https://www.scmp.com/rss/318742/feed Writers such as Nobel winner Mo Yan, Man Asian Literary Prize winner Bi Feiyu, Yan Lianke and Ma Jian are winning widespread acclaim around the world. We review the best Chinese fiction and non-fiction writing from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the mainland and the world. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Chloe Loung Chloe Loung In a quiet corner of a public library in Chengdu, in China’s Sichuan province, a 47-year-old man meticulously writes in his notebook. To the students around him, he may look just like another middle-aged man filling his day. Few would guess that the man is Hu Anyan, the award-winning author of I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, a grass-roots memoir that has sold more than 2 million copies and become a cultural touchstone for China’s working class. Hu will make a rare public appearance at this year’s... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3341337/how-i-deliver-parcels-beijing-author-hu-anyan-became-working-class-hero-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3341337/how-i-deliver-parcels-beijing-author-hu-anyan-became-working-class-hero-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:15:07 +0000 Yuanyue Dang Yuanyue Dang Chinese novelist Yan Lianke is considered a strong contender to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Yan uses magical and absurd imagery to depict the realities of rural China, particularly the lives of ordinary people in the Mao Zedong era. His awards include the Franz Kafka Prize, the Dream of the Red Chamber Award and the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature. Yan is a professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing and a chair professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3326870/yan-lianke-chinese-novelist-and-nobel-prize-contender-writers-role?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3326870/yan-lianke-chinese-novelist-and-nobel-prize-contender-writers-role?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Sep 2025 11:05:30 +0000 When I was five, my parents bought me a piano. It was a very East Asian thing to do. East Asian parents tend to buy their children either a piano or violin and sign them up for lessons, and for me it was the piano. It was a dark mahogany Baldwin, and a novelty for me to sit on the bench and swing my legs, my feet just grazing the floor. An ingrained memory: my piano teacher looking at me sternly as I started playing a tune I had heard. I could listen to songs such as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3271748/joyless-club-why-make-generations-chinese-children-dread-piano?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3271748/joyless-club-why-make-generations-chinese-children-dread-piano?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Aug 2024 01:30:10 +0000 Shanghainese writer Jin Yucheng is best known for his novel Blossoms, especially following its recent adaptation by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai for the television series Blossoms Shanghai, starring Hu Ge. But the writer, whose vivid descriptions of the city of his birth helped win him the Lu Xun Literature Prize presented by the China Writers Association, is also a master at portraying China through art. The 71-year-old was recently in Hong Kong for the opening of his first solo exhibition... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3271377/wong-kar-wai-based-blossoms-shanghai-his-novel-now-jin-yucheng-has-hong-kong-art-show?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3271377/wong-kar-wai-based-blossoms-shanghai-his-novel-now-jin-yucheng-has-hong-kong-art-show?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Jul 2024 09:15:09 +0000 For the 100th anniversary of Louis Cha Leung-yung’s birth, 32 sculptures of iconic characters from his martial arts fantasy novels are on display at Edinburgh Place in Central and the Heritage Museum in Sha Tin. Standing tall against the cityscape, the vividly rendered metallic statues by sculptor Ren Zhe have created quite a buzz among Hong Kong residents, and fans of Cha from far and wide. Some of these characters are household names in their own right, and the many stories by Cha, better... https://www.scmp.com/comment/hk-opinion/article/3256520/forget-instagram-spots-whats-hong-kong-doing-nurture-next-jin-yong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/hk-opinion/article/3256520/forget-instagram-spots-whats-hong-kong-doing-nurture-next-jin-yong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Mar 2024 01:30:12 +0000 A famous romance novelist in China has died at the age of 29 after a three-year battle with a rare disease called syringomyelia. Xia Shu was widely known for her intricate portrayal of earnest emotions between men and women and penned several novels, the most renowned of which were I Won’t Love You and The Lenz’s Law. The first symptoms of Xia’s illness presented as a high fever for several days that she initially dismissed as a common cold. Two years later, she would receive the