Writing by & about non-Han Peoples of China
Press release for The Tragedy of the Modom House: . . . the gripping and tumultuous journey of Modom Lodro Chotso, the central character and her family, navigating the tumultuous landscape of Tibet under the Chinese occupation in the region of Kham Dagyab following the invasion. The book chronicles the harrowing account of Modom Lodro … Continue reading Tibetan Saga Launched in English: “The Tragedy of the Modom House”
In Xinjiang Has Produced Its James Joyce, Ed Park reviews the first contemporary Uyghur-language novel to appear in English translation, by an author --- Perhat Tursun (پەرھات تۇرسۇن) --- now languishing in the Xinjiang Gulag: If his [the protagonist's] rural Uyghur upbringing was harsh, his life as a Uyghur man in Ürümchi can be downright brutal. … Continue reading “Backstreets,” the Novel: The Brutal Life of a Uyghur Man in Xinjiang’s Ürümchi
As of July 7, 2022, Penguin is launching a collection of novels "to change the way we think about — and act upon — the most urgent story of our times: the climate crisis": " VINTAGE EARTH is a collection of novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a … Continue reading Last Quarter of the Moon: Re-launching as One of 8 Novels in “Eco-fiction” Genre
Updated: May 3, 2018 (No plans to further update) Quick Guide to China’s Contemporary Ethnic-themed Literature in Translation I’m often too busy to immediately write a well-researched post about contemporary “ethnic-themed” fiction that has been translated and published in a foreign tongue. This is a loose category (民族题材文学) that includes stories — regardless of the … Continue reading Quick Guide to China’s Contemporary Ethnic-themed Literature in Translation
Hong Ke's novel, Urho (乌尔禾, 红柯著), is set during the 1960s in the Zungharian Basin at the edge of the Gurbantünggüt Desert. This remote and rugged area of Xinjiang was once a favored hunting ground for the Mongol Khans when they ruled Cathay. A Han soldier back from the Korean front --- dubbed “Hailibu” by … Continue reading Excerpt: Hong Ke’s Xinjiang novel, “Urho”
My translation of Chi Zijian’s Last Quarter of the Moon (额尔古纳河右岸) can be ordered — e-book, hard cover and paperback — online at various places, including Amazon. Read the opening for free here (click on the cover), or the author’s Afterword. For information on other editions, see: Dutch (Het laatste kwartier van de maan), French, Italian … Continue reading “Last Quarter of the Moon”: Evenki Odyssey Captured in Chinese Novel Set in the Greater Khingan Mountains
With sales of some 2.5 million copies, Funeral of a Muslim (穆斯林的葬礼，霍达著), Huo Da’s tale about three generations of a Hui family in Beijing, is quite possibly the most popular ethnic-themed novel ever published in China. It spans the turbulent years of the Japanese invasion, World War II and part of the Cultural Revolution. I … Continue reading “Funeral of a Muslim”: Korean and Serbian Rights Purchased
Over at Chinese-shortstories.com, Brigitte Duzan has just published a backgrounder on Beijing-based Hong Kong writer Chan Koonchung (陈冠中). She details his works from 1976 to the present day, but in the excerpt below she is talking about his new novel, The Unbelievable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver, starring a Tibetan chauffeur in Lhasa who dreams … Continue reading Champa the Driver: Tibetan Candide Does Beijing?
Original Chinese novel: 《裸命》 English title: The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver Author: Chan Koonchung (陈冠中) Translator: Nicky Harman Reviewer: Bruce Humes “Dreams are so good. Why do we have to make them a reality? ” What’s a young Tibetan stud to do for a living nowadays in a tourist hotspot like Lhasa? And what … Continue reading “Champa the Driver”: Tibetan Dreamer in an Alien Land
As China’s fiction “exports” pick up, it will be interesting to watch which novels and themes win an Exit Permit to foreign lands, and how they are received there. Take Wang Gang’s 《英格力士》, for instance. This semi-autobiographical novel set in Xinjiang during the Cultural Revolution was snapped up by Penguin, and rendered in English by … Continue reading Wang Gang’s “Ingilizce” : Intriguing look at the Cultural Revolution for Turkish Readers
Ethnic ChinaLit 