Chinese Writers on Writing

by Arthur Sze (Editor), Edward Hirsch (Editor)

Overview

As the United States and China move toward an expansion of political and economic relations, interest in China and its culture has never been greater. Chinese Writers on Writing makes a contribution in illuminating this corner of the globe through the works of some of its finest writers. With more than half the works appearing in English for the first time, Chinese Writers on Writing features authors such as Mo Yan, whose book Red Sorghum was made into an award-winning movie by the same name; Lu Xun, known as the Chinese George Orwell; and Gao Xingjian, recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. Edited by award-winning poet Arthur Sze, this is the first collection that brings together material by writers reflecting on their work, their processes, and the challenges of writing under China’s political system. This is the fifth volume in the highly acclaimed Writer’s World Series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595340634
Publisher:	Trinity University Press
Publication date:	03/23/2010
Series:	The Writer's World
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Arthur Sze, one of America’s leading poets, is the author of nine books of poetry and translation, most recently The Ginkgo Light. He is professor emeritus of creative writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts and was Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is also a celebrated translator and editor of The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese. His poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, the Boston Review, the Paris Review, and the New Yorker. He is the recipient of a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, an American Book Award, and a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xxiii

Excerpt from "Some Modest Proposals for the Reform of Literature" Hu Shi 2

"Dreams and Poetry" 4

Preface to Call to Arms Lu Xun 6

Chapter I from "The True Story of Ah" 11

"Literature and Life" Mao Dun 17

*"Form in Poetry" Wen Yiduo 25

"Dead Water" 33

Excerpt from "Literature and Revolution" Liang Shiqiu 35

"Dai Wangshu's Poetic Theory" Dai Wangshu 39

Excerpts from "My Own Compositions" Zhou Zuoren 42

*"How I Wrote My Short Stories" Lao She 46

"We Need the Zawen Essay" Ding Ling 55

Excerpts from "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art" Mao Zedong 59

"Writing of One's Own" Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing) 63

"Six Tenets" Ji Xian 73

*Excerpts from Preface to A Historical Record of Carved Critters Bian Zhilin 75

Excerpts from Preface to Selected Poems Ai Qing 84

*"Innovation and Continuity in Poetry" Lo Fu (Luo Fu) 87

Excerpt from Preface to Dream or the Dawn and Other Shang Qin 95

"The Lock Electric" 96

Excerpts from "A Conversation with Shang in" 96

*"Further Reflections on the Headwaters of Taiwanese Poetry" Yang Mu 99

*"The Song of Bishop Wort" 103

Excerpts from "Life Is Changing: Even in Hilly Shangzhou" Jia Pingwa 106

Excerpt from "Protest of a Woman Author against Reckless Accusations" Li Aug 111

*"The Art of Fiction" Gao Xingjian 118

Chapter 72 from Soul Mountain 134

*"Drifting" Bei Dao 139

Excerpts from Blue House 142

Excerpts from Midnight's Gate 143

"Poetry Lessons" Gu Cheng 147

"Misty Poetry: An Interview" 149

Excerpts from "A Brief Self-Introduction" 153

*"Black Night Consciousness" Zhai Yongming 158

"The chrysanthemum lantern is floating over me" 161

*"Musings on Poetry" Zhou Zan 165

*"A Female Voice from the Past" Zhang Er 170

Excerpt from "Hsia Yü: Interview by Steve Bradbury" Hsia Yü(Xia Yu) 177

Excerpt from Pink Noise 180

*Excerpt from "The Poet I Most Love-Hölderlin" Haizi 183

*Excerpt from "Toward a Writerly Poetry" Zang Di 186

*"A Charm About Things" 189

Excerpts from "The Brown Notebook" Yu Jian 192

Excerpts from "They Tattoo Their Bodies for the World" 193

"Thanks for That" Yan Li 198

*"Why I Write" Wang Anyi 200

"A Particular Sort of Story" Can Xue 206

*"Goatskin Raft-In Lieu of Preface" Xi Xi 211

*Excerpt from "All Is Creative Writing-News, Fiction, News Fiction" Zhang Dachun 215

*Excerpt from "Autobiography" Yu Hua 219

Excerpt from "Author's Postscript" 220

"My American Books" Mo Yan 223

"Six Lives in Search of a Character" 228

"Writing in Two Tongues" Wang Ping 232

*"Traveling Between Languages" Chen Li 238

*"Confronting the Multiple Deaths of the Chinese Language" Leung Ping-kwan (Liang Bingjun) 252

"Chinese as a Language in a Neighborhood" Xi Chuan 261

"Island (#2)" Yang Lian 277

*"The Poetics of Space, and More" 278

Translators 289

Writers/Works Index 297

Editorial Reviews

A seminal work that helps increase a critical understanding of Chinese writing and literary aesthetics free from official ideology, Chinese Writers on Writing invigorates dialogue about the differences and universality of Chinese language, and its consciousness, in reference to our global framework today.” — Greta Aart

From the Publisher