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Writing from the Margins
From Tibet to Taiwan, Yunnan to yonder, we recommend five Spring Festival reads with a focus on the periphery.
King Lear And China’s Big Leader Kultur
Shakespeare has much to teach us about the hubristic fragility of despotic leaders, from the tyrants of the mid-20th century to those of today. But...
Chinese Horror with Xueting C. Ni
Horror writing has an unsavory reputation in China, but comes with a long history and is full of biting social commentary. The translator of a...
New Fiction from China
2025 has seen a bumper crop for Chinese literature in translation. We recommend five recent titles, from gritty tales of the northeast to conjoined fiction...
Yu Hua: Fictional Cities
The bestselling Chinese novelist foregrounds individual suffering in the chaos of modern Chinese history. In his latest novel in translation, gratuitous violence shows the limits...
No Country for Women
Women in China have suffered abuse, silencing and erasure — despite Communist Party slogans about women's liberation. Two novels by the Chinese writer Fang Fang...
The Storytelling Robot
A science fiction story by Fei Dao, translated by Alec Ash — plus a Q&A with the author on the importance of Chinese sci-fi.
Mark Kitto on Shanghai in the 2000s
The author and former media mogul explains why he chose fiction as the best way to capture Shanghai’s go-go years in his new novel.
Jenna Tang on Taiwan’s MeToo Movement
We talked to the translator of a novel that helped launch #MeToo in Taiwan, about why both the movement and the book are having a...
Yan Geling: Crossing the Red Line
The acclaimed novelist and screenwriter built an audience in China for her powerful historical narratives. Then, somewhere, she crossed a line. What is it like...
Short Chinese Fiction
Short stories are all the rage in Chinese, but get short shrift in the West. We picked five recent translated collections, from riveting horror tales...
Found in Translation
An award-winning novel set in Japanese-ruled Taiwan explores the relationship between colonizer and subaltern, translator and translated — and how some distances can’t be closed.
