Irina's Hat
New Short Stories from China
Jie Chen, Bi Fieyu, Su Tong, Wang Shou, Xiao Su, Xu Yigua, Li Han, Fan Xiaoqing, Huang Fan, Tenzing Norbo, Tie Ning, Zhu Shanpo, Wang Baozhong, Han Shaogong
Edited with an Introduction by Josh Stenberg
2013, 360 pages
ISBN 978-1-937385-22-4 Paper $25.00
ISBN 978-1-937385-23-1 Cloth $75.00
This eclectic anthology gathers stories from established and emerging writers in China that display an astonishing range of style and subject matter.
Of the authors, Bi Feiyu (two-time winner of the Lu Xun Literary Prize), Su Tong (winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize), Han Shaogong (winner of the Newman Prize of Chinese Literature), and Tie Ning (chairman of the Chinese Writers’ Association) are well known abroad, but the other nine authors are here published in English translation for the first time. Sixteen translators, including prominent Sinologist Dr. Bonnie S. McDougall, have been engaged to translate.
The texts range from law and order in Tibet (“Amerika!”) to surrealism on the Vietnamese border (“The Bird Vanishes”), from Chinese tourism in Russia (“Irina’s Hat”) to the private lives of migrant populations (“Our Privacy”). In its range and depth, this anthology gives a Chinese literary self-portrait in dramatic times.
Authors and stories:
Bi Feiyu, “Sleeping” • Jie Chen, “When Are You Moving Out?” • Fan Xiaoqing, “Where Did I Lose You” • Han Shaogong, “Anger” • He Yuru, “Three Cleaners” • Huang Fan, “Nation Jin and His Compass” • Li Han, “Late Stage” • Su Tong, “ The Most Desolate Zoo in the World” • Tie Ning, “Irina’s Hat” • Tsering Norbu, “Amerika!” • Wang Baozhong,“The Ex-Husband” • Wang Shou, “How the Salesman Disappeared,” • Xiao Su, “Our Privacy” • Xu Yigua, “Colored Starling” • Zhu Shanpo, “The Bird Vanishes.”
Published in cooperation with the Chinese Writers Association
Josh Stenberg has translated two collections of Su Tong's shorter fiction, Madwoman on the Bridge and Other Stories (2008) and Tattoo: Three Novellas (2010). He is a Lecturer at Nanjing Normal University and a PhD candidate in Chinese Theater at Nanjing University.
