Author Yan Lianke Visits for Writers Series

Last week, Morningside College had its final Writers Series event of the academic year. Winner of the Lu Xun Literary Prize and the Franz Kafka Prize and author of many novels, including Dreams of Ding Village (丁莊夢),The Four Books (四書) , and Lenin’s Kisses (受活), Yan Lianke spoke about the progress of Chinese literature since the end of the Cultural Revolution and his tireless pursuit of writing powerful fiction about contemporary China. While some of his recent novels have not been published within mainland China, Yan Lianke has been able to maintain a reputation at home, in Hong Kong, and internationally as one of China’s strongest literary voices. Morningside Fellow and Sin Wai Kai Professor of Chinese Culture Leo Ou-Fan Lee, who was present to lead the discussion, praised Mr. Yan for being China’s most honest and relentless novelist saying, “If one writer at all is comparable to Kafka it would be Yan Lianke… (his works have) a Kafkaesque landscape that is authentically Chinese.” Having to conclude the event though it seemed the lively conversation could have carried on, five lucky students won signed copies of Yan Lianke’s books.