Thursday, November 14

Chinese literary awards

While the Chinese literati are busy issuing all kinds of awards, readers have shown little interest in such events, experts said. An embarrassing fact is that people now seem to be less concerned about literary works or the development of literature in China. Literature itself - or at least some genres such as poetry and novels for example - are waning. The circulations at some periodicals and novels are currently a fraction of what they were in the 1980s and early 1990s. Wang Meng, a renowned contemporary writer in China, attributed this to the flood of books written for entertainment and leisure reading. "Romantic and swordsman fictions by writers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, various stars' autobiographies, secrets about political dignitaries and even writings full of feudal superstitions are usually more competitive in the market than serious writing," said Wang.
"Feudal superstitions"--now there's a commie buzzword--excuse me, a keyword of the Chinese revolution. Incidentally, it's funny/sad how the articles at that website often want to present themselves as "cutting edge", but the Cultural Revolution is increasingly irrelevant.

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