Rating: 3.75-4.25/5 ⭐

#BookReview:
✨Thank you to Columbia University Press and #NetGalley for this #ARC! This review was voluntarily written by me. This book is a part of the Weatherhead Books on Asia series.
✨Sincerely speaking, #SoftBurial is truly a heavy read for me. It is really difficult to articulate my thoughts in this review due to a lot of factors.
✨This book is a book that you have to devour slowly and makes you think with both your heart and mind.
✨This story is painfully slow around the first three-fifths of the story but getting faster and hard-hitting at some parts nearing the end. This is due to revelations in the last two-fifths of the book.
✨The backdrop of this book is the Land Reform Movement in China in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. So, nearly all events and characters here (especially old ones) have stories during the movement.
✨The main theme is soft burial. There are several definitions for this term that are described in this book, but to my understanding, soft burial is about ignoring or forgetting or leaving the painful history at the back of their mind, especially for those who lived during that era.
✨Hence, the main question of this book is if we get to know about a painful event or history, how will we react to this?
✨If anyone asked me this question, I’m still not sure what my answer is.
✨Spoiler alert: If I am a normal person, I may choose the protagonist's son's decision. However, the researcher in me may follow his friend’s way by recording the history but in an academic-like way. Well, the truth has many sides right?
✨Despite sometimes quite lengthy descriptions, I like how the authors weaved all these characters together via their stories plus the ways she introduced the past to readers.
✨Yet, I’m still regretful (spoiler alert!) that only us, the readers that managed to patch everything up at the end instead of the son’s himself. Well…
✨In conclusion, I recommend this book for any literary fiction, historical and/or translated fiction fans that want to have a read that makes you think about a movement/event and its outcomes. Who’s badly affected and who’s gained advantage from it?

According to this novel, a soft burial is when a person is buried without a coffin, directly in the ground. There are implications: their soul never really rests, and they cannot be reincarnated. The translator’s introduction also introduces readers to the concept of mingzhe baoshen: “Put your own safety before matters of principle,” also understood as “Keep your mouth shut and stay out of trouble.”

*Soft Burial* probes the absences and silences that are part of traumatic memories. It deals with the period of Land Reform in China—after the Second Sino-Japanese War, and before the Cultural Revolution. In a coda, Fang Fang explains that although this is fiction, it is based in large part on the experiences of one woman—her friend’s mother—but also on the experiences of the generation of Fang Fang’s grandparents: people who were accused of being “evil landowners” in denunciation meetings and “struggled against,” or punished for it. The translator’s introduction also reveals that *Soft Burial* has itself suffered one, being removed from shelves in China and denunciated—for its inquiry into what must remain undiscussed and forgotten.

The structure of *Soft Burial* is intriguing: it unspools backwards through time as it reveals what happened to Ding Zitao, the main character of the novel. Ding Zitao is approaching the end of her long and complicated life that has been separated into two distinct parts by repressed trauma from terrible violence, the trauma that led to her profound amnesia. That amnesia can be considered a form of mingzhe baoshen, something that many other characters in the novel choose—including Din Zitao’s son, Qinglin.

*Soft Burial* is a moving and searing portrayal of the terrible costs of the Land Reform Campaign and its ripple effects in the lives of these characters—Ding Zitao, her families past and present, landowners and villagers in Eastern Sichuan, as well as party officials. Fang Fang is subtle, not making accusations, but the outcome for all of the people involved speaks for itself.

“History is not the past,” Baldwin said. “It is the present.” This is true of this novel. Although Fang Fang has used fiction to talk about the events of the Land Reform Campaign, the soft banning of her novel shows how sensitive those in power still are to the implications of those events, and how they may reflect on the image of the ruling party.

To be put into the earth without a coffin and have your body placed directly into the dirt is one kind of soft burial; but when the living insist on consciously or unconsciously cutting themselves off from what happened, covering up the past, abandoning history, and refusing to remember, this is another form of soft burial committed over the passage of time. And once the past has been committed to a soft burial, it will likely lie there generation after generation, forgotten for all eternity. —Fang Fang

A beautiful, if difficult read. Highly recommended for its portrayal of the silenced history. Many thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for early access to a DRC.