syringomyelia... https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3254077/china-romance-novelist-29-dies-after-3-year-battle-rare-disease-bids-farewell-last-words-eat-healthy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3254077/china-romance-novelist-29-dies-after-3-year-battle-rare-disease-bids-farewell-last-words-eat-healthy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Mar 2024 06:00:10 +0000 Science fiction writer Hai Ya has won the Hugo Award, becoming the third Chinese author to win the most prestigious international prize for the genre. Hai Ya, the pen name of the 33-year-old writer and financial services worker from the southern city of Shenzhen, won the best novelette award for The Space-Time Painter. He was the second Chinese writer to win the award for best novelette – the category for short works between 7,500 and 17,500 words – after Hao Jingfang, who won the prize in... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3238804/chinese-science-fiction-writer-hai-ya-wins-hugo-award-best-novelette?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3238804/chinese-science-fiction-writer-hai-ya-wins-hugo-award-best-novelette?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Oct 2023 11:53:53 +0000 The estate of renowned Hong Kong martial arts novelist Louis Cha Leung-yung, widely known by his pen name Jin Yong, has won a copyright lawsuit against mainland Chinese fan fiction writer Yang Zhi, who used the names of popular characters found in the works of the late wuxia author. The final judgment of the Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court ruled that Yang’s 2002 novel There They Were, known as Ci Jian De Shao Nian in Chinese, constituted copyright infringement and unfair competition,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3220526/hong-kong-wuxia-novelist-louis-cha-jin-yong-gets-posthumous-victory-copyright-lawsuit-against?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3220526/hong-kong-wuxia-novelist-louis-cha-jin-yong-gets-posthumous-victory-copyright-lawsuit-against?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 May 2023 09:54:39 +0000 In a city as fast-changing as Hong Kong, it can be difficult to keep the lights on as a small-business owner and offer something novel to customers that hasn’t already been monopolised by big, resource-rich corporations. Independent bookstore operators in the city have known this struggle all too well in recent years, with many opening and then closing down for a variety of reasons. While buying books online or from ubiquitous chains offers convenience, nothing beats the intimacy of a good indie... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3206108/5-best-independent-bookstores-hong-kong-bookworms-who-prefer-real-thing-reading-kindle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3206108/5-best-independent-bookstores-hong-kong-bookworms-who-prefer-real-thing-reading-kindle?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Jan 2023 23:15:13 +0000 Carl Sagan, the late American scientist and author, once described books as “proof that humans are capable of working magic” – recognising their unique ability to place a reader in the mind of a writer, possibly dead for thousands of years, breaking through the shackles of time. For Kirstin Chen, author of the recent hit novel Counterfeit, time’s connection to writing is less fanciful, more personal. “I am a slow writer. It takes me four to five years to write a book,” she says. “When I was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3204791/bestselling-author-kirstin-chen-regenerative-gift-time-her-hit-third-novel-counterfeit-explores?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3204791/bestselling-author-kirstin-chen-regenerative-gift-time-her-hit-third-novel-counterfeit-explores?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:17 +0000 Hong Kong author Xi Xi, whose whimsical tales became a defining portrait of a city transitioning away from British rule, died on Sunday, according to a publisher she co-founded. She was 85. One of the most beloved names in Sinophone literature, she published more than 30 books of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and screenplays in a career spanning six decades. She was often credited with putting Hong Kong on the map in the literary world. Xi Xi died of heart failure at a Hong Kong hospital on... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3203748/hong-kong-author-xi-xi-often-credited-putting-city-literary-map-dies-aged-85?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3203748/hong-kong-author-xi-xi-often-credited-putting-city-literary-map-dies-aged-85?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Dec 2022 18:39:43 +0000 My father was from Liaoning province (in northeast China) and my mother was from Shandong (in the east). They went to Beijing in 1955. They were both early members of the Communist Party who had participated in the revolution. After (the founding of the People’s Republic of China in) 1949, they worked in the People’s Government in the northeast for a number of years. That’s where my elder brother, Qi Yixin, was born. In 1955, they were sent to work in the capital and I was born there, in Xicheng... