Author Archives: Bertrand Mialaret

The dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan, a novel by Shawna Yang Ryan.

A good novel by the American Shawna Yang Ryan, published in 2016, won the following year a prestigious award, one of the American Book Awards. “Green Island” (1) is a historical novel that recounts the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan, the “White Terror” from 1947 to 1987 and it’s beginning with the massacres of February 28, 1947. Events that are necessary to know if one wants to understand the complexity of the society and … Lire la suite

The history of Singapore revisited (1) by Jeremy Tiang.

 

Three recently released and very different books makes up an unconventional approach to Singapore’s history: a novel “State of Emergency” (1) by Jeremy Tiang, a book that evokes some forgotten episodes or that the government would like to forget about the history of Singapore, and a great graphic novel by Sonny Liew that will be discussed later “The art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye” (2).

A children’s book … Lire la suite

Gao Xingjian, the Nobel Prize remains a free man.

 

The latest work by Gao Xingjian, “The Art of a Free Man” has just been published in France (1), it brings together, translated by Noël Dutrait, speeches made in several countries, interviews or short essays. These texts, dated from 2010 to 2016, are more recent than the essays grouped in “De La Creation” (2) and are much shorter.

A beautiful surprise in this latest book, edited by Anne Sastourné, a … Lire la suite

The novelist Yiyun Li treats a depression by reading and literature.

Her latest book, a collection of essays (1), has just been published in the United States where she lives and where it has received exceptional reviews. A short but very dense book that evokes her youth in Beijing, her arrival in the United States, her first literary successes and her serious suicidal depression in 2012. It is a magnificent hymn to reading and literature and she makes us share … Lire la suite

Yan Ge, a spicy and humorous account of family relations.

She is thirty years old. Her name is quoted as the star of this generation. She has a good international education, writes easily, quickly and has a devastating sense of humour. She talks about her childhood, the families around her, and her native province of Sichuan, which plays an important role in her work.

Yan Ge was born in Chengdu 33 years ago. She won the New Concept Writing Competition at 18 by more than … Lire la suite

Love and ambiguity in London for the novelist Lee Kok Liang.

Lee Kok Liang is, with Llyod Fernando and KS Maniam, one of the most important writers of Malaysian literature in English. Barrister, politician, author of two novels and two collections of short stories, he wins us over with his style, his qualities of observation and a detached and rather sad look at London, Paris and Malaysia in the 1960s.

 

– A pleasant novel, “London does not belong to me” (1)

 

Author of … Lire la suite

Mo Yan and the ghosts of the 1979 war.

The Sino-Vietnamese war of February-March 1979 is forgotten despite the current tensions between the two countries, particularly with regard to the Spratley islands. A conflict evoked by Mo Yan in a short novel, “The Reunion of Companions in Arms” (1), a book of 1992 where Mo Yan shows once again the extent of his talent.

1- Mo Yan after the Nobel Prize:

 

The award of the Nobel … Lire la suite

The Chinese novelist Wang Anyi and “The coquette of Shanghai”.

Wang Anyi is a prominent writer who is a symbol of Shanghai literature. Now older than sixty, she has written more than one hundred and fifty short stories and novels, seven of which were translated into French with Philippe Picquier.

She is the author of one of the masterpieces of contemporary Chinese literature, “The Song of Everlasting Sorrows” (1) which was crowned by the Mao Dun Prize in the year 2000 and which, … Lire la suite

KS Maniam, a major writer, emigration and citizenship in Malaysia.

Subramaniam Krishnan (KS) Maniam is one of the major writers born and living in Malaysia, but of Indian origin (Tamil) and writing in English, he is not part of the “national” literature that constitute with the privileges attached, the authors writing in the Malay language.

 

– “National” literature:

For the 30 million inhabitants of Malaysia, racial origin is essential: 63% are Malays, “Sons of the soil”, just under 10% are of Indian origin (mostly … Lire la suite