World of Demons/魍魉世界

<p>During the middle phase of the Anti-Japanese War Chongqing served as the provisional capital (peidu) coinciding roughly with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The city suffered from soaring prices and acute shortages of goods. The novel employs two main narrative threads: one follows the family of Qu Zhuangzheng an upright and learned scholar while the other centers on Dr. Ximen De and his wife-a man posing as a psychology PhD who actually works as a broker. These threads intertwine to reveal a multitude of characters: bankers bureaucrats speculators socialites civil servants neighborhood chiefs local administrators sedan-chair carriers street vendors and more. It sketches the harsh realities of ordinary people struggling even for basic sustenance-doctors forced to change professions teachers abandoning their posts lives lived like beasts of burden. Simultaneously it depicts the grotesque world of the elites: officials doubling as merchants merchants colluding with officials rampant speculation feasting and revelry-a stark portrayal of the front lines preoccupied with desperate struggle while the rear areas indulged in reckless extravagance.</p><p>抗战中期的陪都重庆，正是日机偷袭珍珠港前后。这里物价飞涨，物资紧缺。小说以一个刚正不阿，饱读经书的区庄正一家和一个挂着心理学博士幌子而实际上做掮客的西门德夫妇为正副两条线，牵引出银行家、官僚、投机商、交际花、公务员、保长、甲长、轿夫、小贩等芸芸众生。勾勒出平民百姓求一饱而不能，医生改行，教员转业，生活如牛马的惨状，描绘了上层社会官亦商、商亦官、投机倒把、酒食征逐、前方吃紧，后方紧吃的丑恶现象。</p>