Qin Qiang is not only the latest work by Jia Pingwa, but is also widely considered to be this writer's last major work. While previously Jia's most notable effort was The Abandoned Capital, an urban novel, Qin Qiang takes up his favorite topic, the Sha’anxi peasantry, and their lives during China's reforms and urbanization. The book is considered by some as another masterpiece, but others call it gloomy, difficult to read and nowhere near the quality of The Abandoned Capital. Although the title of the book, Qin Qiang, might not directly indicate the content, it actually provides a subtle connection with the rural area where this story takes place.

 Qin Qiang is the name of a local clapper opera, which dates back some two thousand years to the Qin dynasty, and is still a favored past-time for farmers on the loess plateau of Northern Sha'anxi. Indeed, for the old Sha’anxi generation, Qin Qiang opera represents the spirit of the land and its inhabitants, while the glamorous seduction of pop music disturbs people, leaving them eager to pull their muddy roots from the earth and move on. The book Qin Qiang is narrated by a madman named Yinsheng. Eccentric and asocial, he's obsessed by the beautiful Qin Qiang actress Bai Xue. In return, she is sympathetic to him but nothing more. After being beaten up and ridiculed by other villagers for his transgressions, Yinsheng mutilated himself.As told by Jia, Yinsheng is more ghost than man as he roams about the village, seeing, hearing and sensing those things which are out of reach for others. Through the observations of this wayward figure, we experience the whole panorama of village life; bawdy, brutal, joyful, and sad. As a result, this book is concerned with far more than just Yinsheng's own story.