In 1990, on the eve of the end of the state-assigned job placement system for college and technical-school graduates, Wang Dagang, a university student from a poor family, returned to his hometown with an official cadre assignment certificate. He struggled to survive between a grassroots system bound by personal favors and the surging tide of the market economy. The novel traces Wang Dagang’s growth, bringing together the customs of the 1990s, rural clan conflicts, factional struggles in officialdom, the realities of love and marriage, and the crises faced by private business owners. It is the vivid story of a generation fighting to survive amid personal obligations and the torrents of a changing era. A realistic chronicle of grassroots struggles in the 1990s.