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3202734/how-absurdist-theatre-canadian-trading-company-office-sparked-chinese-humorists-writing-career?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3202734/how-absurdist-theatre-canadian-trading-company-office-sparked-chinese-humorists-writing-career?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Dec 2022 09:15:10 +0000 “It’s a really weird time to be alive.” Meng Jin could be talking about any number of mind-boggling global crises right now. As it happens, the acclaimed author of Little Gods (2020) has just finished talking about her brushes with Covid-19. The 33-year-old, who was born in Shanghai, has spent much of the past two years in her adopted hometown of San Francisco, which she describes as one of the most Covid-cautious cities in America. By the time the virus did catch up with her, Jin was working at... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3187009/one-most-exciting-literary-talents-chinese-american?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3187009/one-most-exciting-literary-talents-chinese-american?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Jul 2022 11:15:12 +0000 Tributes have continued to pour in from around the world for author Ni Kuang, who died in Hong Kong on Sunday at the age of 87. Ni is remembered both for his vast literary output in different genres as well as for scripting more than 100 Shaw Brothers Studio martial arts films, many of which achieved cult status beyond Hong Kong’s borders. Obituaries in film trade publications Variety and The Hollywood Reporter highlighted Ni’s role as scriptwriter of such classic films as The 36th Chamber of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3184090/sadness-too-great-words-tributes-ni-kuang-hong-kong-author?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3184090/sadness-too-great-words-tributes-ni-kuang-hong-kong-author?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Jul 2022 12:45:24 +0000 Hong Kong novelist and giant in the Chinese literary world Ni Kuang, who first gained fame for his hugely popular New Adventures of Wisely series, died on Sunday at the age of 87. A prolific author who specialised in martial arts and science fiction writing and also penned more than 300 screenplays, his passing was mourned by members of the city’s artistic community, who said he had left a void unlikely to be filled any time soon. Tenky Tin Kai-man, actor and spokesman of the Federation of Hong... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3183968/ni-kuang-celebrated-hong-kong-novelist-dies-age-87?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3183968/ni-kuang-celebrated-hong-kong-novelist-dies-age-87?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Jul 2022 11:46:40 +0000 When a prominent Indonesian personality authorises someone to write their biography, the final product almost inevitably takes the form of a hagiography. The Javanese, Indonesia’s largest ethnic group, have a saying: “Mikul dhuwur, mendhem jero”. It translates to, “when you lift, lift high, but when you bury something, dig deep”. This axiom urges people to highlight good deeds, while simultaneously playing down any flaws that society frowns upon. But for the late Ong Hok Ham – better known as... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3183785/indonesian-historian-onghokhams-fearless-life-gay-chinese-man-java?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3183785/indonesian-historian-onghokhams-fearless-life-gay-chinese-man-java?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Jul 2022 08:00:16 +0000 In Chinese science fiction writer Chen Qiufan’s new book Net Zero China, the protagonist travels through time to the year 2060 and sees a China in which President Xi Jinping’s net-zero pledge is made true. The author, also known as Stanley Chen, tells Karoline Kan “a crisis may be an opportunity in disguise”. “Our world is full of urgent climate problems, and each one is hard to solve. I tried to seek answers in my science fiction writing, but the more I learn about it, the more difficult I find... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3182334/science-fiction-best-placed-discuss-climate-crisis-says-chen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3182334/science-fiction-best-placed-discuss-climate-crisis-says-chen?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Jun 2022 11:15:22 +0000 Taobao: Stories by Dan K. Woo, pub. Buckrider Books The e-commerce colossus of its title may link the short stories of Dan K. Woo’s Taobao, but only in the sense that it hangs around in the background of these 12 China-set vignettes like the smell of stale tobacco in their often seedy settings. The common themes are, in fact, loneliness, quiet desperation, resignation in the face of unpromising circumstances, social awkwardness and incomprehension. The stories often go nowhere, like the lives of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3179477/vignettes-side-china-we-dont-often-see-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3179477/vignettes-side-china-we-dont-often-see-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 May 2022 10:15:15 +0000 Portrait of a Thief, by Grace D. Li. Published by Tiny Reparations Books Grace D. Li is extremely busy. She has just published one of the year’s most talked about crime novels, Portrait of a Thief. She is on the road fulfilling a hectic marketing schedule while also executive producing an adaptation of the book for Netflix. In addition, she is about to start her residency at Stanford University’s medical school in the US state of California. Despite everything, she is still keen to jump on Zoom... