The True Story of Ah Q (AmazonClassics Edition)

By: Lu Xun, George Kin Leung - translator

Narrated by: Robert Wu

Ah Q is an indolent and spiteful man from the rural peasant class. He has scant education, no clear job, and a ludicrously high opinion of himself. This unique combination of traits makes him a perpetual target of derision and abuse, yet Ah Q is nonetheless convinced that the indignities leveled against him amount to something of a “spiritual victory” - even as he finds himself succumbing to the tyranny of his oppressors. An anarchic satire and one of the first works of fiction to fully utilize modern vernacular Chinese, The True Story of Ah Q was a sensation upon publication and immediately established Lu Xun as a radical literary voice for twentieth-century Asia.

Revised edition: Previously published as The True Story of Ah Q, this edition of The True Story of Ah Q (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Public Domain (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Requires Context to Appreciate

If I were to sum it up, this novella is about a Chinese male Karen and his audacity. Very tongue in cheek, short and sweet.

This is one of those classics that I think needs some cultural context to appreciate. If you're coming from a purely Western POV, then some of the terms are hard to understand. Some title names are still in Chinese and if you don't know about Chinese social classes of the time, it's hard to contextualize. Also, some familiar terms are not the same in Chinese culture. The nun character comes to mind- she's not a Catholic nun, she's a Buddhist nun. Overall, I like the narrator and the story was fun. I think adding some supplementary material in the recommended section or some clarification about the era in the description would be helpful if someone wants to look things up.