The first translations of Sherlock Holmes into Chinese were published with spoiler titles like The Case of Sapphire in the Belly of the Goose, and The Case of the Jealous Woman Murdering Her Husband. Why give the game away so soon? To a large extent, it’s linked to Chinese gong’an [court case] fiction and the famous … Continue reading Chinese Literature and the Law – by Emily Jones

A few years ago, Li Jingrui switched careers – she quit her job as a journalist (she reported on legal cases, and had a column in the Chinese edition of The Wall Street Journal) and turned to writing fiction. We selected her short story "Missing" for the Read Paper Republic series, and also featured it in … Continue reading In China, writing reality as fiction – by Li Jingrui

Today's post is an email interview with Ken Liu, author and translator of science fiction. Apart from his own fiction Ken is best known around here as the translator of volumes I and III of the Three Body Problem, together with Joel Martinsen, and Clarkesworld magazine's in-depth interest in Chinese science fiction. Eric Abrahamsen talked to him about what … Continue reading Ken Liu on science fiction – interviewed by Eric Abrahamsen

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