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3178512/fast-and-furious-movies-portrait-thief-part-heist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3178512/fast-and-furious-movies-portrait-thief-part-heist?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 May 2022 09:15:16 +0000 For years, journalist Louisa Lim wanted to write a book about Tsang Tsou-choi, better known as the King of Kowloon. He’d spent decades painting his semi-literate graffiti – what Lim calls his “wonky, shonky calligraphy” – around Hong Kong, including on postboxes and lamp posts. He’d claimed that Kowloon was his ancestral property, illegally seized by the British and then, after the handover, by China. Initially, Tsang was considered a vandal with mental health problems; he’d spent 18 months in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3175050/indelible-city-louisa-lims-homage-those?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3175050/indelible-city-louisa-lims-homage-those?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Apr 2022 00:15:12 +0000 The widow of late Taiwanese author Bo Yang has decided to stop publishing The Ugly Chinaman, a controversial book critical of Chinese culture and national characters. Chang Hsiang-hua, a writer, poet and teacher, has decided to permanently suspend publication of The Ugly Chinaman after existing contracts expire in 2024, according to Taiwan’s China Times newspaper. This came after Chang repeatedly rejected requests to include excerpts of the book in Taiwan’s Chinese-language curriculum, citing... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3156582/why-it-end-road-ugly-chinaman?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3156582/why-it-end-road-ugly-chinaman?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Nov 2021 05:54:40 +0000 Film director Chor Yuen adapted 17 works by the New Wave martial arts novelist Gu Long for the screen, and in the process created unique martial arts worlds filled with magic, mystery, deceit, deception and romance. His lyrical and poetic – but still violent – fantasies feature troubled, sensitive swordsmen continually trying to discern truth from fiction and good from evil, as they fight against conniving martial artists and, sometimes, cruel supernatural beings. The heroes, who often fall... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3128770/gu-longs-martial-arts-stories-big-screen-how-chor-yuen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3128770/gu-longs-martial-arts-stories-big-screen-how-chor-yuen?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Apr 2021 21:15:18 +0000 Chinese writer Can Xue and Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, both long-favoured contenders for the Nobel Prize for literature, are among nominees for the International Booker Prize for fiction. Can Xue’s I Live in the Slums and Ngugi’s The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi are among 13 books on the long list for the £50,000 (US$69,000) prize. The list announced Tuesday features works from four continents, including The War of the Poor by France’s Eric Vuillard, In Memory of Memory by... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3127693/chinas-can-xue-among-writers-four-continents-international-booker?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3127693/chinas-can-xue-among-writers-four-continents-international-booker?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Mar 2021 20:01:13 +0000 The movie Wonder Woman 1984, released in December, is the latest adaptation of the story of the eponymous heroine with super powers. The character first appeared in a comic book, in October 1941, and has seen multiple transformations in characterisation and appearance since. China has its own fictitious woman of wonder in the character of Nie Yinniang. Written by Pei Xing in the 9th century, The Story of Nie Yinniang is short, at just over 1,700 characters in total, about a young woman with... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3116791/meet-nie-yinniang-imperial-chinas-wonder-woman?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3116791/meet-nie-yinniang-imperial-chinas-wonder-woman?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Jan 2021 18:30:10 +0000 Martial arts movies did not just spring out of nowhere – they have an intrinsic connection to Chinese culture. The films exist as part of the martial arts subculture, or jiang hu, and often draw on the characters and storylines of well-known martial arts novels or feature real or mythical heroes from the past. Wuxia movies as a whole draw on the immense body of martial arts novels produced in Greater China, while kung fu films may be based on histories, folk stories, myths, and stories – usually... