- Han Shaogong
Han Shaogong (Traditional:韓少功; Simplified: 韩少功;
Pinyin : Hán Shàogōng; bornJanuary 1 ,1953 ) is a prominent and innovative Chinesenovelist and fictionist.Han was born in
Hunan , China. While relying on traditional Chinese culture, in particularChinese mythology , folklore,Taoism andBuddhism as source of inspiration, he also borrows freely from Western literary techniques. As a teenager during theCultural revolution he was labeled an ‘educated youth’ and sent to the countryside for re-education through labour [http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/62806.htm] . Employed at a local cultural center after 1977, he soon won recognition as an outspoken new literary talent. His early stories attacked the ultra-leftist degradation of China during the Mao era; they tended toward a slightly modernist style. However, he reemerged in the mid-1980s as the leader of anavant-garde school, the "Search for Roots" or the "Xungen Movement".Han's major work to date is "
A Dictionary of Maqiao ", a novel published in 1996 and translated into English in 2003. His writing is influenced byKafka and by themagic realism ofGabriel García Márquez . In 1987, he published a Chinese translation ofMilan Kundera 'sThe Unbearable Lightness of Being and edited "Hainan Jishi Wenxue" ("Hainan Documentary Literature"), a successful literary magazine. He has been given the FrenchOrdre des Arts et des Lettres and with other Chinese writers visitedFrance in 1988 at the invitation of the French Ministry of Culture. Han was invited back in 1989 but was denied permission to leave China until 1991.Han's other works include "Moon Orchid" (1985), "Bababa" (1985), "Womanwomanwoman" (1985), "Deserted City" (1989), and "Intimations" (2002).
References
* [http://www.wooster.edu/Chinese/Chinese/courses/chinese_youth/writer/han_shaogong.html Introduction to Han Shaogong]
* [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023112/0231127448.HTM Columbia University Press publicity page for "A Dictionary of Maqiao"]
* [http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/62813.htm Article about "Intimations" in Chinese Daily] (in English)
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