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January/ February 2017: Global Lit in Libraries

One of the most rewarding parts of the Writing Chinese project has been the opportunity to work with so many authors, translators, academics, publishers and book-lovers who are doing so much to bring Chinese writing in translation to wider audiences. We've been overawed by their passion and commitment, and delighted by the new doors they've opened onto the work of writers both new and familiar.

From the start of this project we've worked closely with Paper Republic, and have benefited hugely from their enthusiasm and expertise. So we were delighted when we heard that they were going to be collaborating with Global Literature in Libraries on a whole month of China-focused blog posts.

The Global Literature in Libraries Initiative strives to raise the visibility of world literature for adults and children at the local, national and international levels. We intend to do so by facilitating close and direct collaboration between translators, librarians, publishers, editors, and educators, because we believe that these groups in collaboration are uniquely positioned to help libraries provide support and events to engage readers of all ages in a library framework that explores and celebrates literature from around the world.

The posts are gathered below - 28 in total, one for each day of February 2017, and written by many of the people we've been so fortunate to get to know as part of the Writing Chinese project. We've really enjoyed this fantastic opportunity to learn more about all kinds of aspects of contemporary writing in Chinese (and on February 19th our very own Dr

Frances Weightman shared some insights into our own project!).

So thank you to Paper Republic and Global Literature in Libraries, and here are the posts:

  1. What is Paper Republic? – by Eric Abrahamsen
  2. Read Paper Republic: An Introduction – by Dave Haysom
  3. Chinese Literature FAQ – by Dave Haysom
  4. Chinese Literature: What to Read and How to Read It – Brigitte Duzan
  5. My Chinese Books – by Bertrand Mialaret
  6. Contemporary Chinese Poetry – by Eleanor Goodman
  7. Truth Becomes Fiction When Fiction Is True – Ann Waltner
  8. Writing (and Translating) the Surreal, Part 1: Dorothy Tse – by Nicky Harman
  9. Writing (and Translating) the Surreal, Part 2: the stories of Sun Yisheng – by Nicky Harman
  10. What If… – by Jeff Wasserstrom
  11. Ken Liu on Chinese Science Fiction – interviewed by Eric Abrahamsen
  12. In China, Writing Reality as Fiction – by Li Jingrui
  13. Chinese Literature and the Law – Emily Jones
  14. The Untouched Crime by Zijin Chen (review) – by Michelle Deeter
  15. A Mesmerised Youth in the Grip of the Evolving Capital: Feng Tang’s novel Beijing, Beijing – by Martina Codeluppi
  16. Reincarnations: Chinese Novels Translated into English and into Film – by Nicky Harman
  17. Ethnic-themed Literature Out of China – by Bruce Humes
  18. Chinese Literature Prizes – by Chen Dongmei
  19. Creating a Dynamic New Centre for Chinese Literature in Translation – by Frances Weightman
  20. Jia Pingwa as Global Literature – by Nick Stember
  21. Translations in the British Library – by Frances Wood
  22. Popular genre fiction in China, from the monkey king to tomb robbing – by Heather Inwood
  23. The Ventriloquist’s Daughter: Between Fantasy and Reality – by Lin Man-chiu
  24. One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Social Experiment – by Mei Fong
  25. St Gregory’s School ‘Reading China’ book group – by Theresa Munford
  26. The Story of Ink and Water – by Chun Zhang
  27. Raiding China’s Tomb Adventures – by Xueting Christine Ni
  28. On a cold December evening I headed to the Free Word Centre in London, to do something I had never tried before – by Marinella Mezzanotte