Han Shaogong (; born January 1, 1953) is a Chinese novelist and fiction writer.

Biography

Han was born in

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. While relying on traditional Chinese culture, in particular

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions. Much of t ...

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of Philosophy, philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of China, Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmo ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

as source of inspiration, he also borrows freely from Western literary techniques. As a teenager during the

Cultural revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

he was labeled an ‘educated youth’ and sent to the countryside for re-education through labour. Employed at a local cultural center after 1977, he soon won recognition as an outspoken new literary talent. His early stories attacked the ultra-leftist degradation of China during the

Mao era Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

; they tended toward a slightly

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

style. However, he reemerged in the mid-1980s as the leader of an

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

school, the "Search for Roots" or the ''

Xungen Movement Literary movements Chinese literary schools and movements 1980s establishments in China The ''xúngēn'' movement () is a cultural and literary movement in mainland China emphasizing local and minority cultures. It began in 1980s. Its premi ...

''.

Work

Han's major work to date is '' A Dictionary of Maqiao'', a novel published in 1996 and translated into English in 2003. His writing is influenced by

Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...

and by the magic realism of

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

. In 1987, he published a Chinese translation of

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himself ...

's ''

The Unbearable Lightness of Being ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' ( cs, Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera, about two women, two men, a dog and their lives in the 1968 Prague Spring period of Czechoslovak history. Although written in 1982, the no ...

'' and edited ''Hainan Jishi Wenxue'' ("Hainan Documentary Literature"), a successful literary magazine. He has been given the French

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

and with other Chinese writers visited France in 1988 at the invitation of the French Ministry of Culture. Han was invited back in 1989 but was denied permission to leave China until 1991. Han's other works include ''Moon Orchid'' (1985), ''Bababa'' (1985), ''Womanwomanwoman'' (1985), ''Deserted City'' (1989), and ''Intimations'' (2002).

Awards

* In 2011 Han was awarded the

Newman Prize for Chinese Literature The Newman Prize for Chinese Literature was established in 2008 by Peter Gries, director of the Institute for U.S.-China Issues at the University of Oklahoma. The first major American award for Chinese literature, the Newman Prize, is awarded ev ...

References

External links

Han Shaogong Wins 2011 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature

Columbia University Press publicity page for ''A Dictionary of Maqiao''

(in English) 1953 births Living people Magic realism writers Writers from Changsha Chinese male novelists 20th-century Chinese short story writers Chinese male short story writers 20th-century Chinese male writers People's Republic of China short story writers Short story writers from Hunan {{China-writer-stub