Adventures of Sanmao the Orphan

三毛流浪记

张乐平

I think the scene depicted on this page is very striking by contrasting two extremely different worlds. In the wet, freezing winter in Shanghai, the setting of the story, Sanmao is suffering from cold and hunger before he got his new cloth. However, in the house, rich people have two heaters on. It is so warm that there is a drop of sweat on the kid’s forehead, and he need to eat ice cream to cool himself. The contrast reminds me another story I read when I was kid, the Little Match Girl. On the New Year Eve, the hungry little girl in shabby clothes died when people were cheerfully celebrating the holiday in their warm house with rich food. Anderson is pessimistic and cruel when describing the miserable reality, while the author of Sanmao somewhat provides a hint of light and hope to his character, because he cherishes great hope to the new country.