ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

No, that’s not a typo, the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize is awarded in March of the following year i.e. 2011.  The longlist came out in December 2010, the shortlist in February, and now the award has been announced at a swish dinner in Hong Kong.

The award, which was set up in 2007, went to Bi Feiyu, for his novel Three Sisters.  He received a prize of  USD$30,000, and his translators Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin will share a cash prize of USD$5,000 (which seems a rather churlish amount to me, considering that the only way Chinese writers can be read in the west is if they are translated – and only books that are translated into English are eligible for this award.  Half the translators’ prize money wouldn’t even buy the place ticket and accommodation costs of attending the ceremony, I bet. )

Source: Man Asia Prize photo gallery

The shortlisted authors were

Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu
Serious Men by Manu Joseph
The Thing About Thugs by Tabish Khair
The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe
Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

(I can’t find a source for The Thing About Thugs. )

I’ve ordered Three Sisters, but not without some reservations.  It is another book about the Cultural Revolution.  According to the judges it’s a ‘moving exploration of Chinese family and village life during the Cultural Revolution, that moves seamlessly between the epic and the intimate, the heroic and the petty, illuminating not only individual lives but an entire society, within a gripping tale of familial conflict and love.’   Of course writers all over the world have revisited historical events time and time again from different and interesting persepctives, it’s just that so far just about everything I’ve read from China has been about the Cultural Revolution. 

Oh well, at least the Chinese authorities let this author collect his award…