Sound and Silence
My Experience with China and Literature
Published on 23. April 2024
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-1-4780-2616-7 (ISBN)
Description
Yan Lianke is a world-renowned author of novels, short stories, and essays whose provocative and nuanced writing explores the reality of everyday life in contemporary China. In Sound and Silence, Yan compares his literary project to a blind man carrying a flashlight whose role is to help others perceive the darkness that surrounds them. Often described as China's most censored author, Yan reflects candidly on literary censorship in contemporary China. He outlines the Chinese state's project of national amnesia that suppresses memories of past crises and social traumas. Although being banned in China is often a selling point in foreign markets, Yan argues that there is no requisite correlation between censorship and literary quality. Among other topics, Yan also examines the impact of American literature on Chinese literature in the 1980s and 1990s. Encapsulating his perspectives on life, writing, and literary history, Sound and Silence includes an introduction by translator Carlos Rojas and an afterword by Yan.
Reviews / Votes
"Yan Lianke is one of the most important figures in contemporary Chinese literature and cultural politics. His sharp and insightful comments on the Chinese lived experience offer firsthand observations of the late-socialist society in transformation, and his cynical, dark humor constitutes the most poignant reflection of the Chinese consciousness in crisis." - David Der-wei Wang, author of (Why Fiction Matters in Contemporary China) "Sound and Silence contains a dozen informative essays that reveal a fascinating mind and original sensibility. Yan Lianke speaks with candor and penetrating insights. His is a jarring, distinct voice from the vast silent landscape of contemporary Chinese letters." - Ha Jin, author of (A Song Everlasting: A Novel) "Yan's insightful essays show how attempts to control history and society can be countered by memory and imagination. A brief but pithy, informative piece of work, representing a unique approach to history writing." (Kirkus) "A tender voice burning with curiosity seeps through this collection. . . . A slow burner with intricate metaphors and impressionable images, Sound and Silence will appeal to those looking for a scholarly read strung together with softhearted reflections on the parts of life worth writing about." - Lillian Liao (Booklist) "Yan Lianke, one of China's pre-eminent novelists and short story writers, is also an incisive essayist and literary critic, as attested in this collection of his non-fiction over the last decade plus. . . . Yan is at his strongest when writing personally, such as a powerful essay about his journey from army propagandist to fiction writer . . . . His voice as an essayist, precisely rendered in Carlos Rojas' translation, is more direct than his at times surrealist fiction, and carries with it a sense of mission that we could only read between the lines of his novels." - Alec Ash (China Books Review) "What makes Yan's Sound and Silence such an extraordinary project is its fearlessness. In his lectures for American university audiences, he speaks with honesty and bravery about the unavoidability of political writing in China." - Gabriel Bump (Indy Week) "I am grateful to have access to his compelling writings. His contributions have enriched my understanding of modern Chinese literature, enhancing my overall experience as a reader. For this, I extend my gratitude to Yan Lianke and other bold Chinese authors who continue to publish today." - B. Freeman (Cha Journal)More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
440 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4780-2616-7 (9781478026167)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Yan Lianke is the author of Discovering Fiction, also published by Duke University Press, as well as Hard Like Water, The Day the Sun Died, The Explosion Chronicles, and many other books. Winner of the Franz Kafka Prize and a two-time finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, Yan teaches at Renmin University in Beijing and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Modern Chinese Cultural Studies at Duke University and translator of several of Yan's novels.
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Modern Chinese Cultural Studies at Duke University and translator of several of Yan's novels.
Content
Acknowledgments vii
Translator's Introduction / Carlos Rojas ix
1. He Who Has Been Selected by Heaven and Life to Appreciate Darkness 1
2. National Amnesia and Literary Memory 9
3. The Abjection of Alt-China and Its Literature 20
4. The Wild Child That Is American Literature 34
5. My Thoughts on Literary Censorship and Controversy 48
6. My Literary Review Book 64
7. The Distinctiveness of Writing in China 76
8. Fear and Betrayal Have Accompanied Me throughout My Life 90
9. Writing under a Sky of Concentrated Power and Relative Laxity 107
10. Living without Dignity but Writing with Honor 121
11. My Ideal Is Simply to Write a Novel That I Think Is Good 133
12. A Village's China and Literature 148
Afterword. Ripping Open the Dreamscape 165
Biographies 169
Index 171
Translator's Introduction / Carlos Rojas ix
1. He Who Has Been Selected by Heaven and Life to Appreciate Darkness 1
2. National Amnesia and Literary Memory 9
3. The Abjection of Alt-China and Its Literature 20
4. The Wild Child That Is American Literature 34
5. My Thoughts on Literary Censorship and Controversy 48
6. My Literary Review Book 64
7. The Distinctiveness of Writing in China 76
8. Fear and Betrayal Have Accompanied Me throughout My Life 90
9. Writing under a Sky of Concentrated Power and Relative Laxity 107
10. Living without Dignity but Writing with Honor 121
11. My Ideal Is Simply to Write a Novel That I Think Is Good 133
12. A Village's China and Literature 148
Afterword. Ripping Open the Dreamscape 165
Biographies 169
Index 171