Soft Burial draws on the brutal and deadly land reform movement of Maoist China which caused the deaths of many labelled as being landlords even if the supported the communist movement and the subsequent lasting trauma from it, through the lens of the son of couple Ding Zitao and Dr. Wu uncovering the traumatic past through his dad's diary notebooks made during the time and his mother's strange ramblings before she enters a vegetative state after moving into a new home and ultimately left with the choice to learn his parents true pasts or to leave it dead and buried.

An interesting read and observation on society and how China especially has an uncomfortable history of censorship and self censorship as a means to forget and keep the peace.

Thank you for the e-ARC Columbia University Press & Netgalley in exchange for my review, I really enjoyed Fang Fang and Berry's translated work.

A literary fiction novel in lots of short chapters. Like "All the Light we cannot see", this novel has chapters which flick between narrators and time periods but which gradually come together. The narrative starts in the present day before moving back to the events of the land reform and the violent purging of landlords in some districts in kangaroo courts. The survivors of these purges carry the trauma with them into the present. As a survival mechanism, they've chosen not to remember them (give them a soft burial). By writing about them, Fang Fang has chosen to remember and the very act of doing so has seen her book banned in China.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

First of all this did not need to be this long. It really could have done with being edited down by about 100-200 pages

That being said, I thought it was a really compelling story. I was invested in where it was going naturally felt a bit disappointed when I got to the end that we didn’t really find out what happened to her first son.

Side note, Qinling truly did not need a wife and son in this. He never saw them and they were so irrelevant to the plot.

Overall a good read that I learnt a lot from.

Soft Burial – the process of placing a deceased one directly into the ground without a coffin. The novel and the events that unfold, performs a thought experiment – fictionalizing the politics through the perspective of a respectable clan who owned tea estates. This fictional family’s days leading to their “purge” where peasants, villagers rebelled and revolted against the upper classmen (beating, looting etc.), offers a nuance to the process where a good idea can have catastrophic impact when not implemented correctly. As this idea, this thought process, questioned the execution of such practices, the book came under severe scrutiny and heavy criticism. Though it was released to an almost universal critical acclaim, it soon became taboo and the bookstores across the country took the book down, enforcing the ban that came upon it.
The irony is this – many people post reforms and cultural revolution adopted to be silent for the sake of safety and existing peacefully and all those who once praised the book, were quiet when the book was torn apart as harmful in sentiments. This criticism isn’t unique to just one geography – this is universal in nature. While in some places more people show support to opposing voices, many remain quiet without supporting or opposing anything.
Fang Fang uses this idea and ties it to the families and descendants decades later, the generational trauma that they carry and the silence across the subject that makes working through it even more difficult.

As a work of fiction, Soft Burial goes far by emotionally connecting people from all sides of conflict and telling their stories instead of reducing events to a historical account.

This novel was slow to start but the last third was gripping and kept me up really late.

We follow Qinlin after his father's death, as he tries to uncover his father's secrets and his mother, Zing, who had always been a mysterious figure but has suddenly fallen into a vegetative state just after moving in with him. We learned already at the start of the novel that his father, a doctor, saved her when villagers found her injured and nearly drowned with complete amnesia, possibly brought by the trauma of the Land Reforms but Qinlin is trying to find out more - who was her family, where did she come from? What happened to her and does she still have living relatives?

We also follow a few other families linked to them so at times it can be confusing to keep up with multiple characters sharing the same last name, and the timelines are all interwoven, but even if it took a while for the story to get going, I ended up finding it really interesting and I am glad I didn't give up. The translation could have been better overall, it was decent but felt very repetitive within paragraphs at times.

Free ARC sent by Netgalley.

