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Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > Points of Origin

Points of Origin

Diao Dou’s short stories perform a kind of high-wire literary acrobatics; each one executes an immaculate mid-air transition, from closely observed social realism to surrealist parody, and back again. Covering all aspects of modern Chinese life – from the high-minded morals of an emerging middle class, to the vividly remembered hardships of an all-too-recent collectivist past – these stories offer a very particular window into the contemporary Chinese psyche, and show a culture struggling to keep pace with the extraordinary transformations that have befallen it in the space of a single lifetime.

Author

Diao Dou

Diao Dou

Books

Points of Origin

Diao Dou was born in 1960 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China. Since graduating from the Beijing Broadcasting Institute in 1983, he has worked as a journalist and latterly as a literary editor. Although his first book was a collection of poetry, Aiqing jishi (Chronicles of Love, 1992), he is best known as an author of novels and short stories.

His five novels are Siren dang’an (Personal File, 1998), Zhengci (Testimony, 1999), Youxifa (Playing the Game, 2002), Wo ge Diao Bei nianbiao (My Brother, Diao Bei: A History, 2008) and Qinhe (Close to You, 2011). He has also published five collections of short stories: Duzi shangsheng (Ascending Alone, 1996), Shaizi yi zhi (A Roll of the Dice, 1996), Shijishang shi hujiu (A Cry for Help, 2006),Qingshu kao (Love Letters: A Study, 2014) and Chuchu (Points of Origin, 2015). He has also published one collection of essays, Yi ge xiaoshuojia de shenghuo yu xiangxiang (The Life and Imagination of a Novelist, 2012).

Diao Dou is regarded as one of China’s leading satirists, praised for his refusal to follow any of the numerous literary trends that often dominate the Chinese literary scene. In 2003, he was awarded the ninth annual Zhuang Zhongwen Prize for Literature.

Points of Origin is the first appearance of his collected works in English.

Translator

Brendan O’Kane

Brendan O’Kane

Books

Points of Origin

Brendan O’Kane spent a decade in Beijing, working mostly as a freelance translator and the co-host of the Mandarin-learning podcast Popup Chinese, reviews of which have described him as ‘only slightly annoying.’ He is currently a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania.

Published by

Comma Press, 2015
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Diao Dou’s short stories perform a kind of high-wire literary acrobatics; each one executes an immaculate mid-air transition, from closely observed social realism to surrealist parody, and back again. Covering all aspects of modern Chinese life – from the high-minded morals of an emerging middle class, to the vividly remembered hardships of an all-too-recent collectivist past – these stories offer a very particular window into the contemporary Chinese psyche, and show a culture struggling to keep pace with the extraordinary transformations that have befallen it in the space of a single lifetime.

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