Wang Ping (author)

Wang Ping is a Chinese-American author and academic. Ping's writings center around the past and present of China, and the experiences of Chinese immigrants in America.

Life and education

Ping was born in Shanghai in 1957, and spent her childhood on an island of the People's Republic of China in the East China Sea. Despite having only a few years of primary education, she was admitted to Beijing University, from which she was awarded a BA in English Literature in 1984. Ping emigrated to the United States in the following year, obtaining her MA in English Literature from Long Island University in 1987. It was at LIU that a professor inspired her to write fiction. She obtained her PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University in 1999.

Writing

Ping is primarily a writer of fiction and poetry which is very strongly informed by her own life experiences. Her first publication was a collection of short stories, ''American Visa'', in 1994. She followed this up in 1996 with a novel, ''Foreign Devil''. Two poetry collections followed, ''Of Flesh & Spirit'' and ''The Magic Whip'' . In 2006 ''Emperor Dragon'', a traditional Chinese folk tale, was published. A second collection of short stories, ''The Last Communist Virgin'', was published in 2007.

Ping has published works of non-fiction as well. An expanded version of her doctoral disseration on foot-binding in China was published in 2000 as ''Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China''.

Ping has also edited and contributed to the translation of works from Chinese, such as an anthology of poetry from China, ''New Generation: Poetry from China Today'' , and ''Flames'', by Xue Di.

Ping's poetry, fiction and essays are frequently published in journals and anthologies.

Academic career

Ping spent much of the 1990s as a writing instructor or poet in residence, and in 1999 obtained a position as assistant professor at Macalester College. She is currently an Associate Professor of English at Macalester, and teaches courses in creative writing and poetry.

Awards

Ping has been the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the New York State Council for the Arts for poetry, and the Minnesota State Arts Board for fiction.

External links and sources

Wang Meng (author)

Wang Meng is a Chinese writer.

He served as Minister of Culture from 1986 to 1989.

Wang Anyi

Wang Anyi is a Chinese writer, and currently the chairwoman of Writers' Association of Shanghai. The daughter of a famous writer and member of the Communist Party, Ru Zhijuan, and a father who was denounced as a Rightist when she was three years old, Wang Anyi writes that she "was born and raised in a thoroughfare, Huaihai Road." As a result of the Cultural Revolution, she was not permitted to continue her education beyond the junior high school level. Instead, at age fifteen, she was assigned as a farm labourer to a commune in Anhui, an impoverished area near the Huai River, which was plagued by famine.

Transferred in 1972 to a cultural troupe in Xuzhou, she began to publish short stories in 1976. One story that grew out of this experience, "Life In A Small Courtyard", recounts the housekeeping details, marriage customs, and relationships of a group of actors assigned to a very limited space where they live and rehearse between their professional engagements. She was permitted to return home to Shanghai in 1978 to work as an editor of the magazine "Childhood". In 1980 she received additional professional training from the Chinese Writer's Association, and her fiction achieved national prominence, winning literary award in China. Her most famous novel, ''The Everlasting Regret'' , traces the life story of a young Shanghainese girl from the 1940s all the way till her death after the Cultural Revolution. Although the book was published in 1995, it is already considered by many as a modern classic. Wang is often compared with another female writer from Shanghai, Eileen Chang, as both of their stories are often set in Shanghai, and give vivid and detailed descriptions of the city itself.

A novella and six of her stories have been translated and collected in an anthology, "Lapse of Time". In his preface to that collection, Jeffrey Kinkley notes that Anyi is a realist whose stories "are about everyday urban life" and that the author "does not stint in describing the brutalising density, the rude jostling, the interminable and often futile waiting in line that accompany life in the Chinese big city". In March 2008, her book ''The Song of Everlasting Sorrow'' was translated into English.

Works

*雨，沙沙沙
*黑黑白白
*王安憶中短篇小說集
*流逝
*尾聲
*黄河故道人
*六九屆初中生
*母女漫遊美利堅
* Lapse of Time 蒲公英
* Love in a Small Town ''小城之戀''
* Love on a Barren Mountain ''荒山之戀''
* Baotown 小鮑莊
*海上繁華夢
* 旅德的故事
*流水三十章
*神聖祭壇
*米尼
*The Everlasting Regret ''长恨歌''

Su Tong

Su Tong is the pen name of a Mainland writer born in Suzhou and now based in Nanjing. His real name is Tong Zhonggui .

He is best known for his book ''Wives and Concubines'' in the West, published in 1990. The book was adapted into the film, ''Raise the Red Lantern'' by director Zhang Yimou. The book has since been published under the name given to the film.

His other works available in English translation are '''' and ''My Life as Emperor'' .

Shi Weihan

Shi Weihan, born early 1970s, pen name of Wang Fan , is one of the most influential representatives of modern China mainland martial arts novelists.

His novels and short fiction composed at the beginning of this century earned him a reputation as a martial arts fiction genius writer, since one of his greatest achievements was that he constructed a consistent virtual world in which most of his works was developed. This style of affiliation between fiction is widely admired among current Chinese readers.

Shi Kang

Shi Kang is a modern Chinese writer born in 1967. His novel 《晃晃悠悠》 is sometimes described as being a bit like "Catcher in the Rye" and has been very popular in China. It was turned into a play in 2005.

His novels have not yet been translated into English.

Works

* 《支离破碎》
* 《晃晃悠悠》
* 《一塌糊涂》
* 《在一起》
* 《悟空传》

Qu You

Qu You , courtesy name Zongji and self-nicknamed Cunzhai , was a novelist who lived in the Ming Dynasty, and whose works inspired a new genre fantasy works with political subtext of the Qing Dynasty.

Biography

Born in Qiantang , Qu You was famous as an adolescent poet. He became a teacher-official in Lin'an , then promoted to be the Head of Secretary of the Zhou Kingdom. But at the height of his career, he was jailed for ten years.

After his release in 1425, he worked as a tutor in the household of Lord of Ying State . He was reinstated as an official, but he resigned shortly, never returning to the world of politics again, in action. His works, though entertaining, have undertone that expresses concerns and discontent that he had with politics of the Ming Empire.

Works

*''The Record of Jiandeng'' : 40 volumes
*''The New Discussions of Jiandeng'' : 4 volumes