a specific place and the fate of its characters to reflect broader social realities. Because the materials are limited, Lao Jiu's biography, writing experience, and literary influence still await more works and public information.