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3114445/how-wuxia-movies-drew-martial-arts-novels-louis-cha-gu-long?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3114445/how-wuxia-movies-drew-martial-arts-novels-louis-cha-gu-long?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Dec 2020 23:15:13 +0000 A Portrait of the Self as Nation: New and Selected Poems by Marilyn Chin, W.W. Norton, 2018 A Portrait of the Self as Nation brings together Marilyn Chin’s poems from her first volume, in 1987, to the present. It is both an overview and, as she notes in her preface, “best hits” – and what hits they are. Drawn from a prodigious career of poetry and advocacy, the book is a poem-by-poem, line-by-line, image-by-image masterclass in formal play, allusion and wit. Every poet creates her reader and as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3110045/portrait-self-nation-poet-marilyn-chins-greatest-hits?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3110045/portrait-self-nation-poet-marilyn-chins-greatest-hits?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Nov 2020 02:45:13 +0000 This has been quite a year for C Pam Zhang. In April she released her debut novel, How Much of These Hills is Gold. Set towards the end of the American gold rush, the story follows two young Chinese siblings, Lucy and Sam, as they navigate hostile terrain and even more hostile white Americans on a quest to bury their recently dead father. Having earned glowing reviews, Zhang was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. “[It was] a huge honour, a validation and, as all prizes are, a stroke of luck,”... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3110027/how-much-these-hills-gold-c-pam-zhangs-novel-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3110027/how-much-these-hills-gold-c-pam-zhangs-novel-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Nov 2020 08:15:16 +0000 Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (translated by Jeremy Tiang), Tilted Axis Press The industrial city of Yong’an is home to a number of beasts. Some of them closely resemble humans, others are ancient breeds and others have been artificially engineered. Among them, the Sorrowful Beasts, whose males weave textiles and whose females possess a great beauty; Joyous Beasts, who are short in stature and take pleasure in breakfast cereal and fantasy novels but dislike maths; and the melancholic... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3108439/strange-beasts-china-yan-ges-fabled-creatures-arent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3108439/strange-beasts-china-yan-ges-fabled-creatures-arent?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Nov 2020 08:45:09 +0000 A new project in China is teaming 11 authors with artificial intelligence to write science fiction. The original stories, in Chinese, will be published on a weekly basis throughout November and December. The project, called Co-Creation, was initiated by award-winning sci-fi writer Stanley Chen Qiufan and DeeCamp, an AI training camp under Sinovation Ventures AI Institute. Chen previously worked for Baidu and Google China, but he now works with DeeCamp through his company Thema Mundi... https://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/3107451/artificial-intelligence-helping-11-science-fiction-authors-write?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/3107451/artificial-intelligence-helping-11-science-fiction-authors-write?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Oct 2020 21:00:12 +0000 Eileen Chang was “the best and most important writer in Chinese today”, literary scholar C.T. Hsia once claimed in his authoritative book A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, 1917-1957, published in 1961. Born into a Shanghai family, Eileen Chang (1920-1995) was arguably one of the most important writers in 20th century China. In the Western world, some scholars have often compared Chang with Jane Austen for her ability to dissect, in minute detail, the mundane things in life that affect human... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3100486/ann-huis-love-after-love-ang-lees-lust-caution-and-4-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3100486/ann-huis-love-after-love-ang-lees-lust-caution-and-4-more?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Sep 2020 04:24:57 +0000 Must I Go by Yiyun Li Hamish Hamilton 4/5 stars “Posterity, take notice!” So begins Must I Go, the fourth novel by acclaimed Beijing-born novelist Yiyun Li. The opening is a surprise, partly because Li has never seemed the sort to make bold proclamations about the lasting value of her art. If I had to choose a single word to encapsulate her corpus it would be “modest” – and I mean that in the best way. From her first story collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005), Li’s writing has... