Red Poppies

In the first half of the twentieth century, the Maiqi family rules a Tibetan chieftaincy in western Sichuan. The chieftain's second son, born to his Han Chinese wife after a night of drinking, is taken by everyone for a fool and grows up overshadowed by his elder half-brother, the heir. Yet the boy often senses what is coming. When the other chieftains plant opium, he urges his father to grow wheat; when the opium cannot be sold and famine follows, hungry people flock to the Maiqi lands, which grow larger than ever. He wins the lovely Tana, whose mother is a chieftain herself, and opens the first border market in Kham. Back at the family's fortress, a bloody fight over the succession begins as the old order crumbles.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

407 pages in the original

Genres

Historical, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

China, first half of the 20th century

First published

1998 by People's Literature Publishing House

Author's age

39 when first published

ISBN

9787020025565 (original)

9780618119646 (Houghton Mifflin, United States)

9781838906504 (Sinoist Books, United Kingdom)