This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser chats with Megan Walsh, journalist, literary critic, and author of the brand-new book The Subplot: What China Is Reading and Why It Matters. The book offers an accessible overview of China's literary scene, from better-known writers like Mò Yán 莫言 and Yán Liánkē 阎连科 to writers working in fiction genres like crime and sci-fi, and from migrant worker poets to the largely anonymous legions of writers churning out vast amounts of internet fiction. Megan talks about the burden of politics in the life of writers, the wild popularity of dānměi 耽美 (gay-male-themed web fiction), and the surprising streak of techno-optimism in Chinese science fiction.
7:09 – The long shadow of the May Fourth Movement
12:09 – Politics and the western gaze
17:51 – Why Yan Lianke is Megan's favorite Chinese writer
26:51 – The literary scene in Beijing in the 2000s
29:05 – China's ginormous and mostly terrible internet fiction industry
39:19 – What makes Chinese science fiction Chinese?
A transcript of this interview is available on SupChina.com.
Recommendations:
Megan: Yiyun Li's memoir, Dear Friend, from my Life I Write to You in Your Life; and the New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding
Kaiser: The Audible Original epistolary audio drama When You Finish Saving the World by Jesse Eisenberg
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Sinica celebrates the 500th episode of the China in Africa Podcast
Mary Kay Magistad - On China's New Silk Road (Episode 1: The China Dream)
Black voices in the China space
Poverty eradication by 2020: A reality check
Rapper Bohan Phoenix and DJ Allyson Toy on hip-hop in China
Rerun: Guo Wengui: The extraordinary tale of a Chinese billionaire turned dissident, told by Mike Forsythe and Alexandra Stevenson
U.S. Foreign Service Officer Leland Lazarus on China-Caribbean relations
Global Governance 2020: A discussion with Kaiser Kuo and Susan Thornton
Adam Tooze on the geopolitics of the pandemic
Sir Danny Alexander on AIIB in a time of crisis
‘Superpower Showdown’: A conversation with authors Bob Davis and Lingling Wei
Huawei and the 5G ecosystem
Standoff in Ladakh: Ananth Krishnan on the China-India border conflict
The controversy over Fang Fang’s ‘Wuhan Diary’: A conversation with the translator, Michael Berry
Why doesn't the China bubble pop? A conversation with Bloomberg’s chief economist, Tom Orlik
Censored: Molly Roberts on how China uses deterrence, distraction, and dilution to control its internet
‘Superpower Interrupted’: A conversation with veteran China journalist Michael Schuman about his Chinese history of the world
Max Fisher of the New York Times on media coverage of China, COVID-19, and Trump
Has China won? Part 2 of our conversation with Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani
Has China won? A conversation with Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free