The vivid far off memories of Youmadi, an old country school of his days of childhood, live on with fervor and a special intensity in the mind of Sangsang. The very first feelings of life and those of death, and all the many people who somehow by some unexplained act of fate, entered and influenced the special life and times of Sangsang's boyhood world...—L.H. Wong <[email protected]>

Told from the perspective of elementary school student Sang Sang, the Straw House tells a number of seemingly ordinary yet touching stories: the little bold Tuhe and his determination to live in dignity; the enigmatic life of the little girl Zhiyue; the sad and short love affair between Teacher Jiang and Bai Que; and the paternal love the headmaster, Sang Sang's father, shows before he passes away. Set in Jiangnan in the 1960s, and based on the famous Chinese novel.—Anonymous