The Wedding Party

by Liu Xinwu and Jeremy Tiang (translator)

The Wedding Party is a novel by Liu Xinwu which was published in 1984, not many years after the beginning of China’s reform and opening up under Deng Xiaoping and less than a decade after the end of the Cultural Revolution. The setting is a courtyard house in Beijing, near the Bell and Drum Towers (which is the Chinese title of the book). The action all takes place in one day, with a large cast of characters, as one of the families living in the courtyard holds a wedding. Even though the novel has no grand plot holding it together, as a snapshot of an era in China’s history and some people’s experience of it, it’s very evocative. It’s also quite funny, with some very memorable characters.