Details
The book is from the novella and short-story part of the 21st Century Chinese Literature series,featuring women's stories by women writers.It includes 11 stories selected from 20 alternative pieces. It is like a mirror, reflecting chnanges in the women characters' lives. It boasts exquisite and moderate laguage, which is the style of women writers.
Editor's Recommendation
I prefer works that effectively express women's personal experiences withina social framework, rather than those overly influenced by feminist concepts.I deeply value the dramatic process through which liteiature deals with life's
complexities; rather than hoping for some all-knowing person to tell me theconclusion even before the prologue. This was the basic criterion for selectingthe stories for this book.
——He Xiangyang
The hand that rocks the cradle may rock the world. Yet she may also tremble,and even bleed. Sometimes she becomes dejected, while other times she feelshelpless, overwhelmed by sentiment. "Frailty, thy name is woman" - the oldstereotypes of fragile beings defined by Shakespeare and English literatureare now transformed by these powerful new Chinese women writers.
These stories depict female souls, even as they "weep or flower." liberatingthemselves from restraints and confinement, breaking out onto paths not yettread, towards an respiring new tomorrow.
——Huang Jiwei
The short stories selected in this book amply reflect the latest trends in Chinese literalure, featuring the great changes in China midst a globalizingworld as well.
——Zhang Yiwu
About the Author
He Xiangyang， who graduated from Zhengzhou University with an MA in Chinese Literature, is a renowned literary critic in China. She is a renowned fellow at the Henan Academy of Social Sciences (HASS), and the director of the HASS Literature Institute. Her major works include Stories on the Pilgrimage(1996)and Retrospectives through a Mirror (2004).As editor-in-chief, she conducted the compilation of 21st Century Chinese Literature-Short Stories (2002), Intellectual Women's Literature (2004), and other books. She was the winner of the 2nd Lu Xun Literary Award Prize in Criticism of Literary Theories, one of over 20 professional awards she has garnered through the years.
Table of Contents
Wang Meng 21st Century Chinese Literature - Points of Departure
He Xiangyang The "Soul" in Her Body
Tie Ning How Far Is Forever
Wang Anyi Maiden Days in the Boudoir
Chi Li A Rose in FuLl Bloom Overnight
Wei Wei Big Lao Zheng's Woman
Xu Kun The Kitchen
Sun Huifen Sowing
Ge Sbuiping Weeping Forsythia
Jiang Yun perfect Journeys
Fang Fang Ending Where I Started
Pan Xiangli Forever Autumn
Sheng Keyi The Surgery
Editor's Recommended Reading (in Chinese)
Sample Pages Preview
Goosebumps surfaced onto her plump arms. She was out of breath,and told me she had peed a little bit in her pants. ！ laughed and tookthe cooler away from Daxing and took another large gulp. A thou-sand steel needles pierced my temples again, and my eyes hurt, butI was more alert. I shot a glance Daxing's way, and we ran throughthe quiet hutong, only waking up the orange cat on the roof——thatwas Niu Niu, the feline of No. 9 Yard, who was always looking outfor our family's male cat, Little Xiong. We ran on the ground andNiu Niu ran alongside us on the roof. Niu Niu, have you ever triediced soda？ You'll never be able to try it in your whole life We ran allthe way home in a flash. That was what cold feels like.
Daxing never complained about the fact that I drank moresoda than she did on the way home. Why didn't I know how toshare？ One time, when we were getting ready to watch the moviePrince Sihanouk Vits China, we had boiled some water to washour hair. The water was steaming, and I went first, using egg-yolkshampoo. It was a type of shampoo that was colored and texturedlike egg yolk, costing eight cents a packet, but it smelled like lemon.I hogged the basin, rinsing many times. By the time it was Daxing'sturn, the movie was about to start. Grandma came many timesto tell her to hurry up, and I told her to hurry up also, although Ihad been the one causing the delay. She went to the movie with uswithout thoroughly rinsing her hair. I walked behind her and sawsome shampoo still on a strand of her hair. She had no idea andshook her head in the wind to make it dry faster. I knew in my heartthat Daxing's shampoo residue was my fault. Twenty years later, I stillthink that the fleck of shampoo is still on her head.
