Modern and Contemporary (postmodern?) Literature

[kdavid]

I have yet to sit down and read any modern / contemporary Chinese literature, but am in the midst of hunting for some authors and titles to buy off Amazon.

What I'm curious to find are authors that specifically tackle problems and trends that would labeled in the west as modern; particularly postmodern. I've read a few articles through here (one which was linked to danwei.com) which explained that the censorship of the media creates a lack of interest in such literature, and therefore little attention is paid to the literature which discusses with these problems.

Essentially, what I'm looking for would be Chinese novels dealing with issues of the modern era (information overload, capitalism, the death of metanarrative, neo-colonialism, Cold War nostalgia etc.).

Now, I am keeping in mind that this *may* (I don't know, I don't have any experience, yet!) purely be western ideology and may not be present in contemporary Chinese literature. However, if it is, has anyone has any recommendations? I'd love to hear them.

Also, I assume that such literature would not be readily available in the PRC. Has anyone got the name of a good publishing house online that would publish such literature?

[gato]

Some of Yu Hua's (余华) work has been categorized as post-modern by academic, though "post-modern" no doubt is very different in the Chinese context. Of your list of pet post-modern issues ("information overload, capitalism, the death of metanarrative, neo-colonialism, Cold War nostalgia"), I'm not sure at all how many would apply to China, at least in the recent past. They may increasingly apply as China becomes more like the West in some ways.

I would also consider Wang Xiaobo to be kind of post-modernish writer. He often cites Italo Calvino as a model. That may provides a frame of reference.

Selected writing by many Chinese authors, including Yu Hua and Wang Xiaobo, are available at:

http://www.white-collar.net/wx_hsz/hsz_mjyj.htm

For some reason, the link to Wang Xiaobo is broken on the site above.

You can find Wang's work at

http://www.51xiaoshuo.com/xdwx/w/wangxiaobo/index.html

You might find these articles interesting:

http://www.slate.com/id/2090292/

The Secret Lives of DentistsHow Yu Hua's brutal novels reflect the transformation of literary China. By Nell Freudenberger

http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/pubs/reviews/larson.htm

Review of Xiaobin Yang's "The Chinese Postmodern: Trauma and Irony in Chinese Avant-Garde Fiction" Reviewed by Wendy Larson

[xianu]

One place you could look for materials that might pan out is in Chinese sci-fi. I found a site - I think through reading the "reading & writing" section in this forum - that has a ton of online sci-fi short stories. IF you are looking for evidence of how modern Chinese deal with some of these issues, you might find it there. As far as buying books on Amazon, I haven't ever had much luckwith American book companies when trying to find Chinese books.

[againstwind]

Not familiar with the so-called post-modernism, but I do recommend Wang Xiaobo's works. (As far as I know Roddy translated one of Wang's essays.)

Yu Hua余华, Su Tong苏童, Ge Fei格非 and Ma Yuan马原 are usually considered as typical writers of Chinese post-modernism since the 1980s. You should easily find the former two writers' works in English online, but the latter two might be rarer.

Besides, some works may go to your type include:

Han Shaogong, A Dictionary of Maqiao 韩少功：《马桥词典》http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Maqiao-Han-Shaogong/dp/0385339356/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-9744980-8443938?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174659532&sr=8-1

For some other important contemporary writers, I don't assure they're postmodern. But they are definitely worth reading.

Mo Yan 莫言, Jia Pingwa 贾平凹 and Wang Anyi 王安忆.

As for modern literature, you'd better not skip some very important, or rather great, writers such as Lu Xun, Lao She, Ba Jin, Shen Congwen, Qian Zhongshu and Zhang Ailing. Among them, Lu Xun and Zhang Ailing's works may contain more post-modern factors which you'd like to find.

[kdavid]

Everyone:

Thanks for the recommendations. I've browsed what online selections are available for order and they all look great.

Gato: Thanks for those articles. Very imformative. At this point, I think I'm pointed in the write direction.

To others with other good recommendations / online articles, keep them coming. =)

Oh, and if Roddy gets around to reading this: I'd like to read the article you've translated.

