big news! could not be more excited to be translating《小花旦》by Wang Zhanhei 王占黑. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

I've written on the curious arrival of the Monkey King within its Southern gothic landscape in SINNERS, Ryan Coogler’s audacious and genre-defying box office success, in the latest issue or @worldlittoday.bsky.social, devoted to the art of review. worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb... 。。。。。

hey, I see you’re reading a book there huh? some interesting words there, in your book? I once read a book too, actually, would you like me to tell you about it?

After a plagiarism scandal upended China’s literati, a spate of bestselling books published by amateur writers has changed what Chinese readers consider as literature. Read Na Zhong's latest What China's Reading column: chinabooksreview.com/2025/07/29/w...

summer holiday book haul 2025

yes the sights were lovely but what I shall remember of Paris always is the infinite variety of instrumental Hotline Bling covers. accordion Hotline Bling, jazz piano Hotline Bling, steel drum Hotline Bling. the Eiffel Tower lurks around every street corner and so too does panpipe Hotline Bling.

Beijing audience reaction to Mission Impossible – Final Reckoning: at least three boyfriends continually whispering a plot explanation to girlfriends; sporadic swearing and fist shaking when Beijing threatened with nuke attack; general warmth and enthusiasm for Tapeesa the dog sledding lady.

there were only 8 other people in my Beijing IMAX holiday weekend screening of Thunderbolts, but by the end of the film there were 8 enthusiastic fans of Red Guardian.

so far season 2 of Andor is nicely validating my decision to teach it to my English students alongside Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (a novel about a government deliberately instigating an act of terrorism to justify the suppression of revolutionaries).

the deepseek seal of approval

that sweet sweet Shijiazhuang marathon swag

my translation of The Hedgehog by Zheng Zhi 郑执 is in The Paris Review www.theparisreview.org/fiction/8386...

The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing - welcome to Bluesky! @writingchinese.bsky.social -

[𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗘𝗫𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘—𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗔𝗬] Winifred Dongyi Wang writes on Lin Zhao and her 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑘 & 𝑇𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑙 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑡: "Lin Zhao is an enigma. There are few adjectives in the English language that can adequately encapsulate this emerging supernova of contemporary Sinophone literature." chajournal.blog/2025/01/29/l...

Universal executives: sorry Chris, there just isn’t room in Oppenheimer for any more scenes of the wife waiting around for her husband to come home. Christopher Nolan: *shakes fist, clutching Penguin Classics edition of the Odyssey* just… you… wait…

My thoughts on 5 2024 China books with a lot to offer (well 4 books & a special issue of Granta), fivebooks.com/best-books/t...

Sunday afternoon in 798, Beijing.

mad as a

Shanghai Marathon 2024 – ALL-IMPORTANT RATINGS!

yeah okay ORBITAL’s pretty good but it’s not like 24 HOURS IN SPACE good

the books I am teaching this semester:

OUT NOW: The Granta China Issue – what a great line up! My favourite thing about this 王占黑 Wang Zhanhei story is the absences: all these sneakily significant gaps and elisions that you barely notice on a first read. Available for purchase now: granta.com/products/gra...

COMING SOON: Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons These vibrant poems by 杜绿绿 Du Lulu make me picture silhouettes dissolving into the texture behind them, of figures absorbing and processing and projecting themselves onto their surroundings. Available for pre-order: honfordstar.com/products/ten...