Geling Yan | Author

Geling Yan
Literary fiction with roots in China.

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"Dangerous Liaisons" at the Cannes Film Festival

May.17.2012

"Dangerous Liaisons" at the Cannes Film Festival

"Dangerous Liaisons," a film I wrote, will be at the Cannes Film Festival:

http://www.thefilmcatalogue.com/catalog/FilmDetail.php?id=13390

Featured Works

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PUBLISHED: Jan.31.2012

The Flowers of War

The story takes place in December 1937 during the Rape of Nanking. A small group of girls is trapped in a Catholic school, looked after by an American priest and a deacon. A group of prostitutes takes refuge along with them, then soldiers of the defeated Nationalist army force their way in. They live together in disharmony until the carnage and rape outside the...

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PUBLISHED: Jul.01.2006

The Banquet Bug aka The Uninvited

Laid-off factory worker Dan Dong goes to a fancy hotel in Beijing to interview for a job as a security guard. Mistaken for a journalist, he is ushered into a banquet where he hears a presentation, eats a sumptuous meal and then receives and envelope full of cash for favorable media coverage. Dan Dong has found his new profession. He continues posing as a journalist, eating...

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PUBLISHED: May.15.1999

White Snake and Other Stories

In this collection, set mostly in China during and after the Cultural Revolution, Geling Yan presents us with unforgettable characters who have all, in one way or another, left home. Yan charts the transformation of her characters' hearts and minds as they find themselves thrust into unlikely intimacy with strangers who embody different histories and desires.

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PUBLISHED: Oct.01.2011

陆犯焉识 The Criminal Lu Yanshi

In this epic Chinese-language novel, arguably the author's most significant to date, she explores the world of Chinese intellectuals over the past sixty years. Lu Yanshi, a man from a privileged Shanghai family, is forced into an arranged marriage with his cousin Feng Wanyu, then goes to America to earn a doctorate and lives the life of a playboy. He returns to China and a...

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PUBLISHED: Jun.01.2011

金陵十三钗 The Flowers of War (Simplified Chinese Characters)

The story takes place in December 1937 during the Rape of Nanking. A small group of girls is trapped in a Catholic school, looked after by an American priest and a deacon. A group of prostitutes takes refuge along with them, and soldiers of the defeated Nationalist army force their way in. They live together in disharmony until the carnage and rape outside the compound walls...

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PUBLISHED: Feb.01.2011

La Novena Viuda

Ocho adolescentes se convierten en viudas tras liberar a ocho guerrilleros comunistas de una muerte segura a manos de los japoneses. La novena viuda, Wang Putao, no recibirá los mismos honores que ellas. Huérfana desde muy niña, pasa a formar parte de la familia de Sun Huaiqing, un próspero comerciante, pero todo cambia tras el triunfo de la revolución comunista. De la mano de esta...

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PUBLISHED: May.22.2001

The Lost Daughter of Happiness

A young Chinese woman named Fusang is kidnapped and sold into prostitution in San Francisco in the late 19th Century. A modern Chinese author examines her, trying to make sense of her life and her times. Appealing in her simplicity and beauty, Fusang is pursued by a young, well-to-do white man and a charismatic Chinese gangster. Her story takes place at brutal and lawless time and...

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PUBLISHED: Feb.01.2009

The Sojourner -- Ji Ju Zhe -- 寄居者

In the period leading up to World War II, a young Chinese-American woman in Shanghai falls in love with a German Jewish refugee in the Shanghai Ghetto. In San Francisco, she sees another young man who looks just like him and lures him back to Shanghai to switch his identity documents and save the man she loves. But her feelings for the two men become conflicted, and the story...

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PUBLISHED: Apr.01.2008

Little Aunt Tatsuru -- Xiao Yi Duo He 小姨多鶴

A young Japanese woman, Tatsuru, left behind after the Japanese defeat in Manchuria, is sold as a concubine to a Chinese couple to give birth to their children. After the Communist takeover, Tatsuru's identity is hidden, and she pretends to be mute. Family life continues peacefully, with the children unaware of Tatsuru's identity or the fact that she is their birth mother. Then...