‘Soft Burial’ by Fang Fang is a novel of historical fiction based in China, which is right up my alley, so I was excited to read it. It is a dual narrative—Ding Zitao reflects on her past and her son Qinglin searches for answers in a past he knew nothing about.
We find out that in the past, Ding Zitao had her life saved by Dr Wu and has no recollection of who she was before she was saved from the river. Dr Wu later marries our protagonist and father Qinglin. While both parents choose to keep their pasts private, telling their son they were both orphans; Qinglin learns about some of it after his father's passing, but is not sure how far he wants to go to learn the truth.
As Ding’s amnesia seems to be lifting, randomly remembering some of the repressed memories she has of her past; Qinglin tried to put the pieces together in the hope of finding out more about his parents and himself. Soft Burial is defined as being placed directly into the earth without a coffin, which becomes known as you read through the novel.
This also ties in with the historical event that Fang addresses in their book. The Land Reform Movement in China happened between 1946 and 1953, it was a movement led by the communist party during the ending of the Chinese Civil War. It focused on land redistribution to the lower class, while landlords who had a percentage of their income came from exploitation of those in the lower class. The landlords had their land taken from them and were also subject to murder by the communist party, as well as their former tenants; imprisoned or sent to labour camps.
Those that survived through this period rarely speak about the experiences they witnessed, so the novel; although focusing on a real event, is mainly based on the knowledge that Fang has about this, and what they sourced. Upon its original release in its native language of Chinese, the Chinese government banned the book due to the nature of the topic that Fang had written about, but the statement of Fang’s writing still stands as it is now being released as a translated historical fiction book in English.
Speaking of this, Ding Zitao was a witness to the Land Reform Movement and therefore it is understandable why the memories are repressed so much and are only coming to surface in her later stages of life, where she is ready to start accepting parts of her past. This book shows that preserving history, no matter how horrifying – is important; so not as to repeat it in the future and we can also be educated about things we would not necessarily learn about otherwise.
I enjoyed this book although I did think it was a bit too long in some parts, and the dual narrative was a bit confusing at times I generally do not like dual narratives as a whole anyway. However, I enjoy historical fiction, especially about countries and continents outside of Europe, so I persevered with this book and I am glad I did. I would love to read an audio version of this as I believe a more emersed reading of this book would be really interesting and enjoyable.

Soft Burial is a historical fiction novel that weaves in a mystery. Ding Zitao is pulled from a river after nearly drowning, and when she regains consciousness in the hospital, she finds herself with total amnesia. No one knows how she ended up in that situation, and no family members come forward. Dr. Wu, who treats her, gives her the name Ding Zitao. As she starts a new life, she grapples with anxiety and depression, though she can't quite pinpoint the reason. She suspects she has endured significant trauma but chooses to bury her past and live a quiet life.

As she ages, memories begin to resurface, and while she appears to be in a vegetative state, she is internally revisiting the traumas of her earlier years. At the same time, her son embarks on a quest to uncover the secrets of his parents' past, hoping to understand his own origins. However, some truths are too painful to confront, and we all face the choice of whether to remember or to embrace the comfort of a peaceful existence.

Upon its release in 2016, Soft Burial was quickly banned in China. The novel depicts the brutal realities of the land reform movement in post-WWII Maoist China and the generational trauma it inflicted. As the Chinese Communist Party aggressively pursues reforms, 50 million property owners are labeled as landlords, leading to the execution of 2 million private owners, imprisonment of 10 million, and the rest sent to labor camps. All private property is seized by the state.

Fang Fang delivers a compelling narrative that explores the impact of these sweeping reforms on individuals and society as a whole. The mystery aspect adds an engaging twist to the story. While the writing is solid, some parts feel a bit flat and lack inspiration. The development of secondary characters could be stronger, and the portrayal of Qinglin falls short. However, the final 200 pages, where we delve into Ding Zitao's story, are masterfully crafted.

Fang Fang delves into the theme of generational trauma, highlighting its lasting effects. She dives , history, and repressed memories, exploring how these turbulent past events shape contemporary China. She critiques the choice to forget, which is not only enforced by the state but also embraced by individuals who choose to ignore it. Yet, she raises the question of whether confronting these memories might be too painful and overwhelming for us. I found this new release really engaging and enjoyed it a lot.

Review posted on goodreads and i will post a 5-10 min video on my instagram and youtube as well

An interesting and well-written novel about the land reform campaign and the cultural revolution. I like it...

“The greatest thing that we are innately equipped with as humans is the ability to forget.”

Soft Burial is one of the most interesting historical fiction novels I’ve ever read. It takes place during the 1950s and continues into the early 2000s in China, a time period and location that isn’t a very popular choice. The translator's introduction explains that Fang Fang is a well known author in China, some of her work even being a regular part of the school curriculum. Soft Burial was published in 2016, and positively received by most. “Most” does not include the Chinese government, because the book was banned due to its themes, which could be considered anti-communist to an extent. The book follows several characters: An elderly woman, her son and an ex revolutionary. The characters’ stories intertwine and all come together slowly. The elderly woman, Ding Zitao, suffers from amnesia after being saved from drowning. She suddenly falls into some sort of coma-like state after her son shows her the new house he bought for her, seemingly caused by something unknown from her past. The novel then follows her son as he tries his best to help her, trying to uncover his mother’s past in the hope he’ll find something that might wake her up. He finds some journals that belonged to his father who died when he was young, and travels to try and find people who knew his mother or father.

