Modern short stories recommendations

[Tomsima]

There are some excellent recommendations for youtube channels, video and audio content on CF at the moment. I've been reading short stories (as in 短篇小说) quite a lot in the evenings after work as a relatively stress free way to enjoy reading in Chinese. I've largely just been reading through 上海文学，四川文学 and similar magazines as I have easy access to them, but can't help but feel the quality is not great. One story I finished last night simply made no sense unless you were willing to jump through some fantastic hoops to reach a basic logical understanding. 

 

With the fact that there are a lot of avid readers here in mind, I wondered if anyone had any recommendations for reading lists and/or novelists magazines for quality shorter evening reading?

[Jim]

Do you know Paper Republic, where Roddy and I have had translations published by? https://paper-republic.org/pubs/read/ The authors there are a broad selection, you could maybe check the originals of any that catch your eye and then see if the rest of the author's work is to your fancy too.

[Tomsima]

Thanks Jim, yes I do know Paper Republic, although didn't know you and Roddy have published translations with them!

 

[Geiko]

I recently heard about a collection of magazines called 故事会, they seem to have compilations of short stories by subject. I ordered a couple of them to have a look, but the order is still being processed.

[Tomsima]

Thanks Geiko, I'll give some of the stories a read. If I'm right in thinking www.storychina.cn is their online platform, then you can read the stories there while you wait. I've been waiting on a book package for nearly 3 months now, its been sent back and forth between Guangzhou and Changsha a few times as the 快递公司 has tried to find an available flight. Could be quite some time, unfortunately.

[Publius]

。。这不是传说中的《故事会》嘛 lol

Read this Zhihu page before you decide.

 

 

[Tomsima]

现在的则是弱智了许多。从头到尾，都在强行打破头充风趣，摒弃了“故事性”，仅仅是为了追求所谓的“幽默”

 

Sadly this has been my experience with reading short stories in these kind of magazines, just generally speaking. Any advice for sourcing shorter stories @Publius? I suppose I could just go reputable author to reputable author, and just build up a collection myself - maybe share it here at some point. 

[Publius]

On 11/24/2021 at 8:59 PM, Tomsima said:

Any advice for sourcing shorter stories @Publius?

Sadly no. I'm too old to be a 文学青年. I don't regularly read Chinese books these days. Only have three short stories collections, two in English, one in Japanese.

Wait... I do have a 鲁迅经典文集 that is full of short stories. And found it! ISBN 978-7-222-15701-9.

Ha, that opens up a whole new line of thought! Among contemporary writers, you might want to try 王蒙 (reputable and prolific) or 冯骥才 or anyone you like. Just baidu author name + 短篇小说.

Also, if you don't mind 文言文, 淞隐漫录 I mentioned before is pretty decent. Like 聊斋志异 but slightly more modern. (EDIT: Sorry, forgot you said "Modern" in the title)

And, do you have easy access to 人民文学? They're the most serious literary magazine that I know of, at least they were when I was younger.

 

[Luxi]

Here you are, take your pick. These can be read online or printed. Not all 短篇小说 but many are.

中国名著-名著小说在线阅读-读书369 (dushu369.com)

[Publius]

Wow, really great resource! @Luxi

 

But...

 

I didn't know 白鹿原 was so high on the most-clicked list. Recommended it to @phills just the other day. So I clicked on it and spotted a missing character in the first sentence of the first chapter: 引以 should read 引以为. I did some more checking and to my astonishment found the whole chapter 21 missing! There should be 34 chapters instead of 33.

 

So, beware of errors like these.

 

At the same time, I recommend 冯骥才《俗世奇人》 to @Tomsima.

 

Oh, and webnovel classic 《诛仙》 to @Lu ?

[Luxi]

On 11/24/2021 at 7:30 PM, Publius said:

So, beware of errors like these.

Indeed! A good test though. A bit like the AI transcripts in Ximalaya. I think the short stories are generally more reliable. In any case, it's a useful site to check different authors and their styles, see if the language is OK for one's level, check it's not a bore, read a few chapters and then buy the proper e-book or tree-book in the sales. 

 

I think many of the clicks for 白鹿原 must be from disappointed viewers of the TV series. It's a good read too.