Which do you recommend? Modern Chinese literature.

[Nightingale]

I'm considering reading one of the following books and was curious whether anyone here had recommendations:

• To Live by Yu Hua
• Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
• Red Sorghum by Mo Yan
• Raise the Red Lantern by Su Tong
• Waiting by Ha Jin
• One Man's Bible by Gao Xingjian
• Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian

I'm specifically hoping to find something that features a heavy historical component, dealing with the cultural revolution and the transition to communism. Anything that deals heavily with life in later-day communist China is also interesting.

I'm aware that most of these books fit this criteria, but I assume that the degree varies. I'd be willing to bet that some are just dramas set against a historical background whereas others are true "historical fiction," where the historical context plays a conscious and active role in the plot. The latter kind of story is what I hope to find among these.

Thank you very much.

[teslashark]

Hi, I haven't read any of them, but I consulted my mother and she strongly recomends To Live by Yu Hua, and One Man's Bible by Gao Xingjian is a good choice, too.
She says Red Sorghum and Raise the Red Lantern are historical drama, as you put it, about stories before 1949 and have nothing to do with the cultural revolution.

[Nightingale]

Thanks for the help! Please give my thanks to your mother.