Book excerpt: Out of the Crucible offers an illuminating study of the novels and short stories relating to the lives of Chinese urban youth who were dispatched to rural areas to live the peasants' life during the second phase of the Cultural Revolution. This comprehensive achievement covers the works, authors, themes, characters, and plots of zhiqing literary writing from the late nineteen-seventies to the late nineteen-nineties. The book demonstrates the historical, political, social and humanistic significance of the urban youths' rural experience.