Woefully, woefully behind the times, we write to remind those of you who do not already know of the Bookworm's upcoming International Literary Festival, to my knowledge unprecedented in Beijing for sheer quantities of literary talent gathered for a single event. Background information and a full schedule are on the Bookworm's website, but some highlights include talks with Yiyun Li, a hugely talented Chinese author living and writing in the United States, and Hari Kunzru, the launch of Beijing: Portrait of a City, a Zhu Wen film screening with Q&A, and a talk with pre-eminent translator Howard Goldblatt, moderated by yours truly.
The Chinese literary scene has become gradually more international over the past couple of years, and this promises to be a major leap forward in that continuing trend.
By Eric Abrahamsen, February 25, 12:31p.m.
Lu Jinbo (路金波) is one of the major publishers associated with internet literature and the new generation of youth writing. He began his career as a writer, under the pen-name Li Xunhuan (李寻欢), and along with Annie Baby (安妮宝贝) and Ning Caishen (宁财神) was one of the "three chariots" (三辆马车) of Rongshuxia.
By 2002 he began thinking of leaving writing behind, and moved to the Rongshu Culture Company, which became a part of Bertelsmann in that year. Since then he has become something of a minor celebrity in the publishing world, publishing the flashiest writes, giving the biggest advances, and generally breaking all the rules. The biggest names on his list are Wang Shuo, Han Han, Guo Jingming and Annie Baby, though he has a hand in plenty of other profitable publishing ventures. For further background, see Danwei's translation of an interview with him.
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By Eric Abrahamsen, February 23, 3:50p.m.
An unfortunate bit of news: we’ve been asked by the State University of New York press to take down our samples of Wang Xiaobo’s Golden Age, since the samples apparently conflict with the English-language translation rights they hold for Wang in Love and Bondage. Frankly, I’m not in the least convinced that this is legally viable, but I’m also very unwilling to get into a fight about it. The prospect of a practically penniless university press suing a group of actually penniless translators over stories few are ever likely to read is too depressing to bear consideration, so down they come. We’re leaving the stubs up; if you want to read the longer samples email us.
By Eric Abrahamsen, February 15, 5:19p.m.
Xu Xing originally gained fame as a writer during the 1980s, when he was a prominent member of the literary revival that followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. He emigrated for Germany in 1989, and didn't return for four years. He currently lives in Beijing and is working on a book about his experiences during the Cultural Revolution. He will spend most of 2008 as a writer-in-residence at the UCLA.
In the beginning...
"I'd heard of computers before I left China, but I'd never actually seen one. In Germany they had those 286s, running DOS – I got to be pretty good at DOS in Germany.
"When I went back to China 1993 I brought a computer with me; it had a black and white monitor; I thought it was such a prize… But I discovered that in the few years I'd been gone, computers had already become commonplace in China."
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By Eric Abrahamsen, February 8, 3:09p.m.
PEN international has put out a call for submissions, related to a certain campaign they've got going. Cowardice prevents us from saying more; have a look for yourself. 500-1,000 words, I only just noticed that it should be in Chinese.
By Eric Abrahamsen, February 6, 11:52a.m.
