Ep 47 - Ma Jian and Beijing Coma with Ronald Torrance

When you've stared at the past for so long that time dissolves, you'll be able to wake from your slumberIn the forty seventh episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are falling into Beijing Coma (肉之土 / Ròu Zhī Tǔ). Avid Ma Jian reader Ronald Torrance is here to guide me from perimeter to epicentre of this colossal novel, and the weighty events it reckons with. Even without politics, stakes are high here: life/death, time/memory, flesh/history, and the intimate bonds that can exist between translators and writers.-// NEWS ITEMS //Pen FairyLost in Translation: The World of Chinese Literature in English‘The atmosphere has become abnormal’: Han Chinese views from Xinjiang-// WORD OF THE DAY //(地标 - Dìbiāo - Landmark)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //The People's Republic of Amnesia by Louisa LimBeijing from Below by Harriet EvansDo Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeline ThienWhat Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear by BaoshuPrisoner of the State by Zhao ZiyangDeath Fugue by Sheng KeyiThe loneliness of Yan LiankeMo Yan & censorshipHow China's censors are taught about 'restricted topics'Meng Po and her memory-erasing soupCui Jian, rock, and socialist/patriotic anthems at Tiananmen