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3094583/yiyun-lis-must-i-go-old-woman-tries-solve-unsolvable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3094583/yiyun-lis-must-i-go-old-woman-tries-solve-unsolvable?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Jul 2020 21:15:05 +0000 Frosty beginnings: In the late 1950s and early 60s a great famine swept across China and my paternal grandfather starved to death. Fearing hunger, my grandmother fled from Shandong province to northeast China with her three children in tow, including my mother. She would go on to meet my father in a small village in Jilin province. The village was situated in the foothills of the Changbai Mountains, a range that crosses Manchuria and North Korea. In winter, the place could freeze like ice... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3093416/im-chinese-writer-i-write-about-place-and-i-dont?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3093416/im-chinese-writer-i-write-about-place-and-i-dont?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Jul 2020 05:15:04 +0000 China is finally getting a movie adaptation of the bestselling sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem… again. The book that’s been praised by former US president Barack Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a new adaptation coming with director Tian Xiaopeng at the helm. The critically acclaimed director is best known for the animated film Monkey King: Hero is Back. Multiple adaptations of the book by author Liu Cixin have been in the works for years, but only a stage play has gotten a public... https://www.scmp.com/abacus/news-bites/article/3090733/new-three-body-problem-movie-gets-acclaimed-director-monkey-king?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/abacus/news-bites/article/3090733/new-three-body-problem-movie-gets-acclaimed-director-monkey-king?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jun 2020 10:01:31 +0000 Forbidden Memory: Tibet During the Cultural Revolution by Tsering Woeser Potomac Books 4/5 stars The Dalai Lama has called it “the most sacred temple” in Tibet. Located in the capital, Lhasa, and dating back to the seventh century, the Jokhang temple is a magnet for devout Tibetans who gather there every day to pray, prostrating themselves on the ground. But among the worshippers who visit Jokhang these days, it would not be unusual to find former cadres of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary Red Guards... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3086264/forbidden-memory-explores-role-tibetan-red-guards?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3086264/forbidden-memory-explores-role-tibetan-red-guards?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 May 2020 20:00:18 +0000 Of Ants and Dinosaurs by Cixin Liu (translated by Elizabeth Hanlon), pub. Head of Zeus. 3.5/5 stars If you’re still searching for that perfect pandemic novel, you could do worse than Cixin Liu’s Ball Lightning (2004 in Chinese; 2018 the English translation), in which a cosmically generated illness devastates Earth’s adult population, leaving the planet in the hands of a young, inexperienced generation. The latest book by the Chinese sci-fi giant seems less concerned with humanity’s future than... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3085058/ants-and-dinosaurs-metaphor-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3085058/ants-and-dinosaurs-metaphor-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 May 2020 14:00:16 +0000 Bird Talk and Other Stories by Xu Xu (translated by Frederik H. Green), Stone Bridge Press. 4/5 stars Early in Xu Xu’s short story “When Ah Heung Came to Gousing Road”, we are introduced to the titular street in 1960s Hong Kong. The area is described as a “steep little alley”, which near the top contains luxury houses and near the bottom three little stalls run by a shoemaker, a key cutter and a florist. While the introduction of Gousing Road – most prob­ably today’s Ko Shing Street in Sheung... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3084368/bird-talk-xu-xus-short-stories-hong-kong-symbol-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3084368/bird-talk-xu-xus-short-stories-hong-kong-symbol-new?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 May 2020 09:15:12 +0000 The protagonist in Chan Koonchung’s new book Zero Point Beijing is a 14-year-old student shot dead on June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen Square. After his skull is split open by a bullet, he finds himself in the netherworld. There, he goes on a search for truth in history, studying books and historical literature day and night. “[I am] in a world of no listeners … What should I say? … It won’t be passed on, let alone understood … I am just mumbling to myself. I am the only listener,” he says in the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3084553/alternative-view-beijing-history-over-eight-centuries?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3084553/alternative-view-beijing-history-over-eight-centuries?