New chapter for women's writing
The anthologies thus become collections of annual samples of works by Chinese women, from which readers can see how the landscape of contemporary Chinese women's writings and their literary disposition change.
"If seen from the perspectives of anthropological and social studies, they are also the containers of the yearly samples of women's life," she says.
Divided into three parts according to the three themes－love, secret and beyond, the 20 short stories in the new anthology cover works created by writer of ages ranging from their 20s to 60s with varied topics, styles and genres.
In Qiji Zhinian (Year of Miracles), Dong Lai, born after 1990, tells a story about a mysterious man the male narrator encounters when he spends his annual leave in a lonely hotel in a desert. The mysterious man claims that he has an exceptional ability, with which he can bend a metal spoon with his mind. Through his telling, the story presents a crazy time when many people in China believed "masters" who claimed to own exceptional abilities.
In Banpian Bandiao (Unfinished Story), Tang Fei, 45, tells a sci-fi tale about livestreaming and plastic pollution. Through the eyes of a journalist, the story reveals the truth about a popular livestreaming cosmetics key opinion leader, better known as KOL, who lives on a remote island where many people look much younger than their real ages.
Wanchun (Late Spring) by San San, 31, tells a quaint Hitchcockian story about an old man who suspects that his second wife is poisoning his food. The narrator, the old man's aloof son, one day receives a call from his father and goes to Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, from Beijing to help to investigate the suspected stepmother.
Kongque (Peacock) by Ye Xinyun, 30, used ingenious twists to narrate a compelling story of love and crime. A paralyzed woman meets a veteran anti-drug policeman in a blind date. Everything went smoothly until, one night, the woman tells the man how she, a beautiful dancer, became paralyzed in high school.
