The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature is an anthology of Chinese literature edited by Yunte Huang and published in 2016 by W. W. Norton & Company. Huang, a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara,[1] described the book as a "search for the soul of modern China" in the introduction.[2]
Contents edit
The book is 600 pages long and has works spanning about 100 years until its publishing date, with almost 50 authors represented.[3] The works were translated by multiple people.[1]
The works were placed in three sections: the Republican Era which spans from 1911 to 1949 and includes works from the New Culture Movement; the Revolutionary Era, spanning 1949 to 1976; and the Post-Mao Era, which has works since 1976. The portions of the book post 1990 are heavily focused on poetry and have less emphasis on urban fiction.[1]
Pre-1949 works:[1]
- Works by Ba Jin, Lu Xun, and Mao Dun
- An excerpt of Tales of Hulan River
- Works of poetry
Reception edit
Julia Lovell of The New York Times wrote that "it’s heartening to see a serious publisher, one whose list is geared to the general reader, invest in an anthology that manages to combine the established canon with less-well-known selections."[1] She argued that the book should have included works by Eileen Chang, and that male writers were represented too heavily in this anthology of modern Chinese writing.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f Lovell, Julia. "‘The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature,’ Edited by Yunte Huang" (Archive). The New York Times. February 7, 2016. Retrieved on March 5, 2016.
- ^ "The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature" (Archive). Publishers Weekly. January 4, 2016. Retrieved on March 5, 2016.
- ^ Donoghue, Steve, "'The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature' is a sumptuous sampler" (Archive). Christian Science Monitor. March 3, 2016. Retrieved on March 5, 2016.