Chinese Eco-thriller recommendation and invitation... Chen Qiufan, Waste Tide

[roddy]

I've been thinking of this as sci-fi, which is where it gets classified, but reading the Amazon page for the translation shows me eco-thriller or eco-techno-thriller, which I think is a better shout. 

 

陈楸帆, 荒潮, or Chen Qiufan, Waste Tide. A little under 160,000 characters in Chinese, and 13 hours or so in the audio book. 

 

I'm reading this in Chinese (Amazon.cn, Dangdang). It's also available in English translation by the great Ken Liu (Amazon.co.uk, .com, and I really enjoyed the sample and may yet read the whole thing) and as a Chinese audiobook on Ximalaya, with the first hour or so being free. And if those channels really don't work.

 

I'm a couple of chapters in and am impressed. Near-future. Augmented reality and various cybernetic enhancements to beast and human alike. A peninsula in Southern China known for processing e-waste from the west. The intense pollution and health issues that causes. Locals making the big bucks, migrant labour doing the dirty work, and three clans vying for position. Wily local officials. A US businessman - or is he - looking to clean up environmentally and financially. His local-born, US-educated translator. And a mysterious girl, pursued for some as yet unknown reason by thugs from the Luo clan. And that's as far as I've got - about 15% in so far. 

 

The language is definitely advanced, or intermediate with much patience, a dictionary, and a tolerance for feeling lost. But it's an intriguing tale, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things pan out.

 

Have a look, see if you like the premise. I've been taking notes as I read so far with an intention of doing a read-along series of topics, posting a quick chapter summary as I go, along with a few language comments. I'm not doing full vocab lists or anything, but if I have to look something up and it's interesting, I'll highlight it. And I'll make sure key characters and points are highlighted (assuming I noticed them). And I'll be helping out with any questions.

 

I'm attaching a 3,000 character extract. Chen Kaizong, the translator / assistant character is at a festival with his sort-of uncle, a high-ranking clan member, and sees a woman in trouble. He goes to her aid and ends up in need of rescue himself. The 垃圾人 is the local term for the migrant workers, and the very end is an entirely unsubtle reference to the US civil rights movement. I think you should be able to spot it. 

 

The extract is from the end of the second chapter, so don't be surprised if you feel in at the deep end. But it's a nice pacy scene, gives a feel for the setting, and seemed a better choice than earlier parts. Think the formatting's ok, but might have suffered in the extracting. 

 

So, who's going to read it? There's no reason you couldn't read along with the English version, either. 

extract.docx

[Tomsima]

sounds like a really interesting read. its going on my list for sure, don't know how soon I'll start reading, but maybe in the next week or two. Would be interested in doing a read along if that does come together

[Luxi]

Last year I started reading it in Chinese but soon got fed up with all the technical vocabulary, even with pop-up dictionary on the e-book, it was too much, and I have little use for all those high tech terms. I gave up the 原文  and read the English translation by Ken Liu .

 

I thought it was an interesting novel, with much for further thought and discussion, definitely worth a read. 

[roddy]

@Tomsima Good to hear. I've basically got notes on the first 15% or so of the book, and would hope to have a chunk more done before I actually started. Off the top of my head, I'd start the actual posts middle of next week. 

@Luxi I do know what you mean, it's a bit rapidfire at the start at least, I'd imagine the new vocab drops off over time. 

[roddy]

Still making my way through this. There are chucks of descriptions of technology, which I think have eased off now, but also descriptions of traditions / rituals, which could be slowing and off-putting, but I'm still enjoying it. I do somewhat hope the pace speeds up a bit now I've finished Part 1 and conflicts are starting to fall into place. 

Will post for anyone else reading maybe mid-week, hopefully. 

[Tomsima]

just finished my current book, getting my copy of 荒潮 sorted now, sounds…interesting, hopefully it starts to pick up

[roddy]

Ok, there's the first post up, for the prologue. Not expecting a huge amount of interest, but we'll see what happens. 

[roddy]

On 3/22/2020 at 9:04 PM, Tomsima said:

hopefully it starts to pick up

Read the first chapter of Part 2 yesterday - I think it's safe to say things have started to happen. Some of them so unpleasant I'll probably want to warn people about them - but then some enjoyable use of the technology available. There's some potentially spooky stuff happening, which I hope will be tech-splained later, rather than left as magic. More enthused about the rest of the book now.