The Civil Servant's Notebook: Wang Xiaofang

Copies of the book will be available at RAS events prior to this meeting. You may also obtain a copy of the book by contacting the RAS Book Club (see below).

Entrance: RMB 70.00 (RAS Members) and RMB 100.00 (non-members) including a drink (tea, coffee, soft drink, or glass of wine). Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption, prior to this RAS Book Club event. Member applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.

RSVP: bookclub@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn 


N.B. RESERVATIONS ESSENTIAL AS SPACE IS LIMITED AT THIS EVENT. 

A northeastern city in Dongzhou province needs a new Mayor, and there are plenty of hungry candidates eager for the top job. As the mandarins of the local Communist Party go through the motions of selecting their candidate, the secretive corridors of government are awash with insinuation and subterfuge. Dangerous factions begin to form around the two contenders and longstanding rivals, the Vice-Mayors Liu Yihe and Peng Guoliang.

Devious plots, seduction, and bribery are all on the table in a no-holds-barred scramble for political prestige and personal gain. But, when the personal notebook of a high-up official is exposed to the powers that be - the government's own internal enforcement brigade – its humble pages initiate an office wide manhunt for the anonymous notebook sender, casting a suspicious eye over everyone from lowly department researchers to Vice-Mayors.

What the culprit fails to foresee is that they have started the ball rolling on an investigation that threatens to swallow everyone, including themselves, into the eye of a political storm the likes of which have never been seen in Dongzhou. Not even the most practiced of civil servants can predict just who will outmaneuver the consequences, and it is likely that no one will remain unscathed.

In the spirit of Andrej Kurkov comes a satirical absurdist blend which blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction in China's halls of power. Penned by a former insider, The Civil Servant's Notebook offers a glimpse into the distorted psyches of those who roam those guarded halls.

Told through multiple narrators, Wang Xiaofang crafts a unique and complex tale of official mischief where civil servants prioritize personal welfare over public welfare and 'serve the people' is just about the last thing on their minds...

Wang Xiaofang was born in 1963 in Shenyang, northeast China, and was private secretary to Shenyang Deputy Mayor Ma Xiangdong from 1997-1999.

Ma achieved infamy for gambling and losing millions in public money in Macau’s casinos, and was later sentenced to death for his crimes. Wang Xiaofang was found innocent of any involvement and in 1999 resigned from his life of politics.

His first novel, Deadly Vortex (致命漩涡) was published by the Writers Publishing House in 2005 (the book was later retitled The Mayor's Secretary). He has published thirteen novels of political fiction in China, and his works regularly top the bestseller charts. The Civil Servant's Notebook is the first of his books to be published in English.

Eric Abrahamsen has lived in Beijing since late 2001, where he studied Chinese at the Central University for Nationalities. Currently, he works as a teacher, editor, and freelance journalist. He is the recipient of a PEN translation grant for Wang Xiaobo's My Spiritual Homeland and a NEA grant for Xu Zechen's Running Through Zhongguancun.