Chinese Literature Today | The University of Oklahoma
Chinese Literature Today, the biannual literary magazine featuring Chinese literature
The 10th issue of CLT features the 2015 winner of the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, screenwriter and novelist Chu T’ien-wen, plus a sampling of novellas by Han Shaogong, Xu Zechen, and Chi Zijian from By the River: The Novella in Twenty-First-Century China, an upcoming volume in the CLT book series with the University of Oklahoma Press Edited by Charles Laughlin, Liu Hongtao and Jonathan Stalling. Featured scholar Mark Bender takes readers on a tour of his new work on epic literature from southwest China. Rounding out the issue is a selection of avant-garde prose poetry from experimental author Ya Shi.
THE NOVELLA IN CHINESE LITERATURE
6 Introduction, by Charles A. Laughlin with Liu Hongtao
8 Mountain Songs from the Heavens, by Han Shaogong
16 “Creating the Old” in Literature, by Han Shaogong
19 Voice Change, by Xu Zechen 25 Novellas, Contemporary Chinese Literature, and My Writing, by Xu Zechen
30 A Flurry of Blessings, by Chi Zijian 36 River Water, by Chi Zijian
2015 NEWMAN PRIZE FOR CHINESE LITERATURE: CHU T’IEN-WEN
38 Introduction, by Ping Zhu
40 Chu T’ien-wen’s Shijimo de huali: As Nominated for the 2015 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, by Margaret Hillenbrand
42 We All Change into Somebody Else: In Acceptance of the 2015 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, by Chu T’ien-wen
44 Tribute to Chu T’ien-wen, by Ban Wang
46 Three Times: Chu T’ien-wen on Writing, Screenwriting, and New Taiwan Cinema, by Michael Berry
58 On Confessions, by Chu T’ien-wen
63 On Myths and Riddles, by Chu T’ien-wen
THE PROSE POEMS OF YA SHI
70 Introduction, by Nick Admussen
72 The Cartoon Cat and Postmodern Poetry, by Ya Shi
73 Adultery and Lyric Poetry, by Ya Shi
74 Tight Corsets and the Narrativity of Poetry, by Ya Shi
75 An Ear of Grass and Pure Poetry, by Ya Shi
FEATURED SCHOLAR: MARK BENDER
76 From Appalachia to Liangshan: Translation, Collaboration, and the Research of Mark Bender, by Timothy Thurston
81 The Art of Collaboration and the Work of Translation: An Interview with Mark Bender, by Timothy Thurston
88 Landscapes and Life-Forms in Cosmographic Epics from Southwest China, by Mark Bender
In Every Issue
3 Editor’s Note
4 Contributors
98 Chinese Literature in Review
108 Pacific Bridge
This Issue’s Art
“Seductive Evolution of Animated Illuminations, 2013.” By Shih Chieh Huang. (Modification of fifteenth-century Renaissance period Murano glass chandelier. Combined with micro controller, computer cooling fans, LEDs, garbage bags, and plastic shrink wrap.) Image courtesy of the artist.