It was a first for Hua Cheng publishers, for the author, and certainly for me – though perhaps not for the Bai Ye, a bar which hosts regular literary events in Chengdu’s Kuan Zhai Xiangzi district. This book launch provided non-stop entertainment for at least two hours in a packed space where people at the back carried on talking noisily regardless but the mike was so powerful that you could hear the speakers from the street. Han Dong's fourth novel was launched on 24 February 2010. Now called 《知青变形记》[Metamorphosis of an Educated Youth], it had the original, much ruder, working title 《日》(and at least one purchaser asked for “日” to be inscribed above Han Dong’s signature!) An extract appears in translation on Paper Republic under the English title Screwed.
Anyway, titles notwithstanding, the evening was a great deal more fun that any book launch I’ve been to in London (normal format: speech from publisher, reading by author, and too much wine on an empty stomach). There was, true, the obligatory and slightly over-long speech by the publisher, followed by a reading by the author, but thereafter it all became much more lively. Han Dong gave an impromptu speech in which he said he turned to writing novels when he figured he would never write poetry as good as that of his favourite poets, Yu Xiaowei and Xiao An, so thought he had better try something different. The presenter interviewed him on stage about the book; there were also readings of some of Han Dong’s poems – some read in Chengdu dialect and other dialects/languages – and I read a few pages of my translation. A woman played the pi-pa, including a modern arrangement with a backing track that had at least some of the audience dancing, the 200 copies brought by Hua Cheng publishers sold out… and the beer flowed generously.
Hey, you book launch organisers! A model to follow for future events?
By Nicky Harman, April 26, 4:23a.m.
Date: 19 Apr 2010
Time: 11:30-12:30
Location: Marlborough Room, Earls Court 1
Topic: From bestselling author to renowned publisher: The superstar of China’s ever-evolving publishing scene.
Speakers: Guo Jingming (郭敬明), author and publisher. And authors: Ye Chan, Xiao Kaiyin, Lu Lili, Chen Long.
If you go, please let us know how the session went.
By Bruce Humes, April 18, 9:40p.m.
The latest (very small) controversy in the Chinese literary world is author Mai Jia's comments to the effect that "99.9% of online literature in China is garbage", and that if he were given the power he would do away with the internet altogether.
This sparked a lot of huffing and puffing, even attracting notice abroad, and now Mai Jia has posted a clarification on his seldom-updated blog.
The clarification is long-winded and hardly clarifying, but the excerpt he posts from his actual speech makes it pretty clear that he wasn't saying anything all that radical. The line about "exterminating" (消灭) the internet if he had the power (he's been quoted as saying he wants to get rid of all internet writing, but from the speech it seems clear that he means the whole internet) was obviously a throwaway joke (an earlier part of the blog post discusses what a pain the internet has been to him with regards to his thirteen-year-old son).
The second part, about 99.9% of internet literature being garbage and only 0.1% worth reading, is pretty much exactly what he said. But he then goes on to say that the most important and exciting thing about internet literature is that it is a free-for-all, with no artificial barriers to entry or readership, and that the literary greats of China's future are bound to arise online.
So his inflammatory comments, in summary: "There's a lot of crap on the web, but it's still the future."
No argument here.
By Eric Abrahamsen, April 11, 9:03a.m.
On the New Yorker blog Evan Osnos wrote a few days ago about how the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, a website dedicated to tracking censorship and its deleterious effects, had been represented in the Chinese media as a pro censorship body, effectively reversing the truth in order to give Chinese viewers the impression that Chinese-style censorship is common all over the world. Osnos' question was: "I wonder what this says about the decision-making apparatus. Do some of China’s top technology-policy planners really misunderstand the state of play in the West?"
He invited responses, so this is mine: I think there's no question that this was done deliberately, as a part of a larger campaign to lightly confuse the Chinese people as to just how unnatural their government appears to most non-Chinese observers. Both the government and its people are deeply concerned that China should appear to be a "normal" country (never mind that it be a normal country) and much manipulation of public opinion goes into supporting this illusion. The only thing a little surprising about this case is how baldly the facts were reversed.
More…
By Eric Abrahamsen, April 5, 7:30a.m.
New Comments
on Dunhuang Novel Set in Cultural Revolution Alarms China's Censors
In his foreword, Xiao Mo describes what sort of book he's written:
posted by jdmartinsen
on Romancing the Office Chair
The use of "X-chǎng" as a genre label has produced an interesting reanalysis of 商场: 商场小说 (shāngchǎng xiǎoshuō) refers not to books set in malls or bazaars, but to fiction involving the intrigues of high-level business executives.
posted by jdmartinsen
I'm with Lucas and his "administrative battlefield."
I can't see using a term including "political" as in "political arena." It's all about backstabbing and intrigue among party members and officials, not "politics" as we know it in ...
posted by Bruce
Oops -- "backstabbing and intrigue among party members and officials" does seem rather like politics in the West, doesn't it?
But given there are no elections or involvement with the "will of the people," "guanchang" still seems far from party ...
posted by Bruce
I vote for "officialdom".
posted by Jonathan
Wow, thanks for all the suggestions!
@Joel: Shangchang is definitely a better example than zhichang, that's really the right feeling.
@Jonathan: "Officialdom" is the term which has become accepted (how did that happen?) as the genre label, but I ...
posted by Eric Abrahamsen