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Terracotta Typewriter Interviews Peter Hessler On China.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

I am a long-time fan of Terracotta Typewriter, which describes itself as follows:

Terracotta Typewriter is a literary journal with Chinese characteristics. This is the only China-themed, English-language literary journal. This site is the creation of American expatriate writer and editor in China, Matthew Lubin. The purpose of this literary journal is to create a creative outlet for those with a connection to China. We invite writers of all backgrounds, genres, and forms to make the great leap forward and submit manuscripts that conform to our submission guidelines. We look forward to reading the creativity of the Middle Kingdom.

I describe it as Matt's labor of love. Its most recent issue contains an excellent interview with Peter Hessler, with, as one would expect, a somewhat literary slant. My favorite question and answer from the interview was the last one: TCType: What book needs to be written about China? Hessler: It would be good to have a first-rate book about Tibet or Xinjiang. But it's so hard for people to get into these areas and do the necessary research. I think there should be better fiction about China. I think nonfiction is generally moving in the right direction, and there are some pretty good books right now, ranging from history to current society. But the fiction about China feels a little out of touch to me. It tends to be pretty heavy-handed and humorless, and there isn't much evidence of deep contact with everyday life. I wish that a good Chinese fiction writer would base him or herself in a factory town, or a dying village--some archetypal element of today's society-- and write something that feels accurate and interesting and full of the life that we see in China. Filmmakers are doing this, both with documentary and feature films, but I don't see the same thing happening with fiction. Part of the problem is that a lot of the best Chinese fiction writers are exiles who for political or personal reasons are no longer able to have deep contact with contemporary society. They write well about earlier periods but they don't have a strong sense of what the country now feels like. I recommend you read this interview (page 19 of the pdf) and check out the rest of the journal while you are there.

Full post as published by China Law Blog on May 16, 2010 (boomark / email).