'That Damned Thing She Said': Four Short Stories From China

Free Entry (Please book your place on our Eventbrite page)

We're delighted to welcome Read Paper Republic to Leeds, to hold one of their celebrated 'speed book-clubbing' events!

Following on from successful events at the Free Word Centre in London, Read Paper Republic will introduce you to the world of Chinese writing and of women in contemporary Chinese literature.

They've selected 4 short stories from China that focus on highly-charged issues such as sexual freedom, political disappearances, “left-over” women, and compromising situations. A woman trapped in a loveless marriage has an awkward, but ultimately empowering, one-night stand. A wife comes home to find her husband has disappeared, or rather “been disappeared”. The colleagues of a career woman apply their engineering expertise to the intractable problem of finding her a worthy husband. A young woman refuses to sleep with her boss, with catastrophic consequences for her family.

Download the stories by clicking on the titles below and read them in advance, then come along for some speed-bookclubbing!

• 4 experienced translators will lead 4 groups simultaneously.
• Discuss one story for 20 minutes, then move onto the next.
• Discuss the subject matter, the style, the writing, and the authors (does it make a difference that two of the stories are written and translated by women, and the other two by men?)

You’ll get a chance to ask any questions you like. But most of all, this is an interactive event: we want to hear what you think, which ones you liked (or not) and what intrigued or puzzled you.

That Damned Thing She Said, by FU Yuli, translated by Nicky Harman

Missing, by LI Jingrui, translated by Helen Wang (This story was our November 2015 book club choice, and you can read more about it here).

Mahjong, by FENG Tang, translated by Brendan O'Kane

The One Who Picks Flowers, by LIU Qingbang, translated by Lee Yew Leong

Don't worry if you don't finish all 4 stories before the event - you can download a Cheat Sheet here which provides a brief introduction to each of them so that you can come along to enjoy the discussion and hear what the translators have to say.

Read Paper Republic is an ambitious project run by the Paper Republic collective of Chinese-to-English literary translators. They've committed to publishing one free-to-view short story (or poem or essay) a week for a year, from June 2015-June 2016. 4 of the Read Paper Republic translators will be at this event:

Nicky Harman translates Chinese fiction, essays and poetry. Her most recent publication is “Paper Tigers” (Head of Zeus, 2015), a collection of essays by the political blogger XU Zhiyuan (co-translated with Michelle Deeter).

Helen Wang translates for both adults and younger readers, her most recent book being the children’s novel “Bronze and Sunflower” by CAO Wenxuan (Walker Books, 2015).

Emily Jones’ most recent translation is “Black Holes” (Penguin China, 2014), a thriller by professor of law and novelist He Jiahong.

Roddy Flagg has translated many short stories for Pathlight: New Writing from China (Beijing).