The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories: A Collection of Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy in Translation from a Visionary Team of Female and Nonbinary Creators

by Yu Chen, Regina Kanyu Wang

Overview

An Oprah Daily Top 25 Fantasy Book of 2022

From an award-winning team of authors, editors, and translators comes a groundbreaking short story collection that explores the expanse of Chinese science fiction and fantasy.

In The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, you can dine at a restaurant at the end of the universe, cultivate to immortality in the high mountains, watch roses perform Shakespeare, or arrive at the island of the gods on the backs of giant fish to ensure that the world can bloom.

Written, edited, and translated by a female and nonbinary team, these stories have never before been published in English and represent both the richly complicated past and the vivid future of Chinese science fiction and fantasy.

Time travel to a winter's day on the West Lake, explore the very boundaries of death itself, and meet old gods and new heroes in this stunning new collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250768919
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/08/2022
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	681,860
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Yu Chen, Editor, has been working on the publication of science fiction and fantasy for almost ten years. She has planned and established an SFF column “Tales from Nowhere,” organized and participated a number of SFF forums, conventions, workshops and conferences, and published more than ten SFF books, including “Hospital Trilogy” by Han Song (Hospital, Exorcism and Revenant) and The New Wave of Chinese Science Fiction: History, Poetics and Text by Song Mingwei. Exorcism won the Best Original Book Award of the 29th Galaxy Award of Chinese Science Fiction.

Regina Kanyu Wang, Editor, is a bilingual writer from Shanghai who writes both in Chinese and English. She has won the SF Comet international short story competition and multiple Xingyun Awards for Global Chinese SF. Her stories can be found in various magazines and anthologies, as well as her two individual collections, Of Cloud and Mist 2.2 and The Seafood Restaurant. She is the cofounder of SF AppleCore and the Overseas Market Director of Storycom, and will soon join the CoFUTURES project at the University of Oslo to research contemporary Chinese science fiction by female creators.

Table of Contents

The Stars We Raised
Xiu Xinyu
Translated by Judy Yi Zhou

The Tale of Wude’s Heavenly Tribulation
Count E
Translated by Mel “etvolare” Lee

What Does the Fox Say?
Xia Jia
This irreverent exploration of language and translation in flash fiction form was originally written in English by Xia Jia

Blackbird
Shen Dacheng
Translated by Cara Healey

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Tai-Chi Mashed Taro
Anna Wu
Translated by Carmen Yiling Yan

Essay: The Futures of Genders in Chinese Science Fiction
Jing Tsu

Baby, I Love You
Zhao Haihong
Translated by Elizabeth Hanlon

A Saccharophilic Earthworm
BaiFanRuShuang
Translated by Ru-Ping Chen

The Alchemist of Lantian
BaiFanRuShuang
Translated by Ru-Ping Chen

The Way Spring Arrives
Wang Nuonuo
Translated by Rebecca F. Kuang

Essay: Translation as Retelling: An Approach to Translating Gu Shi’s “To Procure Jade” and Ling Chen’s “The Name of the Dragon”
Yilin Wang

The Name of the Dragon
Ling Chen
Translated by Yilin Wang

To Procure Jade
Gu Shi
Translated by Yilin Wang

A Brief History of Beinakan Disasters as Told in a Sinitic Language
Nian Yu
Translated by Ru-Ping Chen

Essay: Is There Such a Thing as Feminine Quietness? A Cognitive Linguistics Perspective
Emily Xueni Jin

Dragonslaying
Shen Yingying
Translated by Emily Xueni Jin

New Year Painting, Ink and Color on Rice Paper, Zhaoqiao Village
Chen Qian
Translated by Emily Xueni Jin

The Portrait
Chu Xidao
Translated by Gigi Chang

The Woman Carrying a Corpse
Chi Hui
Translated by Judith Huang

The Mountain and the Secret of Their Names
Wang Nuonuo
Translated by Rebecca F. Kuang

Essay: Net Novels and the “She Era”: How Internet Novels Opened the Door for Female Readers and Writers in China
Xueting Christine Ni

Essay: Writing and Translation: A Hundred Technical Tricks
Rebecca F. Kuang

Editorial Reviews

12/06/2021

With this impressive anthology, Yu and Wang bring together the first English translations of 17 Chinese-language stories by female and nonbinary writers. One can find refuge—and pay the tab with a story—at the eponymous eatery featured in “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Tai-Chi Mashed Taro” by Anna Wu, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan, and enjoy hassle-free child-rearing with digital children in “Baby, I Love You” by Zhao Haihong, translated by Elizabeth Hanlon. In the title story by Wang Nuonuo, translated by Rebecca F. Kuang, a young woman and her admirer travel the world, moving the ocean’s currents to bring about spring. In “Dragonslaying” by Shen Yingying, translated by Emily Xueni Jin, half-fish beings are exploited for their beauty and coveted for their priceless eyes. And in “New Year Painting, Ink and Color on Rice Paper, Zhaoqiao Village” by Chen Qian, also translated by Jin, paintings by a talented child can cure terminal illness, but at a price. Five essays on the art and intricacies of translation add thought-provoking context, musing on how to represent a culture to an unfamiliar audience. This offers much to chew on. (Nov.)Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the number of pieces that are included in the collection.

Publishers Weekly

"With this impressive anthology, Chen and Wang bring together the first English translations of 17 Chinese-language stories by female and nonbinary writers. . . . Offers much to chew on."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

03/01/2022

As more speculative short story collections arrive on shelves than ever before, this anthology of 17 Chinese-language stories by nonbinary and female authors shines a new light on the genre. Youths help stars grow while finding their own identities in Xiu Xinyu's "The Stars We Raised," translated by Judy Yi Zhou. A story can pay the price of a meal at "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Tai-Chi Mashed Taro," by Anna Wu, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan. The title story by Wang Nuonuo, "The Way Spring Arrives," translated by The Poppy War author Rebecca F. Kuang, tells of a young man who accompanies a woman from his village on her journey to bring spring to the world; along the way, he learns the cycles of ocean currents, myths, and love. Editors Yu and Wang also include five essays that explore not only the stories' themes but the art of translating such works. VERDICT An important anthology showcasing compelling voices and perspectives in science fiction and fantasy.—Kristi Chadwick

Library Journal