[gato]

Here's Roddy's translation of "A Peculiar Pig". I actually first found this site when I googled for wang xiaobo translation and found Roddy's post.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/3267-translation-of-wang-xiaobos-%e4%b8%80%e5%8f%aa%e7%89%b9%e7%ab%8b%e7%8b%ac%e8%a1%8c%e7%9a%84%e7%8c%aa-a-pe&highlight=xiaobo

I've translated some Wang Xiaobo, too. You might be interested in taking a look.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/3868-wang-xiaobo-why-do-i-write&highlight=xiaobo

and http://polycrit.com/WangXiaoBo/

[zarathustra]

I'd be interested in this too. I imagine if you find philosophy or other academic books of a similar nature, you'd eventually find the authors. Many thinkers are classified as post-modern yet they don't really accept this label or are not considered post-modern when teaching philosophy in Europe. There are many which are also considered post-structuralist. If your Chinese is good, looking for European thinkers (using their Chinese names) should get you started.

There are also many other thinkers (for instance, Hegel, Granet, I think Jung) which consider the Chinese language perhaps inappropriate for abstraction or real philosophy, thinking, or reasoning. Possible and it's a question I continue to ask. I bought a Chinese textbook today and it even brought up the question of the limits of a language without an alphabet.

If you're interested in other novelists, you might consider seeing if any are similar to Joyce or have an leaning towards the French new novel. I forget the names of the new novel authors. I am aware many thinkers like Focault enjoyed them. As for Joyce, Derrida has said his work has always been about the question of Joyce. So such authors may not necessarily be aware of current academic continental philosophy but might have a natural similarity in thought.

You could also see if China also went though similar philosophical phases like did europe. I imagine it probably did not. Modernism, post-modernism, structuralism, and post-structuralism are periods that probably could have only happen in Europe. China, and it's history of thought is entirely different though there are problems which have lead Chinese authors to look towards Europe for answers. For instance, many newer authors have grown up in an age after structuralism, Marxism, and Freud. There are problems unique to China that you may be interested in..

If you want to look further, you could start by studying the western thinkers who have studied China, get into some hardcore philosophy or social science. I can start you off with some suggestions if you'd like..

[kdavid]

Any lists or recommendations on this topic would be great, zarathustra. Thanks!

[zarathustra]

I'm not too familar with Chinese works though I would start looking at philosophy and social science that's classified as modern or post-modern. That's easy to find if you can read Chinese. I can't yet.

Then there are all the authors that come before and during what's current. Idealism, positivism, structuralism, the frankfurt school, marx, freud, existentialism, semiotics...

By looking at western philosophy, you can find references to literary authors that deal with the same issues. Plenty of "post-modern" thinkers write about Joyce, Borges, probably the new novel (Robbe-Grillet or something like that)...

There's a book written by a student of the l'ecole normale superiore. Most famous French thinkers went to that school. I think it's called 50 contemporary thinkers.

As far as Chinese goes..from what I do know, I'd check out the guy who was interested in anarchism. He's a novelist that everyone know about. I assume that anyone who is interested in seeking answers elsewhere is aware of some of the problems.

I remember a New York Times article i think from last year which mentioned some of the current beijing intellectuals. i think it mentioned there's a particular cafe where some of the teachers and students hang out at..

[gato]

Here's the NYTimes article mentioned by zarathustra.

http://www.sciy.org/blog/_archives/2006/10/16/2422071.html

China’s New Leftist

By PANKAJ MISHRA

Published: October 15, 2006

I've read some of these Chinese post-modernists. Many of the contributors to 《读书》 magazine write from a post-modernist perspective if you are interested.

甘阳, who's affiliated with both Beida and University of Chicago, seems to be a major figure in this camp.

http://law-thinker.com/wenji.asp?subid=74

I'm skeptical about post-modernists in general and don't find these Chinese ones very interesting, either. They don't seem to want to talk much about the Chinese reality, including political reality. Interestingly, most them are considered to be "neo-leftists," which I suppose post-modernists in the West are as well.

[Hongling Zhang]

Hi everyone:

When I googled Wang Xiaobo in English, I came across your thread and found your discussion interesting. I just want to let you know that Wang's works have been translated into English by me and my collobrator. It was released in March and is available at Amazon.com. Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Wang-Love-Bondage-Novellas-Xiaobo/dp/0791470652

I would love to know what you think of it and share my thoughts about his works with you. Thanks.

Hongling Zhang

[againstwind]

是张洪凌女士?

您好！

真没想到在这里见到您的帖子。就在十余日前，暨王小波老师辞世十周年期间，国内许多媒体都报道了您的译作《王二的爱欲枷锁》在美国出版的消息。这真是一桩好消息！

听说您和您的搭档Jason Sommer先生为了这个译本努力了六年时间，其间想必付出了不少辛劳。再次向您及您的搭档致敬！

另外，我感到好奇的是，您是否还翻译了王小波老师的其他作品，更多的英译本以后是否还会在其他更多的英语国家出版？