Fiction Set in Mainland China

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Fiction Set in Mainland China -
by Chinese authors, available in English translation

Chairman Mao would not be amused: fiction from today's China, 1995.

Twenty stories by Chinese writers as they break free of the grip of uniformity which held them for over four decades.

K : the art of love by Hong Ying, 1999, 2002

"...the author of K could not be happier that people are talking about the sexually explicit nature of her writing -- touted as a Chinese Lady Chatterly's Lover... a fast and interesting read..." - Library Journal

Playing for thrills by Wang Shuo, 1998.

"If you can imagine Raymond Chandler crossed with Bruce Lee (or maybe Richard Brautigan crossed with John Woo), that gives you the flavor..." - Stephen King. Banned in China as "hooligan literature."

A private life by Chen Ran, 1996, 2004.

"The turbulent decades spanning the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the deadly demonstrations at Tiananmen Square provide the backdrop for this sensuous coming-of-age tale... Chen's first work to be translated into English provides an eloquent examination of the quest for calm in a chaotic world." - Booklist

Red sorghum : a novel of China by Mo Yan, 1987, 1993.

"Mo Yan's debut novel (and first US publication) was the basis of a 1988 Oscar-nominated film... Yan tempers his brutal tale [set amidst the brutal unrest of rural China in the late 20's and 30's] with a powerfully evocative lyricism." - KirkusMore recent titles from Mo Yan include "Life and death are wearing me out" and "Big breasts and wide hips"

The song of everlasting sorrow by Wang Anyi, 1996, 2008.

Set in post-World War II Shanghai, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow follows the adventures of Wang Qiyao, a girl born of the longtong, the crowded, labyrinthine alleys of Shanghai's working-class neighborhoods.

Soul mountain by Gao Xingjian, 1989, 2000.

"Startlingly poetic language….bewitching narrative voices…one long immersion in buried strata of history and the psyche." - Boston Globe Gao Xingjian was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The three-inch golden lotus by Feng Jicai, 1985, 1994.

"Alternately horrifying and humorous, fantastic and realistic, erotic and chaste, vague and detailed, this tale is thoroughly engrossing..." - Library Journal

Fiction Set in Mainland China -
by Chinese authors living abroad

Anchee Min - born in Shanghai, moved to the United States in 1984.

Her 1994 memoir Red Azalea was a New York Times notable book. Her most recent novels, Empress Orchid (2004) and The Last Empress (2007) are based on the life of the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was in power in the late 19th century.

Annie Wang - grew up in Beijing, now lives in Hong Kong and travels frequently to the United States.

Wang is a bestselling author in China, known as a "bad girl" author for her daring, sassy stories. Her first English-language novel, Lili, received rave reviews: "brimming with angst and rebellion, as refreshing as she is disagreeable. … A perfectly blended story of adolescent evolution in a discordant political climate." - Booklist

Chen Da - grew up in the deep south of China, moved to the U.S. at age 23 (in 1985).

His 2006 novel Brothers is described as " … an epic novel that neatly distills modern Chinese history. Da Chen’s elegantly written novel ends on the promise of redemption. . . ." – Kirkus (starred review)

Ha Jin - born in Liaoning, China, moved to the United States in 1984.

Winner of the National Book Award for his 1999 novel, Waiting. His 2002 novel, The Crazed, set in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre, is "haunting . . . wrenching. . . . A work that deserves to be immortal." - The Washington Post

Ma Jian - born in Qingdao in 1953, left for Hong Kong in the 80’s, now lives in London.

"With particular sensitivity to women, Ma Jian maps the tyrannical madness that flows from the Maoist bloodbath to Tiananmen Square to the persecution of the Falun Gong. Epically detailed yet deeply mysterious, Ma Jian's compassionate and magnificent novel [Beijing Coma] exposes China's catastrophic moral paralysis, and celebrates the inalienable freedom of the mind and spirit." - Booklist (starred review)

Shan Sa - born in Beijing, moved to France in 1990.

"From the internationally best-selling author of The Girl Who Played Go (2003) comes another brilliant historical novel…" The Empress, based on the reign of Empress Wu, "illuminates the life and times of one of the ancient world's most powerful, capable, and overlooked women." - Booklist

Wang Ping - born in Shanghai, moved to New York City in 1985.

Her books include collections of poetry, a cultural study about footbinding, collections of short stories and a book of Chinese folk lore. In the novel Foreign Devil, "Ping writes with compelling candor about an authoritative regime where the experiences of victim and torturer are often interchangeable." - Publishers Weekly

12/08

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