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 May 2020 10:00:16 +0000 The Journey of Liu Xiaobo: From Dark Horse to Nobel Laureate edited by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman with Yu Zhang and others Potomac Books 4.5/5 stars Towards the end of a book launch held in Taipei in July 2017, bestselling Chinese author and demo­cracy advocate Yu Jie invoked a quote that was also the title of his latest work: “Take out a rib and use it as a torch.” Socrates had used these words, the author told the gathering, but Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo had practised them throughout his... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3080053/journey-liu-xiaobo-reveals-how-chinese-dissident-went?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3080053/journey-liu-xiaobo-reveals-how-chinese-dissident-went?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Apr 2020 04:00:25 +0000 The Message by Mai Jia Head of Zeus 2.5/5 stars Mai Jia’s books, now being translated and published in English, make great play of his huge sales in China. With global sales of 10 million, he is “the bestselling author you’ve never heard of”, according to the market­ing hype. His first novel, Decoded (2002), earned positive reviews from English-language media when it was translated in 2014 and has now been published in 33 languages. A large part of Mai Jia’s appeal, no doubt, derives from his... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3079004/message-mai-jias-flawed-wartime-novel-can-be-read?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3079004/message-mai-jias-flawed-wartime-novel-can-be-read?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Apr 2020 06:00:13 +0000 Country girl: I grew up in the village of Dauntsey, in rural southwest England, where my parents were farmers. At the age of 12, I was sent to a boarding school in south Wiltshire. I was rather lonely but there was one major compensation: it gave me a wonderful opportunity to learn languages. My French teacher was inspirational. She was from Adel, outside Leeds, and spoke French with a strong Yorkshire accent. But she made Racine’s tragedies and Mérimée’s Carmen come alive in a way that I’ve... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3076670/translator-championing-chinese-women-writers-english?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3076670/translator-championing-chinese-women-writers-english?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2020 14:00:10 +0000 Three Brothers by Yan Lianke Chatto & Windus 4.5/5 stars Yan Lianke is no stranger to writing about himself. He appeared, in subtly altered form, in his 2018 novel, The Day the Sun Died . His new book, Three Brothers, is a memoir, although on more than one occasion readers might find themselves wondering what separates Yan’s fiction from his non-fiction. The germ of the idea, as he reveals in a preface, was a sudden realisation in 2007 “that four men in my father’s generation – which included... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3065106/yan-liankes-three-brothers-honours-his-family-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3065106/yan-liankes-three-brothers-honours-his-family-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Mar 2020 05:00:06 +0000 Little Gods by Meng Jin Custom House 4/5 stars Little Gods is the impressive first novel by Meng Jin, born in Shanghai, now resident in San Francisco. Like many impressive debuts, it feels deeply personal and relentlessly ambitious. The most obviously personal aspects are personified by Liya, whose story broadly resembles that of her creator. Born in Shanghai (or so she thinks) on June 4, 1989, Liya relocates to America as a child with her mother, Su Lan, a brilliant physicist who has won a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3050456/meng-jins-debut-novel-little-gods-not-your-typical?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3050456/meng-jins-debut-novel-little-gods-not-your-typical?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Feb 2020 12:00:12 +0000 Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist, by Julie Leung and Chris Sasaki (illustrations). Published by Schwartz & Wade. 4/5 stars Growing up in Atlanta in the US, Julie Leung didn’t have many opportunities to read about inspiring Chinese-Americans. That’s why, when she learned about Tyrus Wong – the artist who helped to create the Walt Disney film Bambi – through his New York Times obituary, she decided to tell his story. Leung’s words in Paper Son: The Inspiring story... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3046305/chinese-artist-who-drew-disneys-bambi-look-life-immigrant?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3046305/chinese-artist-who-drew-disneys-bambi-look-life-immigrant?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Jan 2020 10:00:13 +0000 Loveboat, Taipei, by Abigail Hing Wen. Published by HarperTeen. 4/5 stars When Abigail Hing Wen was a teenager in Ohio, she spent a summer in Taiwan getting in touch with her Chinese roots. The programme, funded by the Taiwanese government, was dubbed the “love boat”, even though it had nothing to do with ships or the sea. The “love boat” programme began in the late 1960s to provide North American Chinese teens with a cultural experience in the old country. The nickname – a reference to an... