Introduction and translation copyright © 2008 by Wen Huang
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This translation is composed of ten new pieces and sixteen pieces that were originally published in Chinese in Taiwan as part of Interviews with People from the Bottom Rung of Society, published by Rye Field Publishing Co., Taipei, in 2002.
Copyright © 2002 by Liao Yiwu.
The following pieces were previously published: “The Mortician” in Harper's; and “The Corpse Walker,” “The Human Trafficker,” “The Leper,” “The Peasant Emperor,” “The Professional Mourner,” “The Public Toilet Manager,” and “The Retired Official” in The Paris Review.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Liao, Yiwu, [date]
The corpse walker : real-life stories, China from the bottom up / Liao Yiwu ; translated from the Chinese by Wen Huang.
p. cm.
1. Working class—China. 2. Social structure—China.
3. China—Social conditions. 4. China—Economic conditions. I. Title.
HD8736.5l.56 2008
362.850951—dc22 2007034160
eISBN: 978-0-307-37718-0
v3.0_r1