“With his humor and light touch, even Lao She’s meditations on the baseness of humanity are sympathetic and appealing.... The writer’s voice shines through in this funny, deft collection from an important 20th-century Chinese literary figure.” —Publishers Weekly

“The scholarly meticulousness and excellent translations in Blades of Grass should make it the first place readers turn for a sample of Lao She’s shorter fiction in English translation.” —World Literature Today, Spring 2000

“For reading pleasure, I would turn ... to the fiction of Lao She ... a wonderful stylist ... and an astute judge of character with a grasp of all the complexities of human nature.” —International Examiner Pacific Reader, Fall 2000

“If you want to write good short stories,” Lao She once observed, “you have to give it everything you’ve got. The world will allow the existence of a very imperfect novel, but it won’t be that polite with a short story. Art, after all, is not like a pig—the fatter the better.”

Lao She’s stories proved to be very good indeed, moving and delighting readers for many years and establishing him as a master of classic modern fiction. Thankfully we now have access to a rich collection of his short stories in superb English translations. These stories showcase the varied facets of Lao She’s impressive talent and draw us effortlessly into his world-and we emerge the better for it.

This is a writer eternally immersed in and fascinated by the kaleidoscope of humankind. The stories are characterized by humor and by intensely sympathetic explorations of human relationships. Some of them are unsettling. Many are poignant. Most of them make us laugh. All evoke the color and energy of life, for Lao She is also a connoisseur of the everyday with a keen appreciation of the concrete detail.

A plate of steaming dumplings, the gleam of gold-capped front teeth, rickshaws dragging along alleys, punishing winter winds, rolls of bright silk, a pair of chopsticks—these things are the stuff of Lao She’s fiction and the essence of his metaphors, and he cherishes such little details of life more than the abstractions of politics or philosophy.

Lao She was born in Beijing in 1899 and spent most of his life in China. His family was very poor, and were it not for a rich uncle who sponsored his education, it is likely that he would have been illiterate. From 1924 until 1930, he taught Chinese language and literature at London University’s School of Oriental Studies. He read widely in English literature and particularly admired the works of Charles Dickens, to whom he has been compared. His life was distinguished by dynamic energy and constant hard work, resulting in a body of literature that has endeared him to his readers. He died during the Cultural Revolution in 1966.

William A. Lyell teaches modern Chinese literature at Stanford University. Previously his work has focused on literary giant Lu Xun. He is the translator of Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman and Other Stories (UH Press, 1990) and Zhang Henshui’s popular novel Shanghai Express (UH Press, 1997). Sarah Wei-ming Chen is associate professor of Chinese and chair of the Asian Studies Program at Occidental College. Her interest in Lao She’s short stories and in translation began during her doctoral studies at Stanford University and Beijing University.