Chinese novels make waves globally

From left: Jia Pingwa’s Ruined City, Death’s End by Liu Cixin, Paper Hawk by Ge Liang, Flock of Brown Birds by Ge Fei, Mercy by Lu Nei, and The Cocoon by Zhang Yueran are among the titles published in 2016 in English or Chinese. Photos Provided To China Daily

With many international awards, literary works from the mainland made a mark on the international stage last year. Xing Yi and Mei Jia report.

Chinese novels came of age in 2016 bagging many international awards, as in the case of children's literature writer Cao Wenxuan winning the Hans Christian Andersen Award, Hao Jingfang taking the Hugo Award after Liu Cixin, the first Chinese winner of the award in 2015, and Wang Anyi grabbing the 2017 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature from The University of Oklahoma in September.

Veteran literary critic Meng Fanhua says 2016 was a big year for novels and he says that the power of Chinese stories come from the rural areas, "where we have the strongest literary traditions".

Another veteran critic Bai Ye, who is with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says that while traditional and established novel writers continue to produce works, younger writers who were born in the 1970s, '80s and '90s are also gaining ground.

"Every year there are about 5,000 novels published in the country. But, this year, I noticed writers are more keen to reflect the pulse of the society, and their writings are close to everyday reality and easier for general readers to accept."

Bai, who produces an annual report on Chinese novels, also says that rural life is one of the key elements in the books published last year, and adds that as urbanization spreads, the nostalgia for rural life grows as seen in Jia Pingwa's work The Jihua Flower.

The novel, about an abducted girl and her plight, stirred a debate about gender equality soon after its release in March.

Other themes that writers tackled last year were urban life and history.

"It was also a trend for writers to personalize their take on history, offering a touch of warmth to a cold past," says Bai, and he pointed to Mao Dun Literature Award winner Ge Fei's Wang Chun Feng (The Spring Breeze) as an example of this kind of work.

Wang Chun Feng is about a village's transformation seen through the eyes of a young boy.

Giving other examples of these kinds of works, Bai points to Fang Fang's Bare Burial, a story about a lost family history during and after land reform, and Lu Nei's Mercy, which is about a factory worker's life before and after reform and opening up.

Another example is Hong Kong-based Ge Liang, born in 1978, and his semi-family biography Paper Hawk.

Referring to younger writers, Bai says that writers born in the 1980s are making a noticeable impression on their audiences.

Zhang Yueran made a mark with The Cocoon, which is about two young people searching for the facts behind the disappearance of their fathers.

Online writer Tangjia Sanshao's (real name Zhang Wei) autobiographical novel also caught Bai's attention.

The book is about how a self-made writer achieved fame with help of his wife.

Meanwhile, online writing is offering more choices to readers.

"Online literature fills a blank in the Chinese book market," says Shao Yanjun, a web literature expert with Peking University, and he expects internet literature to get more assimilated into the mainstream.

Separately, eight internet writers were elected to the national committee of the China Writers' Association at its annual meeting in December. Tangjia Sanshao was elected to the presidium of the association.

Explaining how internet literature is growing from strength to strength, Shao says it has now become a major source of adaptation for movies and games, and because of its large readership there is a spurt in the sales of TV and film rights of online works in China.

For instance, The Interpreters, a TV series based on a work by Miao Juan about the professional and love lives of two interpreters, attracted millions of viewers when it hit TV screens in May.

As for the money online writers are making, Liu Chang, who started writing sci-fi novels full-time in 2012 under the pen name Biting Dog, says that the TV and film adaptation rights for his work Global Evolution is worth around 2 million yuan ($300,000).

Focusing on the variety produced by online writers, Shao says: "Internet literature is also becoming more diversified in terms of quality and topics."

A good example of this is Zeng Dengke - known by the online pen name Crazy Banana - who writes historical fantasy and tries to match classical literature.

Another significant trend noticed by Shao and her students is Chinese internet literature attracting Western readers, who are also translating Chinese online novels into English on online forums such as Wuxiaworld.com, started by American-Chinese Lai Jingping, known as RWX on the forum, who quit the foreign service job to start the translation website.

Coming to the literary genres that made it big last year, sci-fi was near the top.

Wu Yan, director of the Sci-fi Study Center at Beijing Normal University, says he sees more attention being paid to the genre with a growing number of forums and seminars on campus.

Even though Liu Cixin had joked Chinese scientists were keeping their distance from sci-fi writers, Wu says that the China Association for Science and Technology took many initiatives to use sci-fi to promote popular science to the public, and its efforts included organizing the China Sci-Fi Festival, the first large-scale sci-fi event, in Beijing in September.

Besides, sci-fi works have also started entering classrooms, which used to dismiss such works, he says, adding "Even startups are focusing on sci-fi."

"But, despite the good news for sci-fi in China, I did not see too many good works produced in 2016. I think this partly due to the fact that the good news distracted writers."

However, despite his disappointment, Wu recommended a few works.

Among his picks were young sci-fi writer Jiang Bo, who has just finished the last installment of his trilogy The Heart of Galaxy, which won the World Chinese Science Fiction Association prize.

Wu also recommended River of Time, a work on time travel by 68-year-old Wang Jinkang, who has been writing sci-fi for more than 20 years.

Other notable mentions included the works of overseas Chinese Americans published in China such as short stories by sci-fi writer Ken Liu, whose translations of Liu Cixin and Hao Jingfang works helped them win Hugo Award.

Another overseas Chinese American who won a mention was Karen Bao, a graduate from Columbia University, who has just published the first installment of her sci-fi series The Dove Chronicles in China.

On a more somber note, 2016 was also the year when China lost two literary stars: Chen Zhongshi and Yang Jiang.

Contact the writers through xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn