Essential Short Stories of China in the Past 30 Years

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Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Although this book only includes a dozen or so short stories, due to space constraints, the selection is quite rigorous. I dare not say that only these are the best medium-length stories in the past three decades—there are many other works that are hard to part with—but they at least deserve to be considered the most beloved and influential masterpieces of the past three decades. With this volume in hand, one will surely enjoy the pleasure of being overwhelmed by the beauty of the path as in the "avenue of mountains and rivers."
The medium-length story genre, situated between the long and short forms, has a substantial capacity. The May Fourth Literary Revolution, initiated by Mr. Lu Xun's The True Story of Ah Q, still cannot compare to the extraordinary vitality of the short story. We must acknowledge that in the history of modern and contemporary literature, the medium-length story has been relatively quiet for a long time. However, from the 1980s and 1990s to the past three decades, it has been a period of peak, flourishing, and high productivity for the medium-length story in Chinese literature, with its genre advantages fully demonstrated. The reasons behind this are truly worth in-depth study by literary historians. The current selection is from this brilliant and talented era.