Chen Erleng’s Ridiculous Life

Chen Erleng, whose real name is Chen Ming, grew up in the alleys of a steel city in northern China in the 1970s. As a child, he always ran along behind the older kids. When he grew up, he joined the state-owned enterprise where his father worked as a furnace operator. He taught himself new skills and changed jobs, lost his father and got married, then weathered corporate reforms during a stable period in his career. Later, he took unpaid leave and struck out on his own. Just as his business began to take off, his wife fell ill. After several relapses, she passed away all the same. The male protagonist went south to Shenzhen for the first time, found a job, then returned to his hometown to work in sales. After a friend betrayed him, he headed back to Shenzhen, where he became a casualty of infighting within the company and returned home. After another major upheaval in his life, he went to Shenzhen for the third time. He spent more than a decade there before finally returning to his hometown. Having endured life’s many vicissitudes and come to understand the ways of the world, he ultimately remained alone in the city his wife had chosen for him.