#zhang-yueran

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Independent films
fromOpen Culture
14 hours ago

The Greatest Documentary You've Never Heard Of: An Introduction to Wang Bing's Nine-Hour Tie Xi Qu

Wang Bing's films, known for their extreme lengths and grim subjects, provide profound insights into the transformation of modern China.
Philosophy
fromWarpweftandway
2 days ago

Bell Reviews Bruya and Li, trans., Dialogues of Confucius

A new translation of Confucius' Dialogues reveals deeper insights into his life and the Confucian tradition.
fromThe New Yorker
1 day ago

The Novelist Reimagining the Japanese American Internment

The forced imprisonment of some hundred and twenty thousand residents, a majority of whom were U.S. citizens, rested on dubious evidence that they posed any meaningful threat to American safety.
History
History
fromWIRED
4 days ago

The Online Fiction Boom Reimagining China's History

Chinese alt-history fiction allows readers to rewrite history using modern knowledge to improve China's past.
fromBuzzFeed
1 week ago

I Kept My Family's Secret For Over 60 Years. Now, I'm Finally Telling The Truth.

In 1959, the woman who brought me into this world bundled me in a basket and placed me in a Hong Kong stairwell near Sai Yeung Choi Street, a bustling region of the British colony. I was 4 days old. A passerby called the police, who transported me to St. Christopher's Home, the largest non-government-run orphanage on the island.
Chicago
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Women
fromThe Nation
3 weeks ago

What Its Like to Serve the Chinese Elite

Zhang Yueran's fiction explores complex relationships among women, intertwining themes of intimacy, malice, and class conflict.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

Hope, insight and burning humanity': 2026 International Booker prize shortlist announced

Six authors shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize, celebrating translated fiction, with the winner announced on May 19.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
4 weeks ago

Souvankham Thammavongsa on Dating and the Clarity of Age

Immediate attraction can lead to deep emotional revelations, but understanding someone's true feelings requires more than surface-level connections.
#contemporary-art
Berlin music
fromKALTBLUT Magazine
1 month ago

Unsorted Chapters by Xia Peng! A Must-See Artistic Journey at Migrant Bird Space - KALTBLUT Magazine

Xia Peng's exhibition 'Unsorted Chapters' explores attachment and artistic expression through paintings on unconventional surfaces, blending Chinese ink and Western painting traditions.
Graphic design
fromItsnicethat
1 month ago

These emotionally charged illustrations are here to make your imagination wander

Xiao Hua Yang creates illustrations that blend digital and analogue techniques to suggest emotions through subtle imagery rather than explicit statements, prioritizing implication over explanation.
History
fromwww.dw.com
3 weeks ago

From Goethe to Soraya: German-Iranian stories

Germany and Iran share a long history of cultural and diplomatic ties, beginning with Goethe's admiration for Persian poetry.
Women
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

The Feminist Visionary Who Lost the Plot

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's experience of discrimination at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention catalyzed her feminist activism, though her sense of intellectual superiority later contributed to bigoted views.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Light and Thread by Han Kang review a tantalising book of reflections

Han Kang's Nobel Prize-winning work explores historical trauma and human fragility through poetic prose that balances outward examination of events like the Gwangju massacre with inward psychological portrayal, leaving interpretive gaps for readers.
Books
fromEngadget
1 month ago

What to read this weekend: Locked in with The Iron Garden Sutra

A.D. Sui's The Iron Garden Sutra combines locked room mystery, horror, and sci-fi philosophy aboard a haunted spaceship where a death monk encounters an inexplicable presence killing researchers.
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

How China Learned to Love the Classics

It wasn't until Whitmarsh had been herded into the main hall that he grasped what he'd signed up for: 'a geopolitical event, not an intellectual one,' as he put it, with hosts including Greece and China's ministries of culture.
World politics
Books
fromwww.7x7.com
1 month ago

Locals We Love: Author Kristina Voegele's 'Annie in Retrospect' is a Love Letter to Our City and Ourselves.

A novel follows a woman who slips into her 25-year-old body with midlife knowledge, exploring identity loss, memory, and San Francisco's transformation through disorientation, grief, and acceptance.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Yiyun Li on Stories That Happen Twice

Retrospective narrative reveals how stories gain completeness through the knowledge of future events, transforming present moments into layered reflections on fate and identity.
Philosophy
fromWarpweftandway
1 month ago

Conference: Ethics in Chinese Philosophy

HKUST's Division of Humanities hosts an international conference on Ethics in Chinese Philosophy, examining Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism to address modern challenges through traditional ethical frameworks.
Books
fromSlate Magazine
1 month ago

Something Strange Is Happening With Books. It Could Reshape Literary Culture.

