Ep 85 – Mo Yan and Sandalwood Death with Stefan Rusinov

The final cut – the coup de grace – entered Qian’s heart, from which black blood the colour and consistency of melted malt sugar slid down the knife blade

In the eighty fifth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are experiencing the lacerating pains of Sandalwood Death, as dealt to us by Nobel literature prizewinner Mo Yan. It’s time to rip Shandong Province apart in a rebellion for the songbooks. The Sun Wukong to my Yue Fei this episode is friend of the pod Stefan Rusinov. We laugh, we brood, we hallucinate, and we shake our fists at the craven villain Yuan Shikai, all the while pondering: is torture an artform?

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• READ: A Record of My Battle with the Virus by Han Song, translated by Michael Berry
• CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Xi Xi: Can We Say // a special issue on the recently late writer
• NEW BOOK: Gu Long’s Blood Parrot, translated by Deathblade
• REVIEW: SCMP takes a look at the new prequel to The Wandering Earth

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(喵 – miāo – meow)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Stefan’s musical pairing: The Voyevoda by Tchaikovsky
• Angus’ musical pairing: Bridgeburner by Mutoid Man
• Gao Xingjian – another Han nobel lit prize winner
• Mo Yan’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
• Jiaozhou, Imperial Germany’s Shandong colony
• Stefan’s previous TrChFic appearance, discussing Can Xue

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// Handy TrChFic Links //

Help Support TrChFic // Episode Transcripts

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