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Chinese authors

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Chinese authors
Writers such as Nobel winner Mo Yan, Man Asian Literary Prize winner Bi Feiyu, Yan Lianke and Ma Jian are winning widespread acclaim around the world. We review the best Chinese fiction and non-fiction writing from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the mainland and the world.
Illustration: Victor Sanjinez
Open Questions series

Open Questions | Yan Lianke, Chinese novelist and Nobel Prize contender, on a writer’s role

Author of multiple books, some of them banned, considers Chinese literature’s place in the world and China’s soft power projection.

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Chinese culture

Being Chinese | Why must Chinese parents make children dread piano?

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Art

Blossoms novelist Jin Yucheng on his writerly art and debut Hong Kong show

Hong Kong society

Opinion | Forget Instagram spots. What’s Hong Kong doing to nurture the next Jin Yong?

As the government continues to promote Hong Kong as an art and cultural hub in the region, it has much to learn about what truly constitutes art. Jin Yong’s wuxia novels, with their wide appeal, manage to be both escapist entertainment and a vast cultural phenomenon.

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A visitor takes a photo of the sculptures of Xiaolongnu and Yang Guo, the central couple of the Jin Yong novel, “The Return of the Condor Heroes”, at Edinburgh Place in Central on March 15. Photo: Yik Yeung-man
Trending in China

‘Eat healthy, sleep well’: Chinese romance novelist dead at 29 bids farewell

A well-known romance novelist in China, Xia Shu, has lost her three-year-long battle with the rare and debilitating neurological disorder, syringomyelia.

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Science fiction

Chinese science fiction writer Hai Ya wins Hugo Award for best novelette

Author of The Space-Time Painter becomes third Chinese writer to receive the most prestigious international prize in sci-fi and fantasy.

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Intellectual property in China

Hong Kong author Louis Cha ‘Jin Yong’ gets posthumous win in copyright lawsuit

The Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court ruled that mainland Chinese writer Yang Zhi’s 2002 novel There They Were constituted copyright infringement and unfair competition.

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Hong Kong wuxia author Louis Cha Leung-yung, known by his pen name Jin Yong, holds a copy of his novel “Book and Sword, Gratitude and Revenge” at his office in the city on July 29, 2002. Photo: Reuters
Books and literature

Put your Kindle down: 5 of the best independent bookstores in Hong Kong

Many independent bookshops have closed in Hong Kong in recent years, but here are five with books on everything from art to feminism, sure to satisfy your inner bibliophile.

XXIV 2022

Profile | Singaporean bestselling author Kirstin Chen on the regenerative gift of time

The New York Times bestselling author studied at Stanford University and her third book was a Reese’s Book Club pick … so how did she get here?

Books and literature

Hong Kong author Xi Xi, who raised city’s literary profile, dies at 85

Born Zhang Yan in Shanghai in 1937, Xi Xi was one the most beloved names in Chinese literature, her writing an invitation to ‘re-examine the world with fresh eyes’, a translator of her work said.

An undated photograph of Hong Kong writer Xi Xi, who has died at the age of 85. Photo: courtesy of Plain Leaves Workshop
Books and literature

Profile | Chinese humorist’s career sparked by surreal theatre of a Canadian office

The strangeness of being part of the multinational staff of a trading company in Montreal gave Qi Yimin the idea for his first book. The polyglot author and humorist explains why a writer needs such life experiences.

Chinese writer Qi Yimin has penned more than 40 books since getting the idea for his first from working in the “surreal” multinational office of a trading company in Montreal, Canada. Photo: Simon Song
Books and literature

Kept from her birthplace by Covid-19, Chinese writer recreates it on the page

In the follow-up to her debut novel, Little Gods, Meng Jin cements her reputation as an exciting literary talent with a collection of short stories that explores love, grief and the supernatural.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

‘A sadness too great for words’: tributes for Hong Kong author Ni Kuang

Taiwanese scientist Ye Li-hua can hardly find the words to pay tribute to Ni Kuang. For Singaporean lyricist Ng King Kang, the author was the last living representative of a golden age of Hong Kong culture.

