Fires on the Plain - PING YUAN SHANG DE HUO YAN

Pitch

In China, in 1997, a series of murders plunged the city of Fentun into mourning. The crimes mysteriously ceased, leaving the authorities unable to solve the case. Eight years later, a young police officer, close to one of the victims, decides to reopen the investigation. "The novel tells the story of people from two generations who lived through three defining periods in contemporary Chinese history: the first is the Cultural Revolution; the second is the period known as 'Reform and Opening Up,' the wave of wealth creation for a segment of the population, its impact, and the widening of inequalities… The third takes place after the Opening Up, when the generation of the main characters, Li Fei and Zhuang Shu, comes of age… Belonging to the same generation as me, it is their perspective that can best express my experiences in creative terms." Rather than looking at how time swept away and broke the previous generation, I am interested in observing and weighing the choices that my generation has faced and is facing. – Zhang Ji