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PUBLISHED: Apr.10.2007

一個女人的史詩 A Woman's Epic

The trials and tribulations of a woman in post-1949 China. The novel tells of the romance of an actress named Tian Sufei. At the age of 15, Sufei participates in the Revolution ignorantly. With her youthful vitality, she soon becomes a favorite actress of her performing arts troupe. She falls in love with Yu Ou-yang, a revolutionary youth from an old, established family in...

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PUBLISHED: Mar.01.2006

第九个寡妇 The Ninth Widow

This is the story of a simple village woman in an isolated part of China. As a child, Grape Wang loses her family flooding caused by Chiang Kai-shek's forces to oust the Japanese from their positions, and she is bought as a servant and future daughter-in-law by River Sun, a landlord and shopkeeper. The novel tells of the family's travails during the Sino-Japanese war and the...

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PUBLISHED: Jan.01.2005

Suizi Stories 穗子物語

Collection of autobiographical coming-of-age stories based on author's experience from age 12 as a soldier in a dance performance troupe of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Exists in traditional and simplified Chinese character editions and in Vietnamese translation. Taiwan edition: Mainland China edition: Vietnamese edition:

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PUBLISHED: Jan.01.2004

Rose Jungle (Flower and the Youth) 花儿与少年

Jiang and Ming, a loving Chinese couple with two kids, disappointed by their inadequate material life in China, decide to divorce so Jiang can marry a rich but much older overseas Chinese, Humphrey, in order to enjoy a good life in America.After being in a wealthy but loveless marriage with Humphrey for ten years, Jiang is unhappy. She wants to buy a house and put her broken family...

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PUBLISHED: Feb.01.2001

誰家有女初養成 Whoever has a Daughter Come of Age

See also separate blog entry on the film This Side of Heaven based on this work: http://www.redroom.com/blog/geling-yan/film-side-heaven This novella is about a clever, pretty twenty-year-old village girl named Chiao-chiao who, as the story opens, is traveling by train with two other girls from her village, chaperoned by an older woman, Auntie Zeng, who is vaguely related to a...

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PUBLISHED: Apr.01.1989

马在吼 The Horse Roars (aka Female Grasslands)

The novel Female Grasslands begins with a girl named Little One entering the grassland situated between Tibet and Sichuan as a vagrant and fugitive in the mid-1970s. She has fled there to escape a murder charge and the entanglement of an incestuous love affair. In the depths of the desolate and uninhabited grasslands, she sees the banner of the “Red Girls’ Horse-Herding...

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Lost Daughter French mass market paperback.jpg

PUBLISHED:

Foreign Rights Sold

Foreign rights sold as of April 2009 BANQUET BUG: US - Hyperion Czech – Kniha Zlin Euro Romania - Minerva UK - Faber & Faber Israel - Yediot Thailand - Sangdad Vietnam – Phuongnam Above: Thai edition of The Uninvited (The Banquet Bug) LOST DAUGHTER OF HAPPINESS: US: Hyperion Dutch - De Bezige Bij French - Plon and 10/18 Portugal - ASA Hungary - Ulpius Romania - Minerva UK...

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Kite Song 風箏歌

Memorable collection of short stories, including “The Old Prisoner,” 老囚 subject of a film called “Lao Wei” 老魏 by film director Stanley Chi Yin 尹祺. See blog entry: http://www.redroom.com/blog/geling-yan/film-lao-wei Here's the Chinese description: 本書包括《白蝶標本》、《老囚》、《觔斗》、《冤家》、《初夏的卡通》、《正午誰在叩門》、《磋跎姻緣》、「風箏歌」三部曲之《風箏歌》、《橙血》、《乖乖貝比》等。節奏明快，簡雅的文字帶著力道，主題仍以女人為發抒，女人的所經所歷，感情互動的吸引與抗拒，形成一幅幅人生圖像，...

