The Subplot

Name: The Subplot
Price: 16.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Megan Walsh

What China Is Reading and Why It Matters

By Megan Walsh

Journalist Megan Walsh shows us why it's important to finally pay attention to Chinese fiction—an exciting literary landscape that illustrates the complex relationship between art and politics.

$16.00

ISBN: 9781735913667
ebook ISBN: 9781735913674
On Sale: February 8, 2022
Pages: 136

Available from:

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Overview

What does contemporary China’s diverse and exciting fiction tell us about its culture, and the relationship between art and politics?

The Subplot takes us on a lively journey through a literary landscape like you’ve never seen before: a vast migrant-worker poetry movement, homoerotic romances by “rotten girls,” swaggering literary popstars, millionaire e-writers churning out the longest-ever novels, underground comics, the surreal works of Yu Hua, Yan Lianke, and Nobel-laureate Mo Yan, and what is widely hailed as a golden-age of sci-fi. Chinese online fiction is now the largest publishing platform in the world.

Fueled by her passionate engagement with the arts and ideas of China’s people, Megan Walsh, a brilliant young critic, shows us why it’s important to finally pay attention to Chinese fiction—an exuberant drama that illustrates the complex relationship between art and politics, one that is increasingly shaping the West as well. Turns out, writers write neither what their government nor foreign readers want or expect, as they work on a different wavelength to keep alive ideas and events that are censored by the propaganda machine. The Subplot vividly captures the way in which literature offers an alternative—perhaps truer—way to understanding the contradictions that make up China itself.

This book is published with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Read CGR Director Nicholas Lemann’s Letter to the Reader

Praise

A New Yorker Best Book of 2022

“Engaging, informative and—considering the ground it covers in 135 pages—astonishingly nuanced, The Subplot primes us to dig into [Walsh’s] list of suggested further reading.” Wall Street Journal

“A portal into people’s hearts and minds by exploring contemporary Chinese literature.” GlobalAsia

“An illuminating insight into the web fiction, sci-fi and subtle dissent read by one-fifth of humanity.” Financial Times

“A sharp, revealing portrait of contemporary China.... Elegantly written and fascinating.” Adam Foulds, author of The Quickening Maze

“Drawing on a rich field of research, The Subplot not only crosses the language barrier, opening a window for the world to see contemporary Chinese literature, but it could also be an invaluable record for young Chinese people, both in China and overseas, to think about how society is affected by China’s fast-pace of change.” Xinran, author of The Good Women of China

“We are what we read. As China is rising, people are naturally interested in what the Chinese are reading. This overview of the literature in China offers an interesting perspective of a country that is reshaping the world.” Lijia Zhang, author of the novel Lotus and of Socialism Is Great!: A Worker’s Memoir of China

An Economist Best Book of 2022

“A lively, lucid survey of contemporary Chinese fiction.... Walsh delivers a wry cornucopia, inviting for general readers who don’t know Mo Yan from Han Han.” New York Times Book Review

“A wonderful, pacy tour of contemporary Chinese literature.” Economist

“Illuminating...offers a superb introduction to Chinese publishing and the clever, subversive ways it’s thriving.” Ron Charles, Washington Post

“Concise and fast-paced.... The Subplot will make you want to read more Chinese fiction.” New Statesman

“An eye-opening glimpse into China’s ‘intentionally hazy’ authoritarian political climate of censorship and propaganda.... A succinct, fascinating overview of literary ambivalence in China.” Kirkus Reviews

“In The Subplot, Megan Walsh showcases the diversity and vitality of contemporary Chinese literature. With economy and wit, she shows us why it’s so necessary to read literature to understand the story of China today.” Angie Baecker, University of Hong Kong

“A jaw-dropping look at what mainland Chinese are reading right now. Megan Walsh tells us why, in this time of China’s economic ascension, its literature is both liberating—and soul-crushing.” Jan Wong, author of Red China Blues

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Coverage

The Beijing Olympics Feels Like a Curtain Raiser for China’s Defiant Global Hegemony Globe and Mail

Megan Walsh on Understanding China Through Its Literature The Diplomat

How China’s Fiction Writers Have Learned to Survive Its Politics TIME

What Is China Reading Now? Lit Hub

Why What China Is Reading Matters China-Britain Business FOCUS

Author Interview with Megan Walsh Book Culture

Why Chinese Fiction Matters Axios

Inside China’s Fiction Factories UnHerd

What China is Reading and Why it Matters Sinica podcast

Megan Walsh Discusses The Subplot The Book Review podcast

China, Freud, War and Sci-Fi BBC 3’s Free Thinking

Love poetry; love books BBC 4’s Start the Week

Megan Walsh on The Subplot New Books in Chinese Studies podcast

View More Coverage

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Listen to the three-part series of our podcast, Underreported with Nicholas Lemann,
dedicated to The Subplot

episode 1| An Open Talk on Censorship: A conversation with Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Before we speak to Megan Walsh herself in upcoming episodes, we want to set the stage, so we’re joined by Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine. He’s one of America’s leading China specialists, and has published several important books, including Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink, also published by Columbia Global Reports. There’s no better guest to help us wade into the intricate and nuanced realities of China, a country that the US has locked in its gaze. Listen now

episode 2 | The Nuanced Literary Voices in China: A Conversation with Megan Walsh and Rosie Blau

This episode, we’re joined by author Megan Walsh, as well as Rosie Blau, editor of 1843 magazine, and contributor to The Economist. Listen now

episode 3 | The Stories Chinese Fiction Reveals: A Conversation with Megan Walsh

In our final episode of this series, we talk with author Megan Walsh about her time living in China, how bookstores compare around the world, and what led to her writing a book about the Chinese literary world. Listen now

About the Author

Megan Walsh is a journalist and writer who specializes in Chinese literature and film. She has lived in Beijing and Taipei, and holds a masters in Chinese Studies from SOAS. Her work has appeared in The New Statesman, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Wall Street Journal, and she was on the books desk at The Times of London, where she reported on contemporary art and literature in China, Russia, Cuba, and northern Iraq. She lives in London.