This week, our writers bring you the latest news of international book prizes and cultural events. In Thailand, Peera Songkünnatham sheds light on the highest-nominated titles in the “Books You Should Read” festival, while in Hong Kong, Charlie Ng introduces us to a recent article celebrating Hong Kong writer Liu Yichang. Read on to find out more!
Peera Songkünnatham, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Thailand
For three years now, the annual book recommendation festival ความน่าจะอ่าน (Books You Should Read) has pooled Top 3 nominations from a cross-section of editors and readers in the Thai publishing industry. With fifty to sixty participants each year, this “mass” nomination system organized by the media website the101.world has helped spotlight a wide range of noteworthy books that would otherwise not be in the running for awards that only consider works not in translation or that judge in narrow categories (Thailand’s S.E.A. Write Award, for example, rotates between novel, short story, and poetry in three-year cycles).
The highest-nominated book has consistently been a creative account of political oppression in the country. A book that, in other words, combines urgency with craft. This year’s number one “Top Highlight,” with eight nominations, is ในแดนวิปลาส (In the Land of Madness), the book I also blogged about earlier last month. 2020’s top title was ตาสว่าง (Il Re di Bangkok), an Italian graphic novel grounded in ethnographic research whose English translation is forthcoming this December. And 2018-2019’s winner was มันทำร้ายเราได้แค่นี้แหละ (All They Could Do to Us), a lèse-majesté prison memoir hailed by many readers as Thailand’s Orange is the New Black—this rather clichéd comparison may now have more substance after the book gained praise from a high-profile showbiz executive. All these come from very, very small publishers who did not expect the widespread critical and commercial success. That this kind of dark-horse candidate appears to be obvious “winning material” now is a testament to how “Books You Should Read” has influenced public perception of literary noteworthiness.
There is a marked decrease of fiction nominations this year: only one novel has made the Top 11, which includes four “pop social science” titles. Most surprising, though, is the fact that the two runners-up, with four nominations each, are “how-to” books: one by novelist Veeraporn Nitiprabha instructs readers to be gentle to their children; the other, titled Makoto Marketing, outlines a Japanese method of doing business from the heart. 2021 is definitely a more pragmatic year.
Charlie Ng, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Hong Kong
Hong Kong based cultural magazine, Zolima Citymag, published a feature article on important Hong Kong writer Liu Yichang recently. Titled “Liu Yichang and Chinese Cosmopolitanism,” the article belongs to the magazine’s “Hong Kong’s Great Writers” series, which introduces readers to representative writers who have greatly influenced Hong Kong literature. Liu’s works reflect Hong Kong in the 1960s and 70s, and his experience as a southbound writer also contributes to his Chinese diasporic representations. The article explores Liu’s biographical details, as well as the urban and cosmopolitan themes in his novels.
Organised by Goethe-Institut Hong Kong, the online talk series, “Literature in the Worst/Best of Time: An Exchange between Hong Kong and Minsk,” invites writers from Hong Kong and Minsk to engage in dialogues on their creative activities in face of political turbulence and uncertain future. On 23 September, the series came to the second session: “Poetry in the Worst/Best of Time,” which featured Hong Kong writer/poet Tang Sui Wa and poet and translator based in Minsk, Hanna Komar. The event was moderated by Asymptote’s Jacqueline Leung.
In a time of threat and challenge, it is all the more important to enable different voices and preserve memories in meaningful ways. Published by Cart Noodles Press, the forthcoming anthology of Hong Kong writings, Looking Back at Hong Kong: An Anthology of Writing and Art, collects literary and photographic works by eighteen writers and artists to explore their relationships with Hong Kong through imagination. The Massachusetts Review is going to host an online reading and panel discussion, “Looking Back at Hong Kong: A Reading & Convo with Writers of/from Hong Kong,” on 7 October (HKT) to mark the launch of the volume. The editor, Nicolette Wong, will have a discussion with writers such as Xu Xi, Sharon Yam, Yeung Chak Yan, and Q. M. Zhang on their reflections on Hong Kong in recent years.
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