China bans 'Soft Burial', a novel about deadly consequences of land reform

'Soft Burial', published in 2016, is a tribute to historical realism and won Luyao Literature Award

The Chinese government has recently banned the sale of an award-winning novel, “Soft Burial,” written by Fang Fang about China’s land reform in the 1950s.

The novel tells the story of an old woman who suffered from amnesia after she witnessed her husband’s entire family driven to take their own lives during the Chinese Communist Party's nationwide land reform, which aimed to eliminate the landlord class not long after the People's Republic of China was established in 1949. The buried memories haunt the woman throughout her life, and her son decides to investigate her past.

The suicides tied to the land reform