
Chutzpah!
New Voices from China
University of Oklahoma Press
Will be published approx. on 30. September 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
296 pages
978-0-8061-4870-0 (ISBN)
Description
To Westerners China has often seemed a monolith, speaking with one voice - whether that of an ancient dynasty, a socialist state, or an economic powerhouse. Chutzpah! New Voices from China shatters this illusion, giving Western readers a rare chance to listen to the brilliant polyphony of Chinese fiction today.
Here, in the realms of realism and fantasy, and portraying worlds lyrical, gritty, or wildly avant-garde, sixteen selections - three of which are nonfiction - by up-and-coming Chinese writers take readers from the suburbs of Nanjing to the mountains of Xinjiang Province, from London's Chinatown to a universe seemingly sprung from a video game. In these stories one may encounter a sweet, lonely fabric store owner or a lesbian housecleaner, a posse of shit-talking vo-tech students or a human hive-mind. A jeep-driving swordsman girds himself for battle by reading Borges and Nabokov. A Beijing-raised Kazakh boy hunts for his lost heritage. A teenager plots revenge on the bureaucrat responsible for demolishing his home. A starving child falls in love with a water spirit.
These stories, collected by Ou Ning and Austin Woerner, and offered in English by leading translators of Chinese, travel the breadth and depth of China's remarkable literary landscape. Drawn from the pages of Chutzpah!, one of China's most innovative literary magazines, this anthology bids farewell to the tired tropes of moonlight and peach blossoms, goodbye to the constraints of socialist realism. In their place it introduces us to the imaginative power, boundless creativity, and kaleidoscopic diversity of a new generation of Chinese fiction.
Here, in the realms of realism and fantasy, and portraying worlds lyrical, gritty, or wildly avant-garde, sixteen selections - three of which are nonfiction - by up-and-coming Chinese writers take readers from the suburbs of Nanjing to the mountains of Xinjiang Province, from London's Chinatown to a universe seemingly sprung from a video game. In these stories one may encounter a sweet, lonely fabric store owner or a lesbian housecleaner, a posse of shit-talking vo-tech students or a human hive-mind. A jeep-driving swordsman girds himself for battle by reading Borges and Nabokov. A Beijing-raised Kazakh boy hunts for his lost heritage. A teenager plots revenge on the bureaucrat responsible for demolishing his home. A starving child falls in love with a water spirit.
These stories, collected by Ou Ning and Austin Woerner, and offered in English by leading translators of Chinese, travel the breadth and depth of China's remarkable literary landscape. Drawn from the pages of Chutzpah!, one of China's most innovative literary magazines, this anthology bids farewell to the tired tropes of moonlight and peach blossoms, goodbye to the constraints of socialist realism. In their place it introduces us to the imaginative power, boundless creativity, and kaleidoscopic diversity of a new generation of Chinese fiction.
Reviews / Votes
The stories that sing out in this collection - those of . . . obscure places and people - uniquely fit the peculiarities of the vast country. They are heartfelt, witty, sharp, odd, anguished, optimistic, and rueful; new voices for China indeed."" - ArtforumMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oklahoma
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 149 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
333 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8061-4870-0 (9780806148700)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
An artist, curator, and cultural activist based in rural Anhui Province, Ou Ning is author of New Sound of Beijing. He served as editor-in-chief of Chutzpah! magazine (2011-2014), from which this collection is drawn.
Austin Woerner is translator of Doubled Shadows: Selected Poetry of Ouyang Jianghe; he was the English editor for Chutzpah!
Austin Woerner is translator of Doubled Shadows: Selected Poetry of Ouyang Jianghe; he was the English editor for Chutzpah!