Massage

Massage is a novel by Bi Feiyu, published by People's Literature Publishing House in 2008 and awarded the 8th Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2011. Centered on a massage parlor in Nanjing called the Sha Zongqi Blind Massage Center, the novel depicts the daily life, labor, emotions, and dignity of a group of blind massage therapists. The two front-desk owners, Sha Fuming and Zhang Zongqi, are ambitious, run the shop as partners, and yet guard against each other. Doctor Wang brings his girlfriend Xiao Kong back to Nanjing from Shenzhen, worrying about marriage and making a living. Xiao Ma, because of an unintentional joke from Xiao Kong, falls into a struggle between desire and ethics. Jin Yan travels far to follow Xu Tailai, whom she has long loved unrequitedly. Du Hong is the therapist most sought after by customers, yet she can never accept a beauty that invites pity. A front-desk conflict over the distribution of meals exposes the rift between the partners and brings each person's secrets, calculations, and warmth to the fore. The novel uses multiple alternating voices; each chapter is named after a character, letting readers enter in turn the inner worlds of different blind people. It shows how they manage life and fight for dignity in a place without light, and shows that they, like sighted people, have desires, vanity, and calculations. The work does not treat blind people as symbols in need of pity but lets them live their lives steadily, which makes it especially vivid and comforting.