Hints and tips:
...For years I’ve wanted to see a “strange stone banquet” (qishi yan), and now one stands before me....
...In her latest novel, Ghost Music, the female protagonist, Song Yan, is similarly estranged from herself and others, and in an unsatisfactory relationship....
...Writers such as the 2012 Nobel laureate Mo Yan, best known for his 1986 debut Red Sorghum, or Yan Lianke, author of the novel Hard Like Water and the memoir Three Brothers, continue to write — if not always...
...operas of the time — bombastic jargon that Yan’s satire undercuts....
...The Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo famously loved pork, but claimed he would rather renounce it than live in a home without bamboo....
...Song lyrics strike a chord with private equity Movies and adverts have long given older songs a fresh lease of life through licensing deals....
...It had become one of the most important annual events for pro-democracy groups, with families attending to light candles and sing songs....
...“It would be a true landmark,” says Han Song, a widely respected voice in the Chinese science- fiction world, “to bring writers and fans from disparate worlds together to learn and share one another’s visions...
...There is a large gap between the supply of infrastructure and the demand,” said Mr Song....
...Marchers admonished the police with humour, in one instance holding up a cardboard sign that read “Stop Using Baton[s] Or We Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” — a song repeatedly sung by Christian activists at...
...Yang Yan’s 12-year old son Chen Zirui spends more than seven hours a week outside the school day doing classes in Chinese writing, maths and English....
...In one of the most perceptive passages in his book, Frankopan quotes an influential Chinese academic, Yan Xuetong....
...Another app, Hily, which co-founder Yan Pronin describes as a “social discovery app”, doesn’t swipe for you, but it does more than show pictures of potential matches....
...They sang “red” songs and paid homage at Liangjiahe, the nearby village where Chinese president Xi Jinping spent his teenage years....
...— Duan Yan, Director of China Consumer Research, FT Confidential Research...
...Explosion, named for its original settlement by a group of refugees fleeing a volcano eruption during the Song Dynasty, is situated in Yan’s own Henan province, the setting for many of his works....
...Composer Chan Hing-yan, who assembled most the evening’s texts, also provided a large part of the music, which was never less than listenable but seldom rose beyond....
...Dutch-born performance artist Yan Duyvendak was tapped to rewrite songs from The Sound of Music to denounce the ills of the world, from Tiananmen to pollution....
...“There’s an internal truth that’s been paved over,” says popular Chinese novelist Yan Lianke, whose latest book explores the theme of urbanisation....
...As a child, Pui Yan Li remembers trying on her mother’s clothes — even though she was forbidden to touch them. These were not ordinary dresses but precious keepsakes....
...Additional reporting by Zhang Yan...
...Additional reporting by Zhang Yan in Shanghai...
...Soloist Zhang Chongxue offered a masterly range of timbre and conductor Yan Huichang kept a tight rein on the orchestra, letting the tension build gradually to great effect....
...The Four Books, by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas, Chatto & Windus, RRP£16.99/Grove Press, RRP$27 Banned in mainland China, Yan’s novel is set in a “re-education camp” in northern China between...
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