Stories from the National Border

Without ever experiencing a golden age, they raced like a roller coaster through the Silver and Bronze Ages, only to crash straight into the steel plate of the Iron Age. As international trade undergoes a major transformation and upgrade, facing severe difficulties, how will ordinary people on both sides of the border make the choices their times demand? The era of frenzied, chaotic port economies is gone for good. Can cross-border trade in the Iron Age find a way out of its predicament? Can the bond forged in blood between the peoples of two countries as they fought off invaders, and the cross-border romances spanning four generations, bloom into something pure? With rapid economic growth, constant changes in the times, and ever more comfortable lives, will the rise of a new generation and new ideas really consign the blood-soaked struggles of their forebears to the archives? Through the stories of four generations of women in Anna, Zhao Xiaoyun, and Zhao Min’s family, along with several career women working at the border, this novel explores new ideas and opens new fronts. By drawing on the two countries’ complementary resources and technology and embracing the digital economy and new media, it tells the story of a major border cooperation zone that successfully transforms itself and overcomes adversity.