Can anybody introduce Today Chinese Literature?

[Chunn]

When someone talking about Chinese Literature, I always hear a lot of those familiar names of Classic age, even when talking about Contemporary Literature, it is still being on some periods of 1960-1970s, I have no Idea that what the Today Chinese Literature is.

[gato]

If you can read Chinese, here're some good websites:

A historical survey of contemporary Chinese literature

http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/wszl/dangdai/index.asp

Collections of books by various authors:

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

China Writers' Network

http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/

This short article in English might give you some flavor of what's going on, too:

http://www.motherbridge.org/Media/DisplayText.asp?ID=361

[roddy]

Some great links Gato, thanks.

[gato]

You're welcome, Roddy. Glad you found them useful.

That article in English is surprisingly insightful: http://www.motherbridge.org/Media/DisplayText.asp?ID=361

I posted it before I read it. I see from its website that Motherbridge is a British-based charity, headed by Xinran, author of 'The Good Women of China' and 'Sky Burial' and columnist for the Guardian, designed to act as a cultural bridge for Westerners who've adopted children from China.

[roddy]

I should probably read 'The Good Women of China' again - I tried to read it a few years ago, but got fed up with it. Can't remember why.

Got Wang Xiaobo's 黄金时代 from one of those links - been meaning to tackle it for ages, and got through a few chapters yesterday - really enjoying it.

[Chunn]

Thank you Gato.

The article in English is really hit my target.

I need more time to read what they say in the Chinese webs.

Just to know that there are 现代 and 当代 which I suppose they mean Modern (Literature) and Contemporary respectively.

[gato]

I should probably read 'The Good Women of China' again - I tried to read it a few years ago, but got fed up with it. Can't remember why.

Probably too whiny.

Got Wang Xiaobo's 黄金时代 from one of those links - been meaning to tackle it for ages, and got through a few chapters yesterday - really enjoying it.

后来我才知道，生活就是个缓慢受锤的过程

I see you've incorporated a part of the book into your sig. I think many of us can relate to that.

[Chunn]

After read through the article "Literature in Transition", there is a name come into my mind "Wang Shuo", heard some Chinese youngster mentioned his name on the online discussion. I haven't read any book of him, if I want to start one of them which will help me having more understanding on Chinese social today, which is the best one?

[alek31415926]

well,i think the books you guys mention belong only to the cultural elite,i mean, they are more welcome by the 70's generation.

you may like to surf this website www.dangdang.com ,something like amazon in china, and look at the top seller list:it tells you what young chinese are really interested in.

[gato]

I only know a little bit about Chinese literature. Wang Shuo's "玩的就是心跳", a crime thriller, has been translated into English by the ubiquitous Howard Greenblatt. The Chinese original is available here: http://www.shuku.net:8080/novels/wangshuo/xintiao/xintiao.html

His "我是你爸爸", about generational conflicts, I've heard, is a good read, is shorter, and might tell you more about contemporary social issues.

http://www.white-collar.net/01-author/w/14-wangsuo/jq/05.htm

Wang Meng, a famous writer from the older generation, made this comment about Wang Shuo. He said reading Wang Shuo is "as relaxing as smoking a cigarette or playing a round of mahjong." I guess it's a compliment because people love to smoke and play mahjong. He might have meant that it's a guilty pleasure.

http://www.white-collar.net/01-author/w/14-wangsuo/001.htm

王蒙讀王朔：「覺得輕鬆地如同吸一口香煙或者玩一圈麻將牌。」

You might be interested in some famous contemporary Taiwanese novelists, too.

http://www.white-collar.net/01-author/z/07-zhang_mj/zhang_mj.htm

张曼娟. Her "海水正蓝" is famous. She's quite an interesting woman.

http://www.white-collar.net/01-author/z/07-zhang_mj/15.htm

http://www.white-collar.net/01-author/z/39-zhu_tw/index-ztw.htm

朱天文. Her "世纪末的华丽" was voted as one of the top 100 Chinese novels of the 20th century: http://www.white-collar.net/01-author/z/39-zhu_tw/01.htm

She's also written many screenplays for the great director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, including 《童年往事》(The Time to Live and the Time to Die), 《悲情城市》(A City of Sadness),《戏梦人生》(The Puppetmaster), and《好男好女》(Good Men,Good Women).

[gato]

You can try Mian Mian, too. She's of the generation born in the 1970s and writes about the love lives of young people. Her novels include "Candy" and "Every Good Kid Has Candy to Eat."

I haven't read her, but supposedly she has more depth than Wei Hui, the author of "Shanghai Baby." Customer reviews of the English translation of her novel "Candy" on Amazon.com, however, say otherwise and compare her to Courtney Love: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316563560/qid=1117686856/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-2852823-3818523?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Maybe you should read it online and see for yourself.

http://www.white-collar.net/01-author/m/05-mian_m/mian_mian.htm

　出生于七十年代的一位女性作家，因作品中涉及到都市年轻女性的个人私密生活而被拿来与卫慧并称。其实棉棉的作品更加真实而诚恳，与卫慧式的华丽炫耀有很大不同。（宇慧）

[wushijiao]

I read Wang Shuo's 我是你爸爸 and found it to be funny and meaningful. However, I've picked up at least two of his other books and found them to be too boring, or at least, not my lump of Kuding tea. I've noticed a lot of other people seem to find his books to be "hit or miss", or "love/hate".

