Chinese Millennials
Description
Through a unique combination of anecdotes, wide-ranging literary analysis, cultural commentary, and interviews, author Yang Qingxiang identifies certain core problems faced by his generation, and asks how they might be solved. Yang's frank, sincere, and often unflattering assessment of contemporary Chinese society offers an illuminating and large-scale analysis of the new society that has taken shape over several decades of post-Mao economic reform, and its relevance has only been affirmed since it was first published in 2015.
Reviews / Votes
"Yang's experimental work incorporates social reality, literary analysis, and his own experience into a singular critical intervention." (Bei Dao, poet and founding member of the literary journal Jintian)
"With an intergenerational consciousness, Yang's work offers a focused, original, and penetrating cultural analysis." (Yan Lianke, author of Lenin's Kisses and The Explosion Chronicles)
"Honest, plaintive, and reflective, Yang's investigation is a wake-up call: it's time for the '80s generation to face its own difficulties, weakness, and confusion, and forge a new path!" (Zhang Yueran, author of Cocoon and Women, Seated)
"Yang Qingxiang's work is a journey through contemporary China's feelings, conflicts, and transformations, one that moves restlessly between the human, the literary, the economic, and the sociological. It's not a tour, it's not for tourists - but in Todd Foley's generously annotated translation, it is now available to English speakers curious about the ways in which Chinese thinkers encounter and visualize their world. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn about the People's Republic on its people's own terms." (Nick Admussen, Associate Professor of Chinese Literature, Cornell University)
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Persons
Qingxiang Yang (???) is a poet and literary critic based at Renmin University in Beijing, where he is a professor of literature. He is a recipient of the 8th Lu Xun prize for criticism, and has served on the judge's panel for the Mao Dun Literature Prize. He has published several poetry collections, and is considered one of the most representative and best-selling poets of his generation. In English, he is the co-editor of The Sound of Salt Forming (University of Hawaii Press, 2016), a collection of translated short stories by '80s generation Chinese writers.
Todd Foley (Translator) holds a PhD in East Asian Studies from NYU, where he teaches courses on Chinese literature, film, and translation. His translations include I Love Bill and Other Stories by Wang Anyi (Cornell University Press, 2023) and Yu Hua's latest novel City of Fiction (Europa Editions, 2025).
Content
Chapter 1- A True Sense of Failure.- Chapter 2- Historical Nihilism.- Chapter 3- The Mask of Resistance.- Chapter 4- A Silent Multiplicity.- Chapter 5- Waking from the Petty-Bourgeois Dream.- Chapter 6- What is to be Done?.