Chinese Literature

[Mr.lucifer]

I have wondered what great works china has spawned, so I have bought and read several of the acclaimed works from the 20th century. I have read The Diary of A madman collection of Lu Xun's short stories, Red Sorghum by Mo Yan, and Rickshaw boy by Lao she. I own but have have not read the penguin Real Story of Ah Q collection of Lu Xun's tales, To Live and Brothers by Yu Hua, The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan, Love in a Fallen city by Eillen Chang, Flower Terror by Pu Ning, and A Dictionary of Maqiao by Han Shaogong.

If there is any any authors from the 20th and 21st century authors that are a must read and are in translation, please let me know. I would check out the chinese classics from the 18th century and back, but I do not know the quality of the ones in translation except for the four great novels.

[JBI]

I have wondered what great works china has spawned, so I have bought and read several of the acclaimed works from the 20th century. I have read The Diary of A madman collection of Lu Xun's short stories, Red Sorghum by Mo Yan, and Rickshaw boy by Lao she. I own but have have not read the penguin Real Story of Ah Q collection of Lu Xun's tales, To Live and Brothers by Yu Hua, The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan, Love in a Fallen city by Eillen Chang, Flower Terror by Pu Ning, and A Dictionary of Maqiao by Han Shaogong.

If there is any any authors from the 20th and 21st century authors that are a must read and are in translation, please let me know. I would check out the chinese classics from the 18th century and back, but I do not know the quality of the ones in translation except for the four great novels.

Your reading list is similar to my reading list for a Chinese Modern Novelist course I took 4 years ago, very similar.

Do you want modern authors or classical authors? The list you presented, with the exception of the modernists seems hand chosen by the critic-author Nieh Hualing, who happened to mother most of those authors through the University of Iowa.

[Mr.lucifer]

Your reading list is similar to my reading list for a Chinese Modern Novelist course I took 4 years ago, very similar.

Do you want modern authors or classical authors? The list you presented, with the exception of the modernists seems hand chosen by the critic-author Nieh Hualing, who happened to mother most of those authors through the University of Iowa.

Never heard of her. I just looked up who the big contemporary authors were and the works that you championed. I learned about Flower Terror fromm you in fact. I'd recommendations of both Modern and Classical authors, please. They don't have to strictly novelists though. Are there any good short story tellers besides Lu Xun and Pu Songling?

[JBI]

Never heard of her. I just looked up who the big contemporary authors were and the works that you championed. I learned about Flower Terror fromm you in fact. I'd recommendations of both Modern and Classical authors, please. They don't have to strictly novelists though. Are there any good short story tellers besides Lu Xun and Pu Songling?

If you can, read Records of the Grand Historian, which is a classical text, but an excellent prose narrative.

As for short stories, try Stories Old and New: A Ming Dynasty Collection which is a selection of the works by early 17th century author Feng Menglong.

If you can get a hold of the works of Lu Wenfu, I recommend reading Gourmet, as it is an excellent novella.

You can try browsing the Columbia university website, as all their inventory is 40% for the summer, which makes them very affordable, and they usually put out great work.

[Silas Thorne]

Are there any good short story tellers besides Lu Xun and Pu Songling?

For short stories, besides Pu Songling and Luxun (have you read his Kong Yi Ji by the way?) , I love 朱自清 Zhu Ziqing's 背影 'Retreating figure' (not my translation):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Ziqing

I'd also really recommend Lao She's play 茶馆 'Teahouse', if you haven't already read it. He also wrote some good short stories.

Lin Yutang wrote a lot of good essays in Chinese too. Some of the essays are great to read too.

I also really enjoyed the short novel 一地鸡毛 'Chicken feathers everywhere' by Liu Zhenyun 刘震云 . Perhaps you can get a translation of this from somewhere.


These are just things I've liked. JBI has more knowledge in Chinese literature than I do. My focus has been on other areas of late.