Top 10 books by Chinese authors (Winnipeg Free Press)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/fyi/top-10-books-by-chinese-authors-164115276.html

  1. Cao Xueqin. Dream of the Red Chamber.
  2. Lu Xun. The Real Story of Ah Q and Other Tales of China. The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun. Translated by Julia Lovell.
  3. Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing), translated by Karen Kingsbury. Love in a Fallen City
  4. Ding Ling. I Myself am Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling. Editor, Tani Barlow
  5. Wang Shuo, Please Don't Call Me Human (Cheng and Tsui, 2003).
  6. Dai Sijie. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, translated by Ina Rilke.
  7. Gao Xingjian. Soul Mountain, translated by Mabel Lee.
  8. Mian Mian. Candy .
  9. Yu Hua. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, translated by Andrew Jones.
  10. Jiang Rong, Wolf Totem translated by Howard Goldblatt.

Comments

# 1.   

Uh... what's "top"? what's "book"? what's "Chinese"?

As far as I can tell, this is a list of ten English translations of works of fiction by writers born in a place we now call China since the eighteenth century. If it were books written in Chinese, it wouldn't include Dai Sijie; if it were books total, it might include classics like the Laozi or Zhuangzi, or maybe at least some poetry of some era; if it were novels, it wouldn't include short stories collected only in translation, such as Lu Xun and Ding Ling. I couldn't find any statement about whether these were listed according to sales or preference (if sales, where? Winnipeg? Canada? North America? if preference, whose? the article is attributed to "Staff Writer"), but if sales, wouldn't it have included Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby, and if preference, are there really critics who like both Gao Xingjian and Mian Mian, both Yu Hua and Jiang Rong?

Lucas

Lucas Klein, July 29, 2012, 3:39p.m.

# 2.   

This appears to be a reprint of "Tina Chen's top 10 books by Chinese authors", originally published in the University of Manitoba Bulletin and written by an "associate head and associate professor of history."

jdmartinsen, July 29, 2012, 5:27p.m.

# 3.   

Thanks--well spotted!

I suppose the fact that the list comprises the suggestions of a history teacher accounts for both the haphazard literary quality involved, as well as the generally chronological progression of the books... still, I'm sure many of us could come up with lists of Chinese fiction to teach history by that would be at least as interesting as this.

Lucas

Lucas Klein, July 30, 2012, 3:04a.m.

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