Society

Good stories cannot attract readers across cultures without good translations. But translations are seldom fully appreciated.

On a sunny weekend afternoon in May, there I was - in the bright open space of China Circle, surrounded by about 50 smiling, curious faces - talking about my new book《一夜之差》. I was happy that my new book was launched in the Netherlands even before China.

So excited that I will visit London again and talk about my book in an informal gathering with Chinese tea at Tea & Tattle, Arthur Probsthain Bookshop (great location opposite the British Museum in Bloomsbury).Thanks the bookshop owner Michael Sheringham and the Meridian Society for inviting

Readers of my novel Shanghai Blue often ask, “Is it autobiographical?”   

Writing about sex under the motto ‘I write with my body’, some young women writers outrage China. The Chinese call them xinxin renlei – brand new humans. 

Looking backward is a major trend in Chinese fiction today - writers often set their novels in the past to reflect on Chinese history and culture.