ZHANG Yan 1938-

(Xi Xi)

PERSONAL: Born October 7, 1938, in Shanghai, China.

ADDRESSES: Home—Hong Kong. Offıce—c/o Hong Kong University Press, 14/F Hing Wai Centre, Tin Wan Praya Rd., Aberdeen, Hong Kong.

CAREER: Novelist, short-story writer, and essayist. Primary school teacher, Hong Kong,1958-79; screenwriter, c. 1960s; Damuzhi zhoubao (literary magazine), editor, 1975-77; Suye wenxue (literary magazine), editor, 1981-84.

AWARDS, HONORS: United Daily (Taiwan) award, 1982, for "A Girl like Me."

WRITINGS:

Wo cheng [China], 1974, translated by Eva Hung as My City: A Hong Kong Story, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China), 1993.

Jiao he, Xianggang wen xue yan jiu she (Xianggang, China), c.1981.

Chun wang (short stories), Su ye chu ban she (Xianggang, China), 1982.

Shao lu, Su ye chu ban she (Xianggang, China), 1982.

Shi qing, Su ye chu ban she (Xianggang, China), 1982.

Xiang wo zhe yang di yi ge du zhe, Hong fan shu dian, min guo 75 (Taibei Shi, Taiwan), 1984, translated by Stephen C. Soong as A Girl like Me and Other Stories, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China), 1986, expanded edition, 1999.

Hu zi you lian (short stories), Hong fan shu dian, min guo 75 (Taibei Shi, Taiwan), 1986.

Marvels of a Floating City and Other Stories, translated by Eva Hung, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China), 1997.

Fei zhan, [China], 1996, translated by Diana Yu as Flying Carpet: A Tale of Fertillia, Hong Kong University Press (Hong Kong, China), 2000.

Also author of Aiado rufang (tile means "Eleby for a Breast").

SIDELIGHTS: Zhang Yan, better known to readers as Xi Xi, is one of Hong Kong's foremost fiction writers. Her novels, beginning with My City: A Hong Kong Story first published in China in 1974, express the spirit and culture of modern China and, in particular, her hometown of Hong Kong. Her short fiction and essays have developed a simple and personal style that critics have connected to the Western literary genres of Magic Realism and Surrealism. Her works have been translated into English since the mid-1980s, expanding her audience from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China to the West.

Xi Xi was born in Shanghai into a Cantonese family in 1938. In 1950 the family moved to Hong Kong to distance themselves from the Chinese mainland, which had been taken over by the Chinese Communist party. She worked for twenty years as a primary school teacher, beginning in 1958, though for most of that period she also began working on her writing career, publishing short pieces in magazines and writing screenplays. During the 1960s she also wrote as a critic of film and art, and she wrote a newspaper column. Her first novel, Wo cheng, was translated as My City. It was among the first in Hong Kong literature to use the Cantonese dialect, a reflection of the complex culture of the Chinese city. The novel is also unique in its surrealist style, creating a world where walls, tools, and fruits can speak and have feelings. Hong Kong is depicted through the eyes of teenage characters Braids and Fruits, in a simple narrative style.

Reviewing My City for World Literature Today, Fatima Wu wrote that Xi Xi's "writing talents emerge in a complex tale wherein she, besides portraying the many facets of social and historical issues, is able to combine viewpoints of children and working men and women into a mosaic of surrealism, science fiction, and language games." Jeffrey Twitchell, in the Review of Contemporary Fiction, said, "It is above all the language that is the central protagonist of the novel. Xi Xi's subtle, childlike language is ever unpredictable, offering offbeat perspectives at every turn."

Toward the end of her teaching career Xi Xi also became the editor of one of Hong Kong's foremost literary magazines, Damuzhi zhoubao. In 1979 she retired from teaching so that she could concentrate on her writing. As she continued to be published, her reputation began to extend beyond Hong Kong. Her 1982 story "Xiang wo zhe yang di yi ge du zhe" ("A Girl like Me") won the United Daily award in Taiwan. The story also became the title piece for later English translations of her short fiction, first published in 1986, and in an expanded edition in 1999. A Girl like Me and Other Stories also contains excerpts from the autobiographical work Aidao rufang (Elegy for a Breast), about Xi Xi's experience with breast cancer in 1989.

Other stories that attracted an English readership are those written during the gradual conversion of Hong Kong back to China, finalized July 1997, and the negotiations preceding the transfer of power. Among these are the "Feitu zhen," or "Fertile Town," series, written between 1982 and 1996. This series includes the 1996 novel Fei zhan, translated as Flying Carpet: A Tale of Fertillia.

Xi Xi's Flying Carpet portrays the "fertile town" from the late nineteenth century up through 1995, addressing such issues as education, industrialization, and superstition through a web of fictional characters. Like her early novel My City, Flying Carpet captures something essential about the life of Hong Kong. Reviewing the book for World Literature Today, Fatima Wu wrote, "Being a native of Hong Kong myself, I travel back in time with the author into our grandparent's past lives. As the story moves into the modern period, I seem to see myself taking part in the city's growth and maturation."

Other stories written during the late 1980s include "Fucheng zhiyi" ("Marvels of a Floating City"), "Mali gean" ("The Case of Mary"), and the 1988 story "Yuzhou qiqu lu buyi" ("Delights of the Universe: A Supplement"). Three of these stories—"Marvels of a Floating City," "The Story of Fertile Town," and "The Fertile Town Chalk Circle"—were collected in the 1997 publication Marvels of a Floating City and Other Stories, translated by Eva Hung. The tales reflect the surrealism and magic realism at work in My City. "Marvels of a Floating City" is based on the surreal paintings of René Magritte, the author interpreting the condition of Hong Kong in the French artist's images. In "The Story of Fertile Town" the soil of a poor town is magically transformed to sustain ever-increasing productivity.

Reviewing the collection for World Literature Today, Jeffrey C. Kinkley wrote that, "whereas the numerous books of speculative journalism and political analysis about the hand-over" of Hong Kong from Britain to China have become dated, "Xi Xi's images will live on."

Translator Hung, who created the English versions of My City and Marvels of a Floating City, summarized Xi Xi's career in the Encyclopedia of World Literature, noting that the author "is commonly recognized as Hong Kong's leading writer. Although she is remarkably versatile and covers most genres, she will be best remembered for her works of fiction. One of her major contributions is the sense of humor and fun that she brings to contemporary Chinese literature."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the Twentieth Century, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Review of Contemporary Fiction, fall, 1995, Jeffrey Twitchell, review of My City: A Hong Kong Story, p. 243.

World Literature Today, summer, 1994, Fatima Wu, review of My City, pp. 634-635; spring, 1998, Jeffrey C. Kinkley, review of Marvels of a Floating City and Other Stories, p. 455; autumn, 2000, Fatima Wu, review of Flying Carpet: A Tale of Fertillia, p. 802.*