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Yan Ge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yan Ge
Native name
颜歌
BornDai Yuexing
1984 (age 39–40)
Sichuan, China
OccupationNovelist, writer
LanguageStandard Chinese, Sichuanese, English
NationalityChinese
Alma materSichuan University
Notable worksOur Family

Yan Ge (Chinese: 颜歌, pinyin: Yán Gē, born 1984) is the pen name of Chinese writer Dai Yuexing (戴月行, pinyin: Dài Yuèxíng).

Life and career

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Yan Ge was born Dai Yuexing in December 1984 in the Pixian district of Chengdu.[1] She began writing at the age of ten and her first book was published when she was 17 years old.[2]

Yan completed a PhD in comparative literature at Sichuan University and is the Chair of the China Young Writers Association. Her writing includes substantial amounts of her native Sichuanese, rather than Standard Chinese.[3] People’s Literature (Renmin Wenxue 人民文学) magazine recently chose her – in a list reminiscent of The New Yorker's ‘20 under 40’ – as one of China's twenty future literary masters. In 2012 she was chosen as Best New Writer by the prestigious Chinese Literature Media Prize (华语文学传媒大奖 最佳新人奖). In 2011, she was awarded a visiting scholar position at Duke University.[4] Yan was a guest writer at the Crossing Border Festival in The Hague in November 2012, and has since appeared at numerous literary festivals throughout Europe.[5] She has lived in Dublin with her husband, Daniel, and their child since 2015.[6][7]

Yan has been writing in English in addition to Mandarin and Sichuanese. Her first English book is a 2023 short story collection Elsewhere: stories.[2][8] Reviewer Chelsea Leu wrote

Yan Ge’s English debut is preoccupied with language, its failures, and its relationship to human emotions and the raw reality – the 'food' – of life. ... These stories map out the distance between the head and the gut – the way language can fail to convey the deepest, most visceral facts of life."[8]

Reviewer Sindya Bhanoo wrote that the stories "explore the power of language across the Chinese diaspora to either bring people together or push them apart."[9]

Awards

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Publications

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  • 五月女王 May Queen, 2008 - novel
  • 钟腻哥 Sissy Zhong - short story (translated by Nicky Harman)[11]
  • 白马 White Horse - novella (translated by Nicky Harman)[12]
  • 照妖镜 Demon-Reflecting Mirror- novella[13]
  • 平乐镇伤心故事集 Sad Stories of Pingle Township (5 stories including White Horse and Demon-Reflecting Mirror).[14]
  • 我们家 Our Family, 2013.
    • English translation: The Chilli Bean Paste Clan, translated by Nicky Harman, Balestier Press, 2018; also German and French editions.[15]
  • 异兽志 Record of Strange Beasts, 2006.
  • Elsewhere: stories, 2023 - short stories. Scribner (US) and Faber (UK) ISBN 978-1-9821-9848-0 (published in English)

References

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  1. ^ Duzan, Brigitte. "Yan Ge 颜歌". www.chinese-shortstories.com.
  2. ^ a b "Chinese writer Yan Ge finds solace in creating literary worlds". CBC. 11 February 2022.
  3. ^ "Yan Ge: families, humour, Sichuan, a spicy dish".
  4. ^ Zhong, Na (2018-10-09). "Writing from In-Between: A Conversation with Yan Ge". SupChina. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  5. ^ "China". Dutchculture | Centre for international cooperation.
  6. ^ Abrahamsen, Eric. "Yan Ge". Paper Republic.
  7. ^ "November 2014: Yan Ge 颜歌 : The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing". writingchinese.leeds.ac.uk.
  8. ^ a b Leu, Chelsea (2023-07-12). "Elsewhere by Yan Ge review – a visceral English debut". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  9. ^ Bhanoo, Sindya (2023-09-15). "In Three New Story Collections, Much Is Left Unsaid". New York Times. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  10. ^ a b "Yan Ge: A Budding Author - All China Women's Federation". www.womenofchina.cn.[dead link]
  11. ^ Abrahamsen, Eric. "Zhong Nige". Paper Republic.
  12. ^ "White Horse - HopeRoad Publishing". www.hoperoadpublishing.com.
  13. ^ "20. Reflecting Teenagers on a Sichuanese Mirror: Yan Ge and her stories from Pingle Township". November 19, 2016.
  14. ^ Abrahamsen, Eric. "Reflecting Teenagers on a Sichuanese Mirror: Yan Ge and her stories from Pingle Township". Paper Republic.
  15. ^ "The Chilli Bean Paste Clan".
  16. ^ Abrahamsen, Eric. "Yan Ge". Paper Republic. Retrieved 2019-12-10.