Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress takes place in a
poor mountain village in Central China in 1971 during the reeducation phase of the country. The two main characters, the narrator and Luo, are "city-youths" from a populated area of China forced to live in the countryside to experience the tough peasant lifestyle due to the re-education program started by
Chairman Mao. The problem of the story is the small chance of returning back to their old lifestyle. The main characters have to watch each other as if they were brothers.
