A Review of Ground Covered with Chicken Feathers

Liu Zhenyun’s Ground Covered with Chicken Feathers, a landmark of Chinese neorealist fiction, dissects the crushing weight of ordinariness through the life of Xiao Lin, a young Beijing clerk in the 1980s and 1990s. Far from dramatic storytelling, it weaves a tapestry of trivialities—spoiled tofu, a broken thermos, job transfers, and kindergarten admissions—that collectively erode a once-idealistic soul. The novel’s power lies in its unflinching focus on the "killability of daily life" . The iconic opening scene, where a plate of sour tofu sparks a marital quarrel that overshadows the G8 summit on TV , encapsulates its core insight: for ordinary people, life’s "鸡毛蒜皮" (chicken feathers) matter more than grand world events. Xiao Lin’s journey—from dismissing authority as a college graduate to trading favors for a microwave and accepting that "maturity means saying ‘no’ first" —maps the gradual surrender to survival’s harsh demands. His abandoned passion for Maradona, sacrificed to household chores , becomes a poignant metaphor for lost ideals. Liu’s brilliance lies in making the mundane profound. There are no climaxes, only a "prosaic day-to-day account" of compromised dignity and small humiliations: gifting discounted Coca-Cola for a job favor, enduring his wife’s resentment over rural relatives, and realizing his child is a "study companion" for a neighbor’s kid. Yet these details detonate like emotional explosives, forcing readers to confront how life grinds people into "non-self" . As a New York University professor noted, the novel’s震撼 (shock) stems not from mirroring reality, but from Xiao Lin’s "unrealistic" worldview—valuing domestic trivialities over grand narratives . By the end, Xiao Lin dreams of sleeping on feathers and skin flakes, finding comfort in resignation . This quiet capitulation is not defeat, but a universal truth: "calm days are moments, while chicken feathers are daily life" . For English readers, the novel transcends cultural boundaries, offering a timeless portrait of how humanity navigates the chaos of ordinary existence. It reminds us that in life’s messiest details, we see our own struggles most clearly.