“To be put into the earth without a coffin and have your body placed directly into the dirt is one kind of soft burial; but when the living insist on consciously or unconsciously cutting themselves off from what happened, covering up the past, abandoning history, and refusing to remember, this is another form of soft burial committed over the passage of time. And once the past has been committed to a soft burial, it will likely lie there generation after generation, forgotten for all eternity.”
Soft Burial was a term I’d never heard before picking up this book, but it hasn’t left my mind since I finished reading it.

One of my favourite things in books is when different characters who at first seem to be completely unrelated start to come together and make everything make sense. This is so well done here.
The translation felt a little wonky at times. The language felt stiff at times and completely too descriptive at others. I think this might be a case of it being hard to translate some sentences into English because certain words might not have direct translations. It didn’t bother me much overall and the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

This is a book about history. A story inspired by what the author heard firsthand from people who lived through it. It’s a book about trauma, and how hard some people try to forget their past, either consciously or not. Most of all it’s a story about humanity.

Both a mystery and a historical novel, Fang Fang's story follows the experience of a woman who is pulled out of the river and suffers amnesia. But how did she end up there in the first place?

The nuances of the tale are revealed gradually, some of it in the context of the controversial Land Reform campaign in the post World War 2 period in China. The politics of the time and the intricacies of social change are well described through the life of one woman.

This one is worth a read. It gets 3. 5 stars

Soft Burial by Fang Fang is an illuminating book which spans time periods, with a focal point being China’s Land Reform Movement of the 1940s-1950s. Fang Fang based descriptions of the Land Reform Movement on the experiences of her friend’s relatives and her own family history, and the book is largely a work of historical fiction, although much of the story takes place in the more modern day in the perspective of the protagonist’s son Qinglin, as he begins to unravel some of his family’s buried history.

The novel begins with a nameless protagonist reflecting on life and her deceased husband. Dr. Wu had saved her life after she was pulled from a river, and she had no recollection of her life before that point. Dr. Wu encouraged her to leave the past alone as he felt it could be dangerous. After a few years she married Dr. Wu, had her son Qinglin, and built a new life without ever recalling her old one. Dr. Wu also had a complicated past which he chose to keep secret, and so Qinglin grew up without knowing the stories of either of his parents. However, after his father’s death, Qinglin learns a bit about his past, and then has to choose how deep into it he wants to dig.

Soft burial means to be put directly into the earth without a coffin. However, through the novel it becomes clear that it can also mean to bury the past, as the protagonist buried her own past, and her son has to make decisions on whether to dig into the past or let it lie. In China, Land Reform Movement seems to have largely been given a soft burial, according to Fang Fang’s experiences, as many landlords and their descendants who survived through the period did not wish to speak of their traumatizing experiences. Even the government of China seemed keen to bury the movement, as Soft Burial became banned in China for the way it portrayed the Land Reform Movement.

Anybody with a moderate interest in Chinese history should enjoy this book, as I enjoyed it with little to no background on China during this time period. This is definitely a book which is not designed to make you feel good or sugarcoat life, but it feels like an important book which isn’t afraid to remember the darker parts of history.

In Soft Burial by Fang Fang, the story of Ding Zitao's life unfolds slowly, as discovered both by her son and by herself as she emerges from the state of amnesia she's been in for most of her adult life. Ding Zitao was a causality of the Land Reform Movement and subsequently lost her memory. Just as Ding Zitao has no memory from before she was found near-dead and then married the doctor who saved her, the Chinese people as portrayed in the book have collectively repressed their own memories and knowledge of the Land Reform Movement. As Ding Zitao recollects her scattered memories, her son Qinglin independently pieces together what clues he can of his parent's backgrounds. Soft Burial is about the choices people make to forget or remember painful events, and how those choices affect those around them.

While a well-known writer in China, this is one of Fang Fang's few books to be translated into english. The translator Michael Berry begins this edition with an introduction which gives much-needed context into the historical and political landscape of the author and the book's publication in China. His depiction of the dramatic censorship of Soft Burial makes for an effective hook to give the book a read.

