‘History is nothing more than a complex construction of records and observations’

In the seventy ninth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction podcast, we’re riding the Express to Beijing West Railway Station (开往西站的特别列车 / kāiwǎng xī zhàn de tèbié lièchē), and I’ll be buying my ticket from none other than the author herself, Mu Ming. En route we’ll be passing by the scenic works of William Blake and Christopher Nolan, and pondering whether Shakespeare and Lu Xun would make good Netflix writers (see Patreon feed). Long-time TrChFic listeners will also already know all-too-well: you’re going to hear me enthuse about trains. Sorry.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

WATCH: Qiufan Chen on How Chinese Science Fiction Imagines Our Future
WATCH: Gloria S Tseng on Biblical Imagery in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Literature
READ: a new issue of Chinese Literature and Thought Today with a newly translated Han Song story & an essay on Little Smarty Travels to the Future

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(想象力 - xiǎngxiànglì - imagination)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

Mu Ming’s musial pairing: The Grandmaster OST
Angus’ musical pairing: The End Where We Start by The Black Queen
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard Hemming
The Dragon by Ray Bradbury
Good Hunting by Ken Liu
The Serpentine Band 宛转环 by Mu Ming herself
The Snow of Jinyang 晋阳三尺雪 by Zhang Ran
Vital: The Future of Healthcare - a sci fi anthology
Kaili Blues 路边野餐 (2015, dir Bi Gan)

Ep 79 - Mu Ming and Express to Beijing West Railway Station