The Subplot
The Subplot goes on a tour of China’s intriguing and unusual literary landscape. It includes a vast migrant-worker poetry movement, homoerotic romances by “rotten girls,” swaggering literary popstars, millionaire e-writers churning out novels that are millions of words long, underground comics, the surreal works of Yu Hua, Yan Lianke, and Nobel-laureate Mo Yan, as well as what is widely hailed as a golden-age of sci-fi.
Writing what neither the government nor readers want or expect, contemporary Chinese authors illuminate the complex relationship that exists between art and politics, one that is also increasingly shaping the arts in the West. But most importantly, the book aims to illustrate the way in which Chinese fiction offers an alternative way to understanding the contradictions that make up China itself.
Coverage
A New Yorker Best Book of 2022
An Economist Best Book of 2022
A “lively, lucid survey of contemporary Chinese fiction (…) Walsh delivers a wry cornucopia, inviting for general readers who don’t know Mo Yan from Han Han.” - The New York Times
“Engaging, informative—and considering the ground it covers in 135 pages—astonishingly nuanced.” - The Wall Street Journal
“Illuminating...offers a superb introduction to Chinese publishing and the clever, subversive ways it’s thriving.”
- Ron Charles, The Washington Post
A “wonderful, pacy tour of contemporary Chinese literature.” - The Economist
“An illuminating insight into the web fiction, sci-fi and subtle dissent read by one-fifth of humanity.”
- Financial Times
Briefly Noted - The New Yorker
“In a concise and fast-paced 136 pages Walsh guides the reader through the extraordinary literature that has emerged (…) The Subplot will make you want to read more Chinese fiction.” - The New Statesman
A “portal into people’s hearts and minds by exploring contemporary Chinese literature (…) The Subplot reminds us that Chinese writers’ fictional worlds, explored by tens of millions, are full of contradiction, complexity and humanity.”
- Global Asia
“A jaw-dropping look at what mainland Chinese are reading right now. Megan Walsh tells us why, in this time of China’s economic ascension, its literature is both liberating—and soul-crushing.”
- Jan Wong, author of Red China Blues
“A sharp, revealing portrait of contemporary China through the work and lives of its writers. At times the taxonomy of remarkably varied forms that modern Chinese literature has taken in defiance, celebration or evasion of the regime reads like something by Borges. Elegantly written and fascinating, providing insights beyond those to be found in the usual book pages.”
- Adam Foulds, author of The Quickening Maze and Dream Sequence
“In The Subplot, Megan Walsh showcases the diversity and vitality of contemporary Chinese literature. With economy and wit, she shows us why it’s so necessary to read literature to understand the story of China today.”
- Angie Baecker, University of Hong Kong
“We are what we read. As China is rising, people are naturally interested in what the Chinese are reading. This overview of the literature in China offers an interesting perspective of a country that is reshaping the world.”
- Lijia Zhang, author of Lotus and Socialism Is Great!: A Worker’s Memoir of China
“An eye-opening glimpse into China’s ‘intentionally hazy’ authoritarian political climate of censorship and propaganda…. A succinct, fascinating overview of literary ambivalence in China.” - Kirkus Reviews
“Drawing on a rich field of research, The Subplot not only crosses the language barrier, opening a window for the world to see contemporary Chinese literature, but it could also be an invaluable record for young Chinese people, both in China and overseas, to think about how society is affected by China's fast-pace of change.”
- Xinran, author of The Good Women of China
“You’ll finish The Subplot understanding the unruliness, the distinctive obsessions, and the major fractures in China far more fully than you would from reading conventional news coverage of the world’s most populous country.”
- Nicholas Lemann, Director of Columbia Global Reports, from “Letter to the Reader”
Podcasts, interviews and events
One Book, Three Questions Politico
Reading between the Party Lines – China’s books boom and what it means The Bunker
Love Poetry; Love Books Start the Week BBC Radio 4
In Conversation with Georgina Godwin Monocle Reads: Meet the Writers
The Chinese Reader BBC Radio 4
In Conversation with Nicholas Lemann and Rosie Blau Underreported
In Conversation with Pamela Paul New York Times Book Review
In Conversation with Kaiser Kuo Sinica
Why Chinese Fiction Matters Axios
Interview with Book Culture
The Chinese Literature Podcast
Understanding China Through Its Literature The Diplomat
On the “Little Emperors” of Chinese Literature Lithub