Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction (November 2021)
A stunning collection of the best in Chinese Science Fiction, from Award-Winning legends to up-and-coming talent, all translated here into English for the first time.
Posted in Books, Curated & Translated
1761
I’m honoured to be part of SFRA Review’s 51 special issue on Chinese science fiction, in which it published its first piece of fiction 1761, a slow-burn queer cyberpunk romance by Tang Fei, and translated by myself.
Posted in Curated & Translated
A Brief History of Chinese Animation (Amecon 2008, Leicester)
Donghua (Chinese for animation) has spread its wings internationally over the last decade, so impressive have been the currents it’s generated that even big Western studios like Disney, are capitalising on the trend. But its history of donghua goes all the way back to the early twentieth century. This is a talk I delivered for at Amecon in 2008, at the UK premier of Storm Rider: Clash of Evils. Having discovered that certain ageing white academics have helped themselves to my talk for ‘research’ without crediting me, I removed it from Myspace. Today, I’m making it available, in honour of the release of Domee Shi’s Turning Red. If you do use it for whatever project, put my name in the sources, and in return, put a little towards my research materials, or, buy me a cup of tea.
Posted in Curated & Translated and tagged animation, china, Chinese, culture, donghua, film, history
Hesuipian 2022
For those of you finally seeing the back of the Christmas weight gain, have some sympathy for those of us who live with a foot in both China, and the West, and are now heading again into further festivities. With nearly two weeks of celebration, mainly marked by meals, snacks, and other culinary over indulgences, it’s no surprise that China has collectively decided to escape into cinema for a respite from food and family.
As usual, anticipation has built up over the last few months for the greatest annual celebration in the Chinese calendar, and among the food shopping, clothes buying, and decorating, bookings have been flooding in to cinemas by the millions, reserving seats during what is now the busiest cinema season of the year. Hesuipian, or “films to celebrate the birth of a new year” are now integral part of Spring Festival, but the tradition only really established itself in the late 90s.
Posted in Curated & Translated and tagged china, Chinese, cinema, culture, film, hesuipian, new year movie, pop culture, Spring Festival
Delivery Drivers: Stuck In the System
Over the pandemic and lockdown measures, online orders, couriers and delivery drivers have been a lifeline around the world for life to have a semblance of normality, nowhere is this more so than in China, where quarantine procedures have been one of the strictest. One of the articles that went viral this autumn is a People (renwu) magazine coverage of the condition of takeaway delivery driver and the extraordinary pressures they’ve having to face. This article is, of course, written in Chinese, but it’s a piece that the world needs to read. So I present a quick translation in instalments. It’s the end of the year now, but as the virus rages on, we’re still having to rely on these unsung heroes. So I hope that after reading this article in translation, you’ll think about these people over Christmas, while enjoying the festive treats that have been delivered to your door, and opening gifts that were bought at the click of a button, and perhaps hold back from sending that complaint on the app, the next time your goods are a day or two late. Thank you to Radii for their coverage.
Posted in Curated & Translated and tagged algorithm, china, Chinese, culture, delivery, society, sociology, takeaway, translation
The Path to Freedom
Tang Fei is a writer of speculative fiction born in Shanghai and currently living in Beijing.
In modern Chinese, “story” (故事) and “fiction” (小说) are not exact equivalents. A story is more rooted in the folk and oral traditions, and thus possesses more resilience and vitality. This is why I’ve always called myself a storyteller. Story, for me, is a word infused with magic. Every time I say it, I feel a joy in my spirit and pleasure in my senses.
—Tang Fei
Posted in Curated & Translated
China Underground 2014-15
A few years after my Peking into Punk talk, I was recommended by some musicians in Beijing to Chicago journalist John Yingling, who was about to embark on his mammoth project of documenting the world’s underground music scene. He decided to go in at the deep end, to China, for the first episode.
Posted in Curated & Translated
Chinese Culture Programme: ReadCon 2013-14
The creation of ReadCon was part of the flourishing of the British animation convention scene within the last decade. Held on the campus of Reading University, this convention focused on home grown indie comics and crafts.
Posted in Curated & Translated
Chinese Culture Programme: Kitacon 2010-2012
Around 2009, I began working with an exciting new anime convention starting up at Northampton, to devise a suitable prgramme of events on China, as part of the effort to diversify the convention’s content and make it more inclusive of other Asian cultures.
Posted in Curated & Translated
“Endless: A Collection”, 2010
The art, poetry and prose of Professor Sherman Lin
Posted in Books, Curated & Translated