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PUBLISHED:

Works in Chinese in Mainland China

Books by Geling Yan in Mainland China in various editions, plus books to which she has contributed stories or essays and books that write about Geling Yan as one of their subjects. There were 77 entries as of February 2008: http://search.dangdang.com

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Works in Chinese Published in Taiwan

http://www.sanmin.com This will take you to a catalog of all of the author's books published in Taiwan in Chinese. There are over 20 titles.

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Geling's Latest Blogs

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Mar.06.2012 - 6:02 am

Fifty-Word Bio

Did this for the Jaipur Literature Festival and am blogging it so I know where to find it. A leading author in Chinese and English, Geling Yan has published over 20 books and won...

Feb.07.2012 - 12:01 pm

Apple Apps with Pirated Works Removed

After contacting Apple on multiple occasions at AppStoreNotices@apple.com, finally all seven iPad and iPhone apps containing pirated download versions of my novels and short...

Nov.08.2011 - 2:18 am

The Flowers of War Now Has a U.S. Distributor

The film "The Flowers of War," based on my work, directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Christian Bale, now has a U.S. distributor: http://collider.com/flowers-of-war-release-date/...

Oct.26.2011 - 12:49 pm

Trailer for "The Flowers of War"

The trailer just came out for The Flowers of War, based on my eponymous novel to be published by Harvill Secker of the UK (Chinese title 金陵十三钗). Here is the trailer on...

Comments from Geling

Sep.10.2011 - 3:46 am

In response to: Zhang Yimou Shows 20 Minutes of Footage of "The Flowers of War"

Connection to Article in Variety

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118042534?refCatId=13

Apr.24.2009 - 1:40 am

In response to: Mourning Dr. Lawrence D. Walker: Master Blog Entry

Answer

This isn't quite on the subject of the present blog posting, but thanks for the kind words, and to answer your question...

Apr.17.2009 - 1:26 pm

In response to: Getting along in virtual communities

Congratulations on New Book and Red Room

Charlie, first of all, congratulations on the new book! Second, reading your post above, as the folks who introduced...

Feb.20.2009 - 10:47 pm

In response to: Dr. Lawrence D. Walker's Final Reading List

Thanks

Thanks both to Susan Brown, whom I don't know, and to Louisa Chiang, whom I do, for your kinds words. Louisa, who is...

Feb.13.2009 - 9:58 pm

In response to: Mourning Dr. Lawrence D. Walker: Master Blog Entry

Thank You

Response from Larry Walker, the son: Thank you, Greg. I wanted to mourn him, remember him and share him all at the...

Writing

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Article: Chinese Writer Finds Freedom in English

Article: Chinese-language TV interview on "Forever Enthralled" 梅兰芳

Article: Chinese-language Interview on Sina.com July 2008: "Little Aunt Tatsuru," "A Woman's Epic"

Published Reviews

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Apr.11.2011

The Lost Daughter of Happiness

Published by CCSE English Language and Literature Studies

Abstract It is Yan Geling’s invariable literary thoughts and feelings that express the real deep affections and experiences of women. As a Chinese American writer, she has...

Audio & Video

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Video: U.S. Trailer for "The Flowers of War"

Video: The Flowers of War -Official Trailer 1

geling-yan

Video: Yang Lan One on One 杨澜访问录

About Geling

Geling Yan is one of the most acclaimed contemporary novelists and screenwriters writing in the Chinese language today and a well-established writer in English. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during the Cultural...

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Connections

Causes Geling Yan Supports

Chinese-American Mental Health Network...

Geling YanLiterary fiction with roots in China.

Latest News & Events

"Dangerous Liaisons" at the Cannes Film Festival

Featured Works

Geling's Latest Blogs

Comments from Geling

Writing

Published Reviews

Audio & Video

About Geling

Connections

Causes Geling Yan Supports

Geling Yan
Literary fiction with roots in China.