{"id":12119,"date":"2023-04-08T07:30:27","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T07:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=12119"},"modified":"2023-04-05T13:03:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T13:03:56","slug":"the-best-china-fiction-in-translation-of-2023-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/the-best-china-fiction-in-translation-of-2023-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"The best Chinese fiction in translation of 2023 \u2013 so far"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul French<\/strong> recommends some of the best Chinese novels, short stories and poetry translated and published so far in 2023. Each of these works has something vital to say about modern China and can deepen our understanding of the country<\/h2>\n

\"launchpad<\/a><\/p>\n

The interior life of urban China: Ghost Music<\/em>, An Yu<\/strong><\/h4>\n

From the acclaimed author of 2020\u2019s Braised Pork<\/em> comes another novel with a culinary feel \u2013 mushrooms and all things fungi this time. But the novel is really about urban lives that are seemingly content and comfortable yet viewed by society as unfulfilled. Song Yan wants a child, her husband isn\u2019t interested, even rebuffing his Yunnanese mother\u2019s persuasive arguments. Eventually, Song Yan bonds with her mother-in-law over cooking mushrooms and starts to have surreal, and perhaps revelatory, dreams.<\/p>\n

A more diverse China than usually imagined: The Sojourn Teashop<\/em>, Jia Pingwa (trans: Nicky Harman and Jun Liu)<\/h4>\n

In the smoggy polluted town of Xijing sits Hai Ruo\u2019s teashop, where a group of friends, the Sisterhood, gather for tea and gossip. In their tales and anecdotes are many strands of contemporary Chinese life: Russian expats, hotpot tycoons, a tormented writer. However, money, debts and the ever-constant demand to strive for more threaten to pull the Sisterhood apart.<\/p>\n