Zero and Other Fictions

✍ Scribed by Huang, Fan

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 851 KB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Against the backdrop of nativist rural narratives dominating Taiwan's literary scene in the 1980s, Huang Fan published thrilling urban portraits and political satires, reorienting the nation's attention. His sardonic tone stood in stark contrast to the self-serious social realism then in vogue, and after decades of groundbreaking work, he is now one of Asia's most celebrated authors, crucial to understanding the development of Taiwanese literature over the past fifty years.

The first collection of Fan's work to appear in English, this anthology includes Zero, a futuristic novella that won the Unitas Prize, and three critically acclaimed short stories: "Lai Suo" (which won the China Times and Shibao Grand Literary Prize and established Fan's reputation), "The Intelligent Man," and "How to Measure the Width of a Ditch." In Zero, Xi De, a young man living among the elite in a postapocalyptic world, challenges the technocratic rule of a charismatic leader, mirroring Taiwan's own...