Capitalism In Qiu Xialong's Years Of Red Dust

Of the many sources used to trace Shanghai’s rich history, Qiu Xialong’s Years of Red Dust presents a unique perspective as a fictional historical work comprising of several short stories over several years beginning with 1949. With each section in the latter half of the book, Xialong offers a short narrative which weaves a theme of Shanghai’s history during the reform and modern period. Specifically, the chapters “Confucius and Crab” and “Eating and Drinking Salesman,” illuminate the role of Capitalism in Shanghai’s modern history by presenting the crab and hunger metaphors, respectively,
In the chapter of “Confucius and Crab,” the character Aiguo is a retired school teacher with a constant but pointless yearning for crabs, as their prices have skyrocketed. His young son Xiaoguo, also yearning to taste crab, finds one escaping a home where a banquet of sacrifice …show more content…
This contest is where Wei’s doctrine, “Some eat to live, I live to eat,” becomes an irrefutable truth as he places his life in danger to win. As a character with an insatiable hunger, Wei is presented as a metaphor for Shanghai’s revitalized hunger for fat, capitalist supplementary food to socialism. Furthermore, the description of the banquet with its exotic foods and grotesque description of the monkey’s brain being eaten, hint a gruesome image of Shanghai’s hunger. Prior to 1949, Shanghai has been studied by several historians for its capitalistic grandeur in pieces such r (bergere). In the 21st century, the chapter suggests that Shanghai reverting to its prominent consumer culture with a voracious appetite. With the conclusion of the chapter, Wei returns home a champion, ready to consume his next