[1] Yazhou Zhoukan selected it as one of the top 100 greatest Chinese novels in the 20th century.

[2] The novel is set in Maqiao, a village in Hunan province, China.

It collects 115 ‘articles’ on Maqiao village life from the perspective of a young student sent there by the Down to the Countryside Movement.

[citation needed] After the book was published, some critics claimed that was an imitation of Milorad Pavić's novel, Dictionary of the Khazars.

[3] The author, Han Shaogong, claimed never to have read Pavić's work.