Sound and Silence: My Experience with China and Literature

Yan Lianke is a world-renowned author of novels, short stories, and essays whose provocative and nuanced writing explores the reality of everyday life in contemporary China. In Sound and Silence, Yan compares his literary project to a blind man carrying a flashlight whose role is to help others perceive the darkness that surrounds them. Often described as China’s most censored author, Yan reflects candidly on literary censorship in contemporary China. He outlines the Chinese state’s project of national amnesia that suppresses memories of past crises and social traumas. Although being banned in China is often a selling point in foreign markets, Yan argues that there is no requisite correlation between censorship and literary quality. Among other topics, Yan also examines the impact of American literature on Chinese literature in the 1980s and 1990s. Encapsulating his perspectives on life, writing, and literary history, Sound and Silence includes an introduction by translator Carlos Rojas and an afterword by Yan.Additional ISBNs9781478026167Sound and Silence: My Experience with China and Literature is written by Lianke Yan and published by Duke University Press Books. ISBNs for Sound and Silence are 9781478059387, 1478059389 and the print ISBNs are 9781478030393, 1478030399. Additional ISBNs include 9781478026167.