Xu Zechen and Running Through Zhongguancun
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90782/7856500.html
Running Through Zhongguancun, his 2006 novella about the love story of pirate DVD peddler Dun Huang, will soon be available in English.
For Xu, Zhongguancun bears the characteristics of a perfect specimen, inhabited by people from all walks of life. "It's no exaggeration to say that once we understand about Zhongguancun, we understand about Beijing and the rest of the country," he says.
Comments
Am looking forward to this work as I understand it's translated by Eric Abrahamsen whose writing I especially like.
That said, I am soooo tired of the "Beijing is China" refrain. It emphatically is not. It is a fascinating city, but I would argue that like Shenzhen and Shanghai, Beijing is one of a kind. Many Beijingers suffer from the misperception that China is a kingdom ruled from the capital and that attitudes and trends there represent the country as a whole, and foreign media -- many of whose correspondents live there -- play up that concept. But I think that's a big exaggeration. . .
Bruce Humes, June 27, 2012, 3:38a.m.