{"product_id":"the-king-of-trees-9780811218665","title":"The King of Trees","description":"When the three novellas in \u003cem\u003eThe King of Trees\u003c\/em\u003e were published separately in China in the 1980s, \"Ah Cheng fever\" spread across the country. Never before had a fiction writer dealt with the Cultural Revolution in such Daoist-Confucian terms, discarding Mao-speak, and mixing both traditional and vernacular elements with an aesthetic that emphasized not the hardships and miseries of those years, but the joys of close, meaningful friendships. In \u003cem\u003eThe King of Chess\u003c\/em\u003e, a student's obsession with finding worthy chess opponents symbolizes his pursuit of the dao; in \u003cem\u003eThe King of Children\u003c\/em\u003e--made into an award-winning film by Chen Kaige, the director of \u003cem\u003eFarewell My Concubine--\u003c\/em\u003ean educated youth is sent to teach at an impoverished village school where one boy's devotion to learning is so great he is ready to spend 500 days copying his teacher's dictionary; and in the title novella a peasant's innate connection to a giant primeval tree takes a tragic turn when a group of educated youth arrive to clear the mountain forest. \u003cem\u003eThe King of Trees\u003c\/em\u003e is a masterpiece of world literature, full of passion and noble emotions that stir the inner chambers of the heart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCheng, Ah:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eAh Cheng\u003c\/strong\u003e, born in Beijing in 1949, is the pen name of Zhong Acheng. An accomplished fiction writer, painter, and screenwriter, Ah Cheng spent the Cultural Revolution in a small village in Inner Mongolia, where he painted the sheep and grasslands, and then on a State Farm in Yunnan province. During the 1980s he came to prominence as a member of the \"primitive\" or \"seeking roots\" literary movement. In 1992 he received the Italian Nonino International Prize for his writings, and in 1995 his \u003cem\u003eVenetian Diary\u003c\/em\u003e was honored in Taiwan. He has lived in several countries including the U.S., often not writing and working various jobs such as fixing bicycles and house painting. In recent years he has lived on the outskirts of Beijing and though he refuses to publish, he continues to write.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50461264609554,"sku":"9780811218665","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_20c0c3db-0059-400c-b4a5-fc0efa1e7caf.jpg?v=1730061779","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-king-of-trees-9780811218665","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}