Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

By selecting 14 writers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the United States and New Zealand, the editors of this anthology posit a China "defined not by geopolitical boundaries and ideological closures but by overlapping cultures and shared imaginative resources." In his afterword, Wang astutely, if at times pedantically, limns the common bonds of this diverse group, whose work is immensely varied in style and substance--whatever their commonalities. "Divine Debauchery," by Mo Yan, author of Red Sorghum , is a stylized, seemingly allegorical tale of custom and desire in the early days of the Republic. The avant-garde writer Yu Hua's "One Kind of Reality" is a horrifying tale of family tragedy transmogrified into multiple murder, told in a chilling, matter-of-fact tone Bret Easton Ellis would do well to study, while New York doctor Gu Zhaosen's "Plain Moon" is an elegant and economical story of the impact of the Tiananmen Square incident on one lonely Chinese American woman. In "Ghost Talk" Yan Lian, now living in New Zealand, delivers a lyrical reflection on life as an exile: "When was it that you stopped using the word home ? . . . You've also stopped talking about 'going back'--what does back mean anyway? All you do is go away, again and again, each time a little farther. When you wake up in the morning, you're already a little farther away than yesterday." Ably translated by a number of contributors, this volume is an intriguing introduction to the multitude of new voices in Chinese literature. Advertising.

Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this new collection of stories from China, China is neither defined nor confined by geopolitical boundaries. Following a recent trend in Chinese studies, it includes stories by writers from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and those living abroad. Each story is unique in its own subject matter, tone, and style, and the inclusion of a few women writers makes this a nicely balanced collection. Two of the most striking stories are Yu Hua's "One Kind of Reality" and Xi Xi's "Mother Fish." The first story presents in a matter-of-fact tone the intersection of violence and madness that destroys a family and, by extension, a whole society; the second juxtaposes a teenager's anxiety over sex and pregnancy with the inability of the "mother fish" to give birth due to the absence of a male fish. The translations all seem competent, and the editor's analysis of these stories provides a good framework for understanding and discussing them. Recommended for all libraries.

Cherry W. Li, Univ. of Southern California Lib., Los Angeles

Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.