This revelatory volume brings together significant works in translations from nearly fifty Chinese writers. It includes poems, essays, fiction, songs and speeches written in an astonishing array of moods and styles, from sublime lyricism to witty surrealism, poignant documentary to the ironic, the absurd, the transgressive and the defiant.

Yunte Huang provides essential context in an opening essay and in headnotes, timelines and brief introductions to the Republican, Revolutionary and Post-Mao eras. Both personal and authoritative, his selections make for a joyously informative read. From belles lettres to literary propaganda, from poetic revolution to pulp fiction, The Big Red Book is an eye-opening portrait of China in the tumultuous twentieth century.