Missing the Train

In literature at least, never dismiss the lunatics. They're often the voices of reason. The Chinese learned that lesson in 1918 with Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman. This short story, which told of a world filled with bloodthirsty cannibals, was an attack on imperialists and China's own feudal systemboth accused of devouring the masses. So astute was the critique that the story's madman became a revolutionary hero of sorts, and Lu Xun came to be heralded as the father of modern Chinese literature. In Ran Chen's novel A Private Life, set in Beijing in the late 20th century, the heroine...