Rickshaw Boy

Rickshaw Boy
"Rickshaw Boy ("Luotuo xiangzi") in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese	駱駝祥子
Simplified Chinese	骆驼祥子
Literal meaning	"Camel the Auspicious Lad"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Luòtuo xiángzi Gwoyeu Romatzyh Luoh.tuo shyang.tzy Wade–Giles Lo4-t'o5 hsiang2-tzu5 IPA [lwô.tʰwo ɕjǎŋ.tsɨ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Lok-tòh chèuhng-jí Jyutping Lok3-to4 coeng4-zi2 Southern Min Tâi-lô Lo̍k-tô siông-tsú

Rickshaw Boy or Camel Xiangzi (Chinese: ; pinyin: Luòtuo Xiángzi; literally: "Camel Auspicious Lad") is a novel by the Chinese author Lao She about the life of a fictional Beijing rickshaw man. It is considered a classic of 20th-century Chinese literature.

Lao She began the novel in spring, 1936, and it was published in installments in the magazine Yuzhou feng ("Cosmic wind") beginning in January, 1937. Lao She returned to China from the United States after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In an afterword dated September, 1954, included in the Foreign Languages Press edition of Rickshaw Boy, Lao She said that he had edited the manuscript ("taken out some of the coarser language and some unnecessary descriptions") and he expressed regret for the lack of hope expressed in the original edition.

In 1945, Evan King published an unauthorized translation of the novel. He cut, rearranged, rewrote, invented characters, and changed the ending. The girl student and One Pock Li are King's, not Lao She's. King also added considerable embellishment to the two seduction scenes. Despite the liberties taken, the book was a bestseller in the United States and a Book-of-the-Month club selection.

Set in the 1920s, the novel's protagonist is an orphan peasant who leaves for Beijing to earn a living. Xiangzi is a young, hardworking, well-built rickshaw puller who dreams of owning his own rickshaw. Just when he has earned enough to buy one, it is confiscated by warlord soldiers. By a twist of fate he comes across some camels during his escape from the military, which he later sells, earning the nickname Camel. However, the cash Xiangzi obtains from this is not enough for him to buy another new rickshaw - providence decrees that he must toil once more. A police secret agent later extorts him into paying him his savings, leaving Xiangzi impoverished again. Left with no choice, Xiangzi returns to work for Old Master Liu, the boss of a thriving rickshaw rental company.

Although he tries to be honest and down to earth, Xiangzi finds himself entangled between Old Master Liu and his stout, manipulative daughter Tiger Girl, ten years his senior. Tiger Girl, who is carrying a torch for him, insists on marrying Xiangzi after pretending to be made pregnant by him. Her father disowns her and the couple live together, progressively made poor by her spendthrift ways. Later, Tiger Girl becomes pregnant by Xiangzi and grows even fatter as she awaits her delivery due her laziness and greediness for food.