BookTok readers increasingly prefer first-person narrative perspective in romance and fantasy novels, viewing third-person narration as unnecessarily complex and off-putting.
Writing
fromItsnicethat
1 month ago

Submerge yourself in the hazy vignettes of Xueting Yang's comic collection, Teeth

An illustrator creates emotionally layered visual narratives by capturing hidden psychological depths through minimalist aesthetics inspired by Japanese and Chinese cultural traditions, using softened imagery to evoke memory and partial clarity.
fromWarpweftandway
2 months ago

Confucian Web Top 10 Books of 2025

当代儒学发展开始突破传统哲学和思想史范式解读,更注重从宗教属性、文明维度挖掘儒学价值,且强调儒学与公共生活、历史实践的结合,影响日益全面且深入,彰显了儒学强大而持久的生命力。
Philosophy
fromenglish.elpais.com
2 months ago

Jung Chang, writer: If people thought China was so wonderful, they would go there'

Yes, because I grew up under Mao's rule and fear was ingrained in our hearts. Today I try to overcome it, not feel it and move on with my life, but it's still there.
Books
Philosophy
fromAnOther
2 months ago

A Reading List by Ocean Vuong: Part Two

Post-success disillusionment reveals pride, a false vocation to teach without knowledge, and pervasive self-deception among artists.
fromDefector
1 month ago

Yoko Tawada Is A Genius In Any Language | Defector

The best argument I can make for why I like reading fiction in translation is because it facilitates the psychedelic experience of encountering someone else's subjectivity twice over. The translator must act as a prismatic filter, faithfully attempting the impossible task of replicating someone else's experiences and ideas. To read in translation is to read two stories in harmony with each other: The one the author wants to tell and the one the translator has brought into your linguistic world.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Yiyun Li Reads "Calm Sea and Hard Faring"

Yiyun Li reads her story 'Calm Sea and Hard Faring,' from the March 9, 2026, issue of the magazine. Li is the author of eight books of fiction, including the novels 'Must I Go' and 'The Book of Goose,' and the story collection 'Wednesday's Child,' which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2024.
Books
Writing
fromDefector
1 month ago

What I Learned From My Annoyingly Long Correspondence With "Elena Ferrante" | Defector

An AI-generated scam email impersonating Elena Ferrante used phrases from published book descriptions to deceive an author, revealing how AI can convincingly mimic famous writers while containing telltale signs of fabrication upon scrutiny.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Valeria Luiselli on Sound, Memory, and New Beginnings

Field recordings and attentive listening are integral to narrative creation, shaping the writing process and immersive listening experiences.
Books
fromHarper's Magazine
2 months ago

Juvenile Impulse, by Becky Zhang

A retrospective narrative examines adolescent identity, desire, power dynamics, and authorial agency at a rigorous, hierarchical all-girls Southern California school.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"Predictions and Presentiments"

Mother and daughter arrive on an island to begin again, observe a yawning sky, local winds, Etna's ash, and read the Levante as an omen.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Asako Yuzuki: I'm very far from the ideal Japanese woman'

Japanese novelist Asako Yuzuki's international bestseller Butter, based on a real serial killer case, combines social satire and feminist thriller with detailed food descriptions, capitalizing on growing Western appetite for translated fiction by female Japanese writers.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

When Did Literature Get Less Dirty?

Philip Roth's Zuckerman Unbound functioned as a response to the controversial reception of Portnoy's Complaint, with Roth's protagonist expressing regret over writing sexually explicit material that drew accusations of anti-Semitism and misogyny.
Books
fromDefector
2 months ago

Elisa Shua Dusapin Is The Real Deal | Defector

Elisa Shua Dusapin crafts spare, haunted short novels with exceptional mood and atmosphere, earning global comparisons, translations, and major literary recognition.
Books
fromWIRED
2 months ago

You've Never Heard of China's Greatest Sci-Fi Novel

The Morning Star of Lingao depicts modern Chinese engineers traveling to the late Ming to spark an industrial revolution, symbolizing China's modernization crisis and anxieties.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

A Debut Novel About the Quest for Eternal Youth

The boundary between responsible adult and dependent child has frayed as caregivers flail through midlife while youth confront a crumbling, dishonest world.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

How Do You Write About the Inexplicable?

Rational skepticism coexists with a persistent tendency to personify evil and read coincidences as omens.
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