Jeff Wasserstrom, professor of history at UC Irvine, is the editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China, which came out last year, author of five books, one of them titled China in the 21st Century; What Everyone Needs to Know!  He is very interested in literature as well as history, and he has … Continue reading What If… – by Jeff Wasserstrom

Today's piece is by Nicky Harman of Paper Republic: Surrealist fiction, as exemplified by Franz Kafka and his Kafkaesque absurdities, feels like a very western phenomenon. But it is also a kind of story-telling that some excellent Chinese writers have taken to and given a style and a twist all of their own. Yesterday, I looked … Continue reading Writing (and translating) the surreal, part two: the stories of Sun Yisheng – by Nicky Harman

Today's piece is by Nicky Harman of Paper Republic: Surrealist fiction, as exemplified by Franz Kafka and his Kafkaesque absurdities, feels like a very western phenomenon. But it is also a kind of story-telling that some excellent Chinese writers have taken to and given a style and a twist all of their own. Blair Hurley … Continue reading Writing (and Translating) The Surreal, part one: Dorothy Tse – by Nicky Harman

Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin is the quintessential Chinese novel. The translation by David Hawkes and John Minford (The Story of the Stone, Penguin Classics) is such a pleasure to read that the Complete Review suggested it as a contender for Book of the Millenium!  This much-loved eighteenth-century classic has been adapted for the … Continue reading Truth becomes fiction when fiction is true – by Ann Waltner

My Chinese Books is the blog of Bertrand Mialaret, who reviews the latest Chinese books in translation, with a new review appearing with every few weeks. He's based in Paris, and publishes his blog in French and in English. We invited him to tell us more … When you start a blog, you have to ask … Continue reading My Chinese Books – by Bertrand Mialaret

Brigitte Duzan is the dynamic webmaster of chinese-shortstories.com and chinesemovies.com.fr, and has just finished organizing a Chinese film festival. She’s based in Paris, and the two websites (in French) are easy to navigate, packed with information, and written for the non-China-specialist. We invited her to tell us more about chinese-shortstories.com…    When it comes to Chinese … Continue reading Chinese literature: what to read and how to read it – by Brigitte Duzan

What is this thing you call "Chinese Literature"?  “Chinese literature” is often a conveniently nebulous term that means different things to different people. It can refer to China as a geographical or political entity – except not everyone agrees on what that is. Or it can be a linguistic description, referring to what is sometimes … Continue reading Chinese Literature FAQ – by Dave Haysom

“I like the idea that you could have actual readable pieces hanging off the database, like ornaments on a Christmas tree. So as you go browsing, you also find things to read.” “This is something I’m really keen on!” “A catchy title would help, e.g. #TranslationThursday Weekly Story. (Sorry, that's not very catchy.)” “We don't … Continue reading Read Paper Republic: An Introduction – by Dave Haysom

The wonderful people over at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative have designated February as China month, and have asked us to help! So for a whole month, we'll be posting on the GLLI site and on Paper Republic. First post - for the GLLI readers - what is Paper Republic? Who are we and what … Continue reading What is Paper Republic?