Paper Horse

Name: Paper Horse
ISBN: 9787533975890

默音Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House · ChinaOct 2024

3.8

Word count: 307K words
Chapters: 26
ISBN: 9787533975890

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Summary

Jiama is Mo Yin's representative novel. Jiama is not a horse but a woodblock print used by the people of Yunnan to pray for blessings; for Xie Ye's family, jiama is also "a wordless letter to the other shore." In the family, those with the ability to "dream" can use jiama to glimpse others' pasts and heal those trapped in the present. At nineteen, Xie Ye leaves Yunnan for Shanghai to study, and another purpose of his journey is to find his birth mother. By chance, he sees a photo of his granduncle in a family photograph belonging to university professor Su Huaishu. What is the professor's connection to his own family? Why did his mother abandon the family, returning to Shanghai right after giving birth to him and vanishing without a trace? What happened at the wartime Southwest Associated University and the Jinghong Farm that changed the fate of his father's generation? With jiama's help, Xie Ye tries to piece together the past and find its connection to the present. As the past gradually comes into focus, family secrets he never anticipated surface one after another...

Editor's review

Jiama is a deeply considered work that author Mo Yin spent eight years creating. It is not a fantasy or historical novel in the conventional sense, but a heartfelt narrative that uses the "jiama paper" of Yunnan's Bai ethnic culture as a unique image to move between family memory and historical fault lines. The book received a high rating of 8.4 on Douban, stemming from its quiet yet tension-filled literary quality. Author Mo Yin is proficient in Japanese translation, and her writing combines the restraint of Eastern classical style with the broad perspective of foreign cultures, giving Jiama's narrative both solid cultural research and light-footed imagination. Through sheets of "jiama paper" endowed with mysterious functions such as "hiding form" and "summoning souls," the book deftly connects the fates of three generations across the National Southwestern Associated University period, the educated youth years, and contemporary Shanghai. The editor believes the book's core value lies in its patience, akin to anthropological fieldwork, in salvaging and reconstructing individual life histories and emotional folds obscured by grand narratives. It explores not exotic customs but the transmission of memory, the search for identity, and the private writing of history. Reading it requires some patience, but its dense, meticulous prose and interlocking structure ultimately deliver an immersive, soul-touching reading experience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the fates of ordinary people within modern historical episodes such as the National Southwestern Associated University and the educated youth period
Readers who enjoy regional family narratives like Blossoms, or works with cultural root-seeking elements like The Right Bank of the Argun
Literary enthusiasts who appreciate delicate prose, intricate structure, and can enjoy a slow-paced reading process
Explorers curious about anthropological topics such as Yunnan folk customs and shamanic culture

Not a good fit for

Entertainment-oriented readers seeking strong plot, fast pacing, and clear dramatic conflict
Readers who find nonlinear narration and frequent time-space shifts impatient or confusing

Reading tips

While reading, pay attention to the revelation of the different functions of "jiama" as a cultural symbol; it is the key metaphor for understanding the book's structure.
Try to view the clues scattered across different eras as pieces of a puzzle, and enjoy the epiphany when they finally converge into a complete family map.
If you are unfamiliar with the Yunnan historical background involved, take a moment to look it up between reading sessions to deepen your appreciation of the text's weight.

About the publisher

Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House is a Chinese publisher specializing in literary publishing. Judging from the 808 titles in the database, its publishing areas cover world classics, foreign literature, social novels, folk literature and classic works, as well as modern and contemporary literature and prose. Representative titles include foreign literary translations such as Anna Karenina, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, In Praise of Shadows and The Complete Tragedies and Comedies of Shakespeare, alongside classic works by Lao She and Lu Xun such as Camel Xiangzi, Teahouse and Wandering. Its authors and translators include Leo Tolstoy, Cao Ying, Lao She, Yukio Mishima, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Zhu Shenghao. The press emphasizes the translation and introduction of classic texts and the compilation of native literary works, giving equal weight to Chinese and foreign literature. Owing to limited public information, its specific series and editorial policies are not elaborated here.

版权信息
第一部分上海 1998
1. 烧甲马的男孩
2. 邂逅
3. 故人
4. 厄运之眼
5. 女人
6. “追魂”
第二部分昆明 1941
1. 烧甲马的男人
2. 预言与流言
3. “替身”
第三部分上海 1998
1. 甲马的伤害
2. 记忆的必要性
3. 疗愈者
4. 红石
5. “虚空过往”
第四部分景洪东风农场—弥渡—上海 1975—1979
1. 丧失甲马的男人
2. 从勐龙河到毗雌河
3. “非虎”
4. 墙内的庄周
5. “哭神”
尾声上海 1999
附录苏怀殊1941年的日记

FAQ

What exactly does the title Jiama refer to?

"Jiama," also known as "jiama paper," are woodblock-printed paper talismans used in folk sacrifices in Yunnan and other regions to pray for blessings and ward off disasters. In the book, they are endowed with the mysterious functions of connecting to the past and summoning memories, serving as the soul image and narrative thread throughout.

Is this book a historical novel or a fantasy novel?

It leans more toward literary fiction with magical realist colors. Although there is a fantastical premise of jiama communing with spirits, the core is realistic, aiming to explore individual memory, trauma, and transmission against a real historical backdrop; the fantastical elements serve profound historical and emotional expression.

Is the reading threshold high? Do I need to know a lot of history?

The book is highly literary and requires some reading patience. The author has incorporated necessary background information into the narrative, so direct reading poses no obstacles. However, a basic understanding of the National Southwestern Associated University and educated youth history will help you more keenly capture the text's deeper historical echoes.

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About the author

默音 Author

Moyin is a writer about whom little public information is available; her nationality, dates of birth and death, and English name have not been clearly recorded. Four of her works are held in the collection: Her Life, Collected Works of Moyin (two-volume set), The Weight of the Pen, and Jiama. They span social fiction, prose and miscellaneous writings, and narratives with a flavor of otherworldly continents, and are also grouped under classic works. Taken together, these works suggest a writer who moves between close observation of real life and imaginative world-building: on the one hand attending to the everyday circumstances and emotional experience of ordinary people, on the other showing an interest in surreal premises. This tendency to cross between realism and fantasy gives her writing a relatively varied character among comparable Chinese works. Because verifiable biographical information is limited, any judgment of her style and influence must await further material.