My thoughts
I'm admittedly not a big fan of so-called literary novels, which I would classify Soft Burial as, but the story still intrigued me. I found myself turning to Wikipedia to learn more about the historical events that are significant plot points, particularly the Land Reform Movement. I view this not as a failing of the book to provide context but more of igniting my own interest in the subject. I haven't studied Chinese history, but I wonder how familiar these events are even to a Chinese reader. The younger characters frequently make it clear that they have no understanding of these events. Coupled with the censorship of this book, it seems that these events don't get taught much in Chinese schools. In that way, I suppose a Western reader is on even footing with the original audience.

As I have no knowledge of Chinese and haven't read the original text, I think any attempt at a review of the translation itself would be flawed. That being said, certain phrases jumped out at me as probable literal translations that came across as clunky in English. I suppose it's just a translation style that readers familiar with the original text may appreciate more. However, I appreciate the work in translating such a notorious text to make it available to a new audience.

A major theme of Soft Burial is the censorship or remembrance of history. In exploring the events of the book, Fang Fang makes a statement on the value of preserving history--and so does the reader in choosing to read this book.

I think that lovers of literature and history will enjoy Fang Fang's book and this glimpse at the elusiveness of personal and collective memory.


TO THE PUBLISHER:

Errors I noticed:

Page 13. 'Commissar Liu heaved a long deep sigh before asking Dr. Liu, "So how have you been holding up? Are you still single?'" It should read Dr. Wu.

Page 43. '"Did you add the honey? Little Tea," responded Ding Zitao.' It would read better if the question mark and comma are reversed.

Page 183. "Lu Ziqiao even paid a personal visit to Wang Si's house to persuade him, but Wang Si wouldn't budget." It should read budge.

Page 255. "One of our nurses, Miss. He, told me that she heard the patient sighing in the middle of the night; the next morning she saw her eyelids fluttering." "Miss. He asked her basic questions such as which village are you from, how old are you, and what's your name; but the patient just says she doesn't know." Miss isn't an abbreviation and so should not have a period.

I knew about Fang Fang before diving into this book, but had never been given an opportunity to read her work in English. I started this advance copy while on a flight, and I couldn't put it down. I got through 25% in that first sitting because of how interested I was in this story and its characters; it's very much a picture of China at the time. I highly recommend this if you're interested in Asian or Chinese literature.

Fang Fang’s »Soft Burial« invites readers on a poignant exploration of memory, trauma, and the intricacies of human experience against the backdrop of China's turbulent past.

The story begins with a nameless protagonist who, after being rescued from a river, awakens with no memory of her past. This gripping premise sets the stage for a profound journey of self-discovery as she moves through life as a housekeeper for a powerful official, marries the doctor who saved her, and eventually starts a family. However, her amnesia begins to dissipate, unveiling painful memories and the unspeakable traumas she suffered.

The concept of "soft burial" extends beyond its literal interpretation, symbolizing the psychological process in which individuals consciously or subconsciously suppress their memories and past experiences, effectively burying their identities and histories. This metaphorical aspect adds depth to the narrative, reflecting broader themes of historical trauma, specifically related to China's Land Reform Campaign of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The atmosphere of »Soft Burial« is imbued with a sense of sadness and reflection. Fang Fang skillfully evokes the emotional weight of her characters’ experiences, creating an environment that resonates with readers. The protagonist's struggle with her lost identity mirrors the broader historical context, providing a stark reminder of the human toll associated with political upheaval.

Fang Fang's writing is both lyrical and accessible, seamlessly blending vivid imagery with emotional resonance. Her prose welcomes readers into the inner lives of her characters, fostering a nuanced understanding of their fears and desires. While the novel's intimate portrayal of trauma is compelling, it also stirred controversy in China due to its empathetic depiction of those impacted by land reform policies.

»Soft Burial« stands as a significant work intertwining personal and historical narratives, offering readers a profound examination of trauma's aftermath and the search for identity amidst societal turmoil. Fang Fang’s ability to blend personal stories with broader social critiques transforms this novel into a vital commentary on the human condition, elevating it beyond a mere work of fiction.

I have not had a chance to read Wuhan Diaries but after reading this novel I think I should. a really interesting and well-written novel about the land reform campaign and the cultural revolution.. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

This is a complicated book to navigate - it moves between time periods and the two identities of the protagonist who has buried her horrific memories of family trauma.

While it's fascinating to read a story of the land reforms in China - especially in a book which has been banned by the Chinese government for its sympathy for a landlord class - something about either the writing or the translation feel flat and very 'told'.

This feels an important book.