Ma Jian (writer)
Ma Jian (simplified Chinese: 马建; traditional Chinese: 馬建; pinyin: Mǎ Jiàn; Wade–Giles: Ma Chien, born August 18, 1953) is a Chinese writer.
Ma was born in Qingdao on August 18, 1953. In 1986, he moved to Hong Kong after a clampdown in which some of his works were banned. In 1997 he left for Germany, followed by a move to England in 1999. He now lives in London with his partner and translator, Flora Drew.
Ma came to the attention of the English-speaking world with his story collection Stick Out Your Tongue, translated into English in 2006. The stories are set in Tibet. Their most remarked-upon feature is that traditional Tibetan culture is not idealised, but rather depicted as harsh and often inhuman; one reviewer noted that the "stories sketch multi-generational incest, routine sexual abuse and ritual rape".[1] The book was banned in China as a "vulgar and obscene book that defames the image of our Tibetan compatriots."[2]
Ma's travel memoir Red Dust: A Path Through China (2001) is about his wanderings through remote areas of China from 1983-86 as a long-haired jobless vagabond. It won the 2002 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.
His novel Beijing Coma (2008) tells the story of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 from the point of view of the fictional Dai Wei, a participant in the events left in a coma by the violent end of the protests. The comatose narrator functions as a metaphor for the ability to remember and the inability to act.[3] It has received critical acclaim, with Tom Deveson of The Times describing it as "epic in scope but intimate in feeling … magnificent" and the Financial Times calling it “an epic yet intimate work that deserves to be recognised and to endure as the great Tienanmen novel.”
The Chinese government banned Ma from re-entering China in 2011.[4]
[edit] Works
- Stick Out Your Tongue (亮出你的舌苔或空空荡荡) (1987) with 2006 English translation. Banned in China.
- Red Dust (红尘)
- The Noodle Maker (拉面者) (2004)
- Beijing Coma (肉之土) (2008)
[edit] References
- ^ Guy Mannes-Abbott (January 9, 2006). "Review of 'Stick Out Your Tongue'". The Independent. http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article337351.ece.
- ^ Michael Dirda (May 7, 2006). "Review of 'Stick Out Your Tongue'". Washington Post. p. BW15. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/04/AR2006050401654.html.
- ^ Melissa Holbrook Pierson, "Strong Medicine", review of Beijing Coma, The Nation, August 4/11, 2008, p. 34–36.
- ^ "Exiled author Ma Jian banned from visiting China". The Guardian. 29 July 2011.
[edit] External links
- Ma Jian at FSG
- Ma Jian: Bio, excerpts, interviews and articles in the archives of the Prague Writers' Festival
- Some of his writing (in Chinese)
- Ma Jian at PEN Festival of World Literature
- review of Beijing Coma
- Excerpt from Beijing Coma at BookBrowse, plus reading guide & reviews
- Information about Beijing Coma and the author, with review excerpts
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