Every two weeks, this blog publishes translations of untranslated stories from the contemporary Chinese-speaking world — narratives that, much like Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from the Chattering Salon, resist straightforward allegorical readings and moral resolution. From the titans of twentieth-century literature to emerging voices in Taiwan and mainland China, and even the serialised storytelling of China’s burgeoning television industry, these translations seek to illuminate the depth and imagination of Chinese fantasy writing.
From bronze to binary: China’s AI-assisted cultural renaissance
Bronze artefacts pulsate with quantum energy as mythical beasts become steampunk monstrosities in two of China’s AI-generated micro-dramas, where technological innovation meets cultural revival with breathtaking visual flair. As Western creative industries hesitate at AI’s ethical boundaries, China embraces the technology to transform its ancient legacy into futuristic storytelling that serves both commercial interests and…
Of Spirits, Sorghum, and Censors: The Many Contexts of Mo Yan
Charting the magic, realism and magical realism in Mo Yan’s writings In the depths of a dreamy slumber where the distinctions between the real and the supernatural are so often blurred, Mo Yan 莫言 – the first Chinese national to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature – is summoned by his ‘great-great-great…grandfather’ to ride…
Tales of Foxes and Demons
Introducing ‘The Chattering Salon: Strange happenings from the world of contemporary Chinese fiction’ What connects a dauntless warrior afraid of knives; a corrupt official reincarnated first as a horse, then a dog, then a snake; a mystic mountaintop town that shrivels to the size of a bean; and a young scholar’s drunken humiliation at the…
Strange happenings from the world of contemporary Chinese fiction 