Wang Anyi's Scent of Heaven wins 4th Dream of the Red Chamber Award
Shanghai-based author's Ming-era novel triumphs in Baptist University competition
Shanghai author Wang Anyi scored a big hit with her 1995 novel Song of Everlasting Sorrow, which was adapted into a film and television series. But the book overshadowed her five subsequent novels and she was feeling pressure to reproduce her earlier success.
The 58-year-old writer finally accomplished this with her latest novel, Scent of Heaven, published last year, winning the grand prize in the 4th Dream of the Red Chamber Award, which recognises Chinese novelists from around the world. The award is held every two years by Hong Kong Baptist University's faculty of the arts and comes with a prize of HK$300,000.
She received her award yesterday at the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The prize honours the Chinese literary classic Dream of the Red Chamber, but the submitted works do not have to be related to the book.
Last year Wang was a finalist in the Man Booker International Prize for her novel An Era of Enlightenment, published in 2007.
Judges of the Baptist University prize included professors and writers who asked publishers on the mainland and in Taiwan and Hong Kong last November to submit their recommendations.