"Fushun Story Collection" Author: Zhao Song Guangdong People's Publishing House 2015 Chinese Literature

“Sometimes, certain ideals, for certain people, are destined to have tragic results from the very beginning.”

This carefully structured collection of short stories strikes a clever balance between fiction and non-fiction. Starting from his own memories, Zhao Song gives a delicate and restrained account of the geography and things of Fushun, an old industrial city in Northeast China, and his relatives, friends, masters, colleagues, etc. He explains the people around him, and to some extent, he also explains himself and this era. Although it is a collection of short stories in structure, it can be regarded as a different kind of novel and incorporates the long tradition of coming-of-age novels.

Zhao Song was born in Fushun, Liaoning in 1972 and currently lives in Shanghai. His major works include The Gap (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2007) and Listening to Ghosts Singing: Reading Strange Tales (Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 2015).