Wang's
other works
Wang Lixiong is always getting into trouble.
Another one of his books, Sky Burial: The Fate of Tibet (Tian Zang),
is about Tibetan culture. In 1999 he published a book (the title is something
like Dissolved Authority) on China's electoral system. In March, 1999
he was briefly arrested while trying to interview Turkic-speaking separatist
Muslims in Xinjiang. If you can read Dutch, there is an interview with
Wang here.
Wang Lixiong
Wang
Lixiong online
An online Chinese-language version of Sky Burial: The Fate
of Tibet is available from Beijing
Bookworm. Also: "Wang Lixiong's book on Tibet "Tianzang"
[Sky Burial] published by Mingbao in Hong Kong (banned in the PRC) but serialized
by Chinese Newsnet (blocked to PRC readers unless they use a proxy server)."
Here's a recent article
by Wang...
The
publisher
Yellow Peril was published in 1991 by Toronto-based
Mirror Books. Mirror Books was founded
by Ho Pin with HK$125 and Yellow Peril was the first book he published.
Luckily it went on to become a best-seller. Mirror now publishes more than
30 Chinese books annually, many of which have become bestsellers in Hong Kong
and Taiwan. The
Mirror Books site has chapter lists and a synopsis of each of Wang's books.
If you cannot read Chinese, you will have
to run the site through Babelfish.
If you
know anything about English-language versions of Wang Lixiong's work, let
me know.
Notes
on summarizing Yellow Peril
For those
of you disappointed that the end of the Cold War leaves no viable end-of-the-world
scenarios, you are in for a treat.
I found several articles
in Chinese about Yellow Peril on the web and translated them with Babelfish.
With this info, I have attempted to write a rough summary of the events in
the book. This is not meant to be authoritative. I am certain there must be
many incorrect details, but I just wanted to present an English-language taste
of what the book is about.
One element that seems
to run through the book is a romance of some type, but I cannot make sense
of it. I am also not sure if I have each character doing the right thing and
if the initial political power struggle is explained correctly. Please let
me know if you can shed light on any of these elements.
There seem to be two
major players in the book. Their Chinese names translate literally to "King
Front" and "Stone Spear." I refer to them as "King"
and "Stone" respectively. Stone represents the "good"
Chinese leaders, and King, the "bad" ones. The
divisions and names of each of the paragraphs are not based on the book. I
made them up myself to aid reading.
Synopsis
of Yellow Peril
The
"superficial prosperity"
For a long time in China, high-level party experts
acted as a brain trust to solve problems and direct the country. However,
with the population exploding and resources under the superficial prosperity
drying up, Stone, the Chinese Communist Party General Secretary, sincerely
feels that sooner or later China faces collapse.
The 1989 protesters
vindicated
He eagerly gets out of the difficult position of Party General Secretary
in order to strive for popular sentiment and the western support. He wins
the inner-party struggle and creates a new faction in the government. This
is seen as a sign that the 1989 democratic movement has reversed the verdict
against it.
The reactionary
Those unhappy with this turn of events see Communist Party hardliner
King as a representative of military influence. A foreign killer assassinates
the general secretary. King takes control of political power and turns China
from reform to Fascism. Stone is powerless to stop King's rise to power.
Division and war
The economically developed and relatively free southeast coast provinces
announce the implementation of "one country, multi-systems" and
separate from Beijing as de facto independent nations. Beijing political power
wanes in the south and China erupts into civil war.
The trump card
A new nuclear-powered submarine with nuclear missiles goes to sea under
top-secret conditions. The sub directly obeys King. On the ship 40 nuclear
warheads (20 missiles with 2 warheads each) are a trump card which only King
knows about.
Taiwan intervenes
Because northern China has a superior military and heavy industry, the
south retreats in defeat again and again and seems doomed to a losing battle.
Eventually northern forces try to capture the leader of the southern provinces
at Fuzhou. The southern leader asks Taiwan secret agent "Yellow Lark"
to request reinforcements from Taiwan. The Taiwanese are already prepared
and immediately land. The situation reverses. Various inland provinces respond
positively. Taiwan armed forces push directly to the area around Beijing.
The destruction of
Taipei
King urges the Chinese Communist Party to unanimously agree to launch
a nuclear bomb to destroy Taipei. The only opposition, Stone, flees to the
Australian embassy and attempts to inform Taiwan, but he does not succeed.
Taipei is destroyed. The Taiwan armed forces' offensive disintegrates. Beijing
is in control of the situation again.
Striking back
The Taiwan army vows revenge. They purchase nuclear weapons and send
out commando units to seize Chinese nuclear sites. They launch missiles to
northern Chinese cities. Some drift off course and fall within the boundaries
of Russia. The Chinese civil war has become a nuclear war.
International intervention
In order to guarantee international peace, Chinese nuclear bases and
nuclear weapons are destroyed by the USA and Russia working together under
United Nations auspices.
End of the regime
Only King knows the submarine is still hidden at the bottom of the sea.
He is arrested by the United Nations and dies somehow. The sub remains waiting.
Challenges of rebuilding
Stone is named the new Chinese government's head. Civil war, natural
disasters, and nuclear attack have caused the total collapse of the Chinese
society and economy. Saving 1,300,000,000 Chinese lives becomes Stone's and
the new government's mission. He uses his adept political skills to obtain
international assistance.
The plan
He fully realizes Chinese land does not have the ability to maintain
1.3 billion lives anymore. Refugees have already started spontaneously flooding
across the borders. He implements a secret plan to commence the largest mass
migration in human history.
The yellow peril
Chinese refugees penetrate Siberia from the center of the Russian frontier
and enter Europe along the ancient Silk Road. They ride ships across the oceans
to North America and Australia. Nearly one billion Chinese spread out across
the world. Ingenious diplomacy causes poor countries to allow them to pass
through, but rich countries can find no way to halt the inflow of refugees.
Blockade
The borders between China and Russia suffer the worst refugee crisis.
Russia is being weakened by the Chinese refugees. The U.S. is glad to have
the Pacific Ocean as a barrier. Stone meets the Russian president and secretly
convinces Russia to open a far east harbor. China will provide ships to direct
Chinese refugees toward North America. The U.S., in order to protect itself,
institutes a military blockade of the Russian far east. Tensions are high
between the two nations.
A world war
Stone discovers the Chinese nuclear-powered submarine still awaiting
orders. (Thanks to a reader for correcting my understanding of the following
section.) Stone repeatedly orders the captain not to launch the missiles.
The captain refused to follow the order since he had already been informed
by King that his wife and young son (and their fellow crew members) were killed
by American nuclear bombs. He was, therefore, at the end of his rope, and
suicidally launched all 20 missiles simultaneously, which sank the submarine
as well. The U.S.
mistakenly thinks that the attack is from Russia and retaliates on Russia,
causing a full-scale nuclear war.
The end of our age
Nuclear winter arrives. Crops fail. In order to save themselves, various
countries dispatch troops to rob each other of resources. Societies, governments,
and boundaries collapse as hunger and revenge stalk all of humanity.
