This Generation, by Han Han
In October, Simon and Schuster is publishing a collection of his blog posts, fittingly titled This Generation. Will Han Han ever achieve the sort of Western fame held by China's dissidents? Simon and Schuster seems to hope as much, but it's always hard to predict a Chinese writer's impact among English readers. Still, there are reasons to think that Han Han could make a splash. Not for his reputation, obviously, but for the exuberance, wit, and diversity of his essays. So, in a few months I may finally start getting more questions about Han Han. After all, his name's an easy one to pronounce.
attached to: Han Han
Comments
"Selected from blog posts from 2006-present, This Generation tells the story of modern China from Han Han's unique perspective. Writing on topics as diverse as racing, prostitution, and how to be a patriot, Han Han has written a diary that is not only invaluable for the English-speaking world to understand our rising Eastern partner and rival, but which will long be remembered as a millennial time capsule. The core of this anthology is drawn from the collection Qingchun (Youth), published in Taipei in 2010, but it also contains a sprinkling of both older and more recent pieces. Presented in chronological order, the sequence opens with a handful of early posts; it excerpts Han Han's work more fully beginning in 2008, the year when he really hit his stride and his blog commanded a larger and larger audience in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. The anthology closes with Han Han's controversial cluster of essays posted in the final days of 2011." (http://books.simonandschuster.co.uk/This-Generation/Han-Han/9781471114304)
Helen Wang, August 29, 2012, 2:59a.m.
To my opinion the point should not be: will he be successful, but how is it possible that publishers have waited so long to publish him. If he was a young American, the whole publishing world would be fighting to publish him!
Bertrand Mialaret, August 29, 2012, 9:38p.m.