Books and literature

Ni Kuang, writer who defined Asian science fiction, dies in Hong Kong at age 87

Ni rose to fame in the 1960s with his Wisely Series and went on to write hundreds of celebrated novels and screenplays.

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Renowned science fiction writer Ni Kuang in 2006. Photo: Martin Chan
Indonesia

Indonesian-Chinese historian Onghokham’s ‘fearless’ life celebrated in book

The book delves into Onghokham’s struggle to come to terms with his sexuality, his advocacy of Chinese assimilation in Indonesia, and his love for Javanese culture.

Australian academic David Reeve and Onghokham in 1985. Photo: Handout
Climate change

Sci-fi is best placed to discuss climate crisis, Chinese author says

Science fiction is the best literary genre to lead discussions on climate change because you can regard the whole universe as a collective living community, sci-fi writer Chen Qiufan says.

Books and literature

Review | Boy meets girl, things go wrong. Modern China through an unsparing lens

Chinese-Canadian Dan K. Woo’s short stories in Taobao, set in modern China, show a people facing the same everyday struggles as humans anywhere.

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Books and literature

Heist novel author on her Chinese-American art thieves, Netflix adaptation

Like The Fast and the Furious movies, Grace D. Li’s debut novel about young Chinese-Americans is part heist, part about finding a family with those around you.

Grace D. Li is the author of Portrait of a Thief, a heist novel about young Chinese-Americans and their relationship with a faraway homeland that is being adapted for Netflix. Photo: Grace D. Li
Books and literature

Louisa Lim on the King of Kowloon and the 2019 Hong Kong protests

In her homage to those who love Hong Kong, Indelible City, Louisa Lim taps troubled artist Tsang Tsou-choi and the 2019 protests, but its overstated assertions give plenty of cause for pause.

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Taiwan

Explainer | Why it is the end of the road for The Ugly Chinaman

There will be no further editions of Bo Yang’s controversial book after contracts expire in 2024, as widow says it has served its purpose.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Magic, mystery, deception: Chor Yuen’s takes on Gu Long’s martial arts novels

Director Chor Yuen’s unique martial arts worlds are filled with magic, mystery, deceit, deception and romance – and lots of violence. He said he filmed so many Gu Long novels – 17 in all – because they did well at the box office.

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Ti Lung (right) in a still from The Magic Blade (1976). Photo: Celestial Pictures Limited
Books and literature

Chinese writer Can Xue nominated for International Booker Prize

The author’s I Live in the Slums is one of 13 books on the long list for the US$69,000 award.

Chinese writer Can Xue has been nominated for the International Booker Prize. Photo: Weibo
Lessons from China's history

Reflections | Meet Nie Yinniang, imperial China’s version of Wonder Woman

Written by Pei Xing in the 9th century, The Story of Nie Yinniang is about a young woman with amazing powers that she acquired in her teens.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why cinema owes a debt to Louis Cha and fellow martial arts novelists

Stephen Chow, Wong Kar-wai, Tsui Hark and Chor Yuen made martial arts films by adapting episodes and characters from the writings of authors such as Louis Cha, known as Jin Yong, and Gu Long.

HK International Literary Festival

Review | Marilyn Chin writes for ‘wild-girl’ Chinese-Americans

Drawn from a prodigious career of poetry and advocacy, A Portrait of the Self as Nation is a masterclass in formal play, allusion and wit.

Poet and activist Marilyn Chin. Photo: Handout
Chinese overseas

How Much of These Hills is Gold: Chinese take on American western

Longlisted for the Booker Prize, American-Chinese author C Pam Zhang’s novel takes a timely look at racism in the US through the eyes of two Chinese orphans.

C Pam Zhang struck a chord with her debut novel, How Much of These Hills is Gold, which explores the devastated landscape of the American gold rush through the eyes of two Chinese orphans. Photo: Shutterstock
HK International Literary Festival

Review | In Strange Beasts of China, fantastic creatures live among humans

Yan Ge’s novel, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, follows a cryptozoologist who is tasked with learning about the beasts of a fictional city and in uncovering their stories, discovers more about herself, too.

Artificial intelligence

AI is helping authors imagine new sci-fi worlds

AI algorithms are helping writers fill in additional details after the first sentence, but past efforts were less than perfect.

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