Rickshaw Boy

About Rickshaw Boy

First published in China in 1937, *Rickshaw Boy* is the story of Xiangzi, an honest and serious country boy who works as a rickshaw puller in Beijing. A man of simple needs whose greatest ambition is to one day own his own rickshaw, Xiangzi is nonetheless thwarted, time and again, in his attempts to improve his lot in life. One of the most important and popular works of twentieth-century Chinese literature, *Rickshaw Boy* is an unflinchingly honest, darkly comic look at a life on the margins of society and a searing indictment of the philosophy of individualism. Lao She (1898-1966) is one of the most acclaimed Chinese writers of the twentieth century. He is the author of numerous novels, short stories, and plays. Howard Goldblatt is a research professor at the University of Notre Dame and the foremost translator of modern Chinese literature in the West. He is the recipient of the Man Asian Prize, the Newman Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.