I think Wang Shuo is good a creating hilarious, counter-culture characters that don't fit in to the system. But I'm not sure if I'd recommend him as a way to understand modern China because his characters are mainly oddballs that don't fit into the mainstream. Although, I guess there is something to be said for learning about a culture by observing what behaviors and actions a culture considers innappropriate, lewd or sanctioned.

Yu Hua 余华's books are simple and emotionally gripping, but at the same time are still fairly allegorical. 活着, the tale of a common family living through chaotic events in the PRC from 1940's-1980's, is the book that the famous Zhang Yimou movie of the same name is based on. I loved that book (which was the first one i read in Chinese), so I read 许三观卖血记． I also liked that book, but Yu Hua seemed to use the same formula as 活着．

In English, Ha Jin is amazing. If you look at the average fruit vendor or farmer in China, a Westerner might think either that the guy is "a poor dumb hick" or "one of the many exploited people the PRC is denying the rights and dignity of. We should stand in unified solidarity with him, and fight for his rights because he is voiceless...etc". In eiither case, the Westerner (or urban Chinese) isn't seeing the real person, but rather some stereotype. Ha Jin writes these people with dark humor and sarcasm, while never ignoring their motivations, morals or individual traits. It sounds cheesy to say, but I think his books work well at subtly satirizing Mainland morals and motivations, while also describing China's joie de vivre, which is something many critics don't get.

I think my goal this summer is to read some Mo Yan.

What other contemporary authors do people like?

[Chunn]

All replies are helpful, many thanks.

I have read 少女小渔 by 严歌苓 in Thai version, translated by our Princess Sirinthorn. Kind of relationship across culture, there are only 4 main characters in the whole story, it's simple, clear, and touch, I think.

Anyway, there is nothing about China today social issue in the story.

[in_lab]

I thought Mo Yan's "The Garlic Ballads" was great. I remember as I read it that I thought it would be worth reading again. A few years ago, I read all of Ha Jin's books that I could find. I enjoyed them all, but I can't remember much about them. I guess it wouldn't hurt to read those again too.

Another author I enjoyed is Jia Pingwa. After reading his books available in English, I bought a book of his in Chinese, but was disappointed to find that it's too hard for me. I showed it to a Chinese friend, and he said it was difficult for him too, so it may be a long time before I can read that book.

Edit:

The Mo Yan book that I thought was the best might have been The Republic of Wine. It's only been a few years, but I can't remember clearly.

[BeijingSlacker]

I can imagine Wangshuo's works would be quite hard for non-native speakers as it is full of sarcasm, (Beijing) slangs and wordplays. Lots of cultural reference would be required too. Although some of his novels are the funniest writing I've ever read in my life, generally they might not be good for language learning purposes.

[roddy]

I was thinking about that lately, as I've been reading 王小波's 黄金时代, and while I loved it I've really got no way of knowing how much of it I actually understood. I mean, I followed the story, I laughed at the bits I thought were funny, I noticed a few plays on words - but short of having an annotated version for non-native speakers, any number of things could have gone whooshing over my head.

I'm not going to worry about it though - I figure as long as I'm enjoying it I should keep going. I can always read it again in 5 years

Roddy

[gato]

Sounds like you're doing pretty well. I would recommend reading his 未来世界 (Future World) next.

http://gd.cnread.net/cnread1/xdwx/w/wangxiaobo/wlsj/index.html

Some Aussie's done an English translation of it.

[roddy]

Man, every time I turn around someone recommends something by this guy I've never heard of. I thought at least the advantage of liking a deceased writer would mean you had a reasonable chance of knowing how much you had to read ahead of you, without the risk of them suddenly producing a ten-volume epic for you to read.

Ah well, I'll get there in the end.

More on topic, I'm not sure I'd recommend Wang Xiaobo for a beginner, but if you have a decent level of Chinese and want to tackle some interesting, amusing writing, he's fantastic. I absolutely love the guy's sense of humor. The first line of 2015:

从很小时开始，我就想当艺术家。艺术家穿着灯芯绒的外套，留着长头发，蹲在派出所的墙下

Since I was very small, I wanted to be an artist. Artists all wore corduroy jackets, let their hair grow long, and squatted by the police station wall

My translation. I want to read 2015, but I've been told I should read 2010 first and I can't find an electronic version (hint hint ).

Another advantage of Wang Xiaobo is that there are collections of essays - very useful if you don't want to commit to a novel.

Roddy

[gato]

This site has almost everything by Wang Xiaobo that has ever been published, including "2010" (scroll down to the book "黑铁时代"), love letters to his wife (王小波与李银河书信集), and the study he did with his wife on gays in China.

http://member.netease.com/~opig/mute/wangtwo.htm

I'm sure you'll be fine if you go ahead with "2015." His stories aren't so plot-oriented that you have to know what happened five hypothetical years before to understand what happened later. "2015" was published earlier than "2010," in the collection, "白银时代" -- kind of like the "Star Wars" sequel/prequel.

[Chunn]

I can imagine Wangshuo's works would be quite hard for non-native speakers as it is full of sarcasm, (Beijing) slangs and wordplays. Lots of cultural reference would be required too. Although some of his novels are the funniest writing I've ever read in my life, generally they might not be good for language learning purposes.

Without having read any book of him, I agree with you that his work is sarcasm.

Please Don't Call Me Human by Wang Shuo Translated by Howard Goldblatt (No Exit Press)

I found this title in the suggested reading list from article "Literature in Transition" (there is a link in this thread). Do you know how well the translation is made on this?