The Matchmaker, the Apprentice, and the Football Fan: More Stories of China

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Stories that move between anarchic university campuses, maddening communist factories, and the casualties of China's economic miracle — each one showcasing the absurdity, injustice, and dark humor of contemporary Chinese life. A matchmaker navigates the impossible expectations of modern dating. An apprentice learns that the factory floor has its own political ecosystem. A football fan discovers that fandom is the only honest relationship available to him. Wen Zhu writes social realism with comic timing, finding the funny bone in situations that are also genuinely painful. The stories are sharp, populated by characters who are both products and victims of the systems they inhabit. A collection that captures the texture of ordinary Chinese life — where the absurd and the unjust share a cubicle.