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The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature

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The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature: Writings from the Mainland in the Long Twentieth Century
The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature
EditorYunte Huang
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry and urban fiction anthology
Published2016
PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
Publication placeNew York City, United States
Pages624
ISBN978-0-393-35380-8

The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature: Writings from the Mainland in the Long Twentieth Century is an anthology of Chinese literature edited by Yunte Huang and published in 2016 by W. W. Norton & Company. Huang, a professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara,[1] described the book as a "search for the soul of modern China" in the introduction.[2]

Contents

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The book is 600 pages long and has works spanning about 100 years until its publishing date, with almost 50 authors represented.[3] The works were translated by multiple people.[1]

At the beginning of the anthology, Huang reveals that copyright conflicts prevented the inclusion of works that would have otherwise been a part of the anthology, specifically Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang and Fortreess Besieged by Qian Zhongshu.[4]

The works were placed in three sections: the Republican Era which spans from 1911 to 1949 and includes works from the New Culture Movement; the Revolutionary Era, spanning 1949 to 1976; and the Post-Mao Era, which has works since 1976. The portions of the book post 1990 are heavily focused on poetry and have less emphasis on urban fiction.[1]

Part One: 1911–1949 works

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Part Two: 1949–1976 works

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1976–2016 works

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Reception

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Julia Lovell of The New York Times wrote that "it’s heartening to see a serious publisher, one whose list is geared to the general reader, invest in an anthology that manages to combine the established canon with less-well-known selections."[1] She argued that the book should have included works by Eileen Chang, and that male writers were represented too heavily in this anthology of modern Chinese writing.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Lovell, Julia. "‘The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature,’ Edited by Yunte Huang" (Archive). The New York Times. February 7, 2016. Retrieved on March 5, 2016.
  2. ^ "The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature" (Archive). Publishers Weekly. January 4, 2016. Retrieved on March 5, 2016.
  3. ^ Donoghue, Steve, "'The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature' is a sumptuous sampler" (Archive). Christian Science Monitor. March 3, 2016. Retrieved on March 5, 2016.
  4. ^ Huang, Yunte (2016). "Acknowledgments". The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature: Writings from the Mainland in the Long Twentieth Century. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. xi–xii. ISBN 978-0-393-35380-8.


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