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3045855/chinese-american-teens-explore-their-cultural-ties-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3045855/chinese-american-teens-explore-their-cultural-ties-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Jan 2020 08:45:07 +0000 Bookish boyhood: I was a studious kid. Like my five brothers and sisters, I learned piano from my mother, Carol, and played the violin. I wonder if my experimental approach to language was shaped by that early immersion in music, because music has syntax, too, of repetition and variation. My father, Chris, is a German translator who also studied Russian, so I loved reading from a young age and would digest books whenever I could, even at the dinner table. Growing up, our shelves were full of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3044316/how-british-author-translator-and-publisher?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3044316/how-british-author-translator-and-publisher?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Jan 2020 07:00:13 +0000 After 2019’s convincing impersonation of a trailer for the apocalypse, 2020 starts in refreshingly optimistic, if familiar fashion – in the book world at least. This year’s preview can begin with almost the same words as last year’s: “First up among early waking giants is Jin Yong, whose epic wuxia novels made him arguably the world’s most popular novelist of the past 30 years.” A Bond Undone , part two of Anna Holmwood’s superb translation of the Legends of the Condor Heroes’ series, was one of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3044499/asian-authors-have-written-some-most-anticipated?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3044499/asian-authors-have-written-some-most-anticipated?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jan 2020 14:00:11 +0000 The end of 2019 offers a double opportunity to review both a year and a decade in books. Covering 12 months is hard enough in our hyperspeed and atomised hi-tech age: what chance for 120? In many ways, this hyperspeed, atomised hi-tech age is the literary story of the past 10 years. Not only are books competing with the increasingly seductive and effortless attractions of the internet, gaming and the seemingly infinite supply of bingeworthy television shows, films and albums streamed straight... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3042776/margaret-atwood-hanya-yanagihara-best-books-2010s?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3042776/margaret-atwood-hanya-yanagihara-best-books-2010s?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Dec 2019 14:00:14 +0000 Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao Harper Voyager 3/5 stars The debut novel by 26-year-old, Beijing-born Amélie Wen Zhao is more or less a young adult fantasy, starring Anastacya Mikhailov, daughter of the Cyrilian emperor. Enveloped in multiple plots, it comes as little surprise when the ruler is murdered. What proves more shocking is that Anastacya (Ana) is the prime suspect. Fleeing for her life, she realises the only way to clear her name is to find the real killer. This quest results in an... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3041572/blood-heir-amelie-wen-zhaos-debut-pulled-being-racist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3041572/blood-heir-amelie-wen-zhaos-debut-pulled-being-racist?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Dec 2019 14:00:10 +0000 The Supernova Era by Cixin Liu (translated by Joel Martinsen) Head of Zeus 4/5 stars The Supernova Era by Chinese sci-fi giant Cixin Liu begins with a group of students expressing their ambitions. One boy wants to be a general; a girl wants to be a doctor, like her mother. Huahua, one of the novel’s three heroes, isn’t sure what he wants to be, just as long as he’s “the best”. Xiaomeng, whose melancholy maturity is the inverse of Huahua’s exuberant optimism, declares with characteristic realism... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3038695/supernova-era-cements-cixin-lius-position-leader-sci?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3038695/supernova-era-cements-cixin-lius-position-leader-sci?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Nov 2019 07:00:08 +0000 Tucked into a corner of northern San Jose, California, near where she lived with her family, lies a small park full of modern sculptures celebrating the life of Iris Chang, a groundbreaking Chinese-American historian and author known for The Rape of Nanking, a bestselling book that brought a brutal period in Chinese history to Western attention. Chang, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, published the book in 1997 to instant acclaim. She would publish one more book – this one about... https://www.scmp.com/arts/rape-nanking-author-celebrated-california-park/article/3036887?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/arts/rape-nanking-author-celebrated-california-park/article/3036887?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Nov 2019 09:43:54 +0000