The story was condemned as “poisonous weed” for de-emphasising class struggle and praising Deng Xiaoping who was out of favour at the time.
People's Literature drafted and published a self-criticism for Jiang, and he was denounced in front of a large audience at a theatre in Tianjin.
It gained national attention and led him to become known as the founder of 'reform literature' supporting Deng Xiaoping's policy of reform and opening up, although Jiang has stated that he does not recognise that label.
[3] After becoming a full-time writer in the early 1980s, he published several more novellas dealing with the same subject matter, including sequels to Manager Qiao Assumes Office.
[2] Jiang has also written books about other subjects including Snake God (1986), which focuses on the Cultural Revolution, and Empires of Dust (2008), which took 11 years to write and tracks the changes in rural life in China from the 1950s to the early 2000s.