Ge Fei ( zh, c=格非, p= Gé Fēi , w=Ke Fei, born August 22, 1964) is the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of novelist Liu Yong (), considered by many scholars and critics to be one of the most significant of the Chinese

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

writers that rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s.

Life and work

Ge Fei was born in Dantu,

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

, in 1964. He studied Chinese literature at

East China Normal University East China Normal University (ECNU) is a public university in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education and co-funded with the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. The university is part of ...

and, after graduating in 1985, began to teach there and publish short stories and novellas. He read widely during his studies, but has since noted that he was particularly influenced by

Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known w ...

Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in for Lafayette County where he s ...

and

Robbe-Grillet Robbe-Grillet is a compound surname. Notable people with this surname include: * Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922–2008), French writer and filmmaker * Catherine Robbe-Grillet Catherine Robbe-Grillet (; ; born 24 September 1930) is a French writer, ...

. Some of his early, more experimental works were translated into English in the 1990s, such as "The Lost Boat", "Remembering Mr. Wu You" and "Green Yellow". After completing ''The Banner of Desire'' (''Yuwang de qizhi''), Ge Fei took a break from literary writing to concentrate on his academic career. He completed his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 2000 and became a professor at

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

in Beijing. In 2004, ''Peach Blossom Paradise'' (''Renmian taohua'') was published, the first book of what has become known as the "Jiangnan Trilogy", which explores the concept of

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

and contains many allusions to

Cao Xueqin Cao Xueqin ( ; 4 April 171010 June 1765Briggs, Asa (ed.) (1989) ''The Longman Encyclopedia'', Longman, ) was a Chinese novelist and poet during the Qing dynasty. He is best known as the author of '' Dream of the Red Chamber'', one of the Four G ...

's ''

Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' or ''The Story of the Stone'' is an 18th-century Chinese novel authored by Cao Xueqin, considered to be one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It is known for its psychological scope and it ...

''. An English translation of ''Peach Blossom Paradise'' was published in 2020 and selected as a finalist for the

National Book Award for Translated Literature The National Book Award for Translated Literature, is one of five annual National Book Awards in the USA, recognising outstanding literary works of translation into English and administered by the National Book Foundation. This award was previousl ...

in 2021. The second and third books'', My Dream of the Mountain and River'' (''Shanhe rumeng'', 2007) and ''The Last Spring in Jiangnan'' (''Chunjin jiangnan'', 2011), have yet to be translated into English. For this trilogy, he was one of the winners of the

Mao Dun Literature Prize The Mao Dun Literature Prize () is an award for novels, established in the will of prominent Chinese writer Mao Dun (for which he personally donated 250,000 RMB) and sponsored by the China Writers Association. Awarded every four years, it is ...

in 2015. In 2016, ''The Invisibility Cloak'' (which had won both the

Lu Xun Literary Prize The Lu Xun Literary Prize (or Lu Xun Literature Prize) 鲁迅文学奖 is a literary prize awarded by China Writers Association. It is one of China's top four literary prizes and is named after Lu Xun and has been awarded every three years sinc ...

and the

Lao She Literary Award The Lao She Literary Award (''Lao She wenxue jiang'' 老舍文学奖) is named after the Chinese novelist Lao She, a writer and activist of 20th-century Chinese literature. The award is awarded to a Beijing writer every two to three years, recognisi ...

in 2014) was the first of his longer works to be translated into English. A translation of an earlier novella from 1988, ''Flock of Brown Birds'', was also published later in 2016.

Selected bibliography

Novels

* 《敌人》 'Diren''(1990). ''The Enemy'' * 《欲望的旗帜》 'Yuwang de qizhi''(1995). ''The Banner of Desire'' * 《人面桃花》 'Renmian taohua''(2004). ''Peach Blossom Paradise'', trans. Canaan Morse (New York Review Books, 2020). * 《山河入梦》 'Shanhe rumeng''(2007). ''My Dream of the Mountain and River'' * 《春尽江南》 'Chunjin jiangnan''(2011). ''The Last Spring in Jiangnan'' * 《月落荒寺》 (2019). ''Moonfall on the Deserted Temple''

Novellas and short stories

* 《追忆乌攸先生》 'Zhuiyi Wu You xiansheng''(1986). ''Remembering Mr. Wu You'' * 《陷阱》 'Xian Jing''(1987). ''The Trap'' * 《迷舟》 'Mizhou''(1987). ''The Lost Boat'' * 《大年》 'Da nian''(1988). ''New Year's Eve'' * 《褐色鸟群》 'Hese Niaoqun''(1988). ''Flock of Brown Birds'', trans. Poppy Toland (Penguin, 2016). * 《青黄》 'Qinghuang''(1988). ''Green Yellow'' * 《边缘》 (''Bianyuan'') (1992). ''The Margin'' * 《锦瑟》 'Jinse''(1993). * 《相遇》 'Xiangyu''(1993). ''The Encounter'' * 《隐身衣》 'Yinshen Yi''(2012). ''The Invisibility Cloak'', trans. Canaan Morse (New York Review Books, 2016). * 《望春风》 'Wang Chunfeng''(2016). ''Waiting for the Spring Breeze''

In anthologies and journals

* "The Lost Boat" (trans. Caroline Mason), in ''The Lost Boat: Avant-Garde Fiction from China'', ed. Henry Zhao (1993) * "Meetings" (trans. Deborah Mills), in ''Abandoned Wine: Chinese Writing from Today'' (1996) * "Remembering Mr. Wu You" (trans.

Howard Goldblatt Howard Goldblatt (, born 1939) is a literary translator of numerous works of contemporary Chinese (mainland China & Taiwan) fiction, including '' The Taste of Apples'' by Huang Chunming and ''The Execution of Mayor Yin'' by Chen Ruoxi. Goldblatt ...

); "Green Yellow" (trans. Eva Shan Chou); "Whistling" (trans.

Victor H. Mair Victor Henry Mair (; born March 25, 1943) is an American Sinology, sinologist currently serving as a professor of Chinese language, Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania. Among other accomplishments, Mair has edited the standard ''Columbia His ...

), in ''China's Avant-Garde Fiction: An Anthology'', ed. Jing Wang (Duke University Press, 1998) * "Encounter" in ''Tales of Tibet: Sky Burials, Prayer Wheels, and Wind Horses'' (2001) * "Ring Flower" in ''Chinese Literature Today'' (2017) * "Song of Liangzhou" in ''Chinese Literature Today'' (2017)

Scholarly publications

* 《小说叙事学》 (1992). ''Narratology of the Novel'' * 《卡夫卡的钟摆》 afuka de zhongbai(2004). ''Kafka's Pendulum'' * 《文学的邀约》 enxue de yaoyue(2010). ''The Invitation of Literature'' * 《雪隐鹭鸶——金瓶梅的声色与虚无》 (2014). ''Egret Hidden in the Snow - The Sound, Color and Nothingness of

Jin Ping Mei ''Jin Ping Mei'' ()—translated into English as ''The Plum in the Golden Vase'' or ''The Golden Lotus''—is a Chinese novel of manners composed in vernacular Chinese during the latter half of the 16th century during the late Ming dynasty (1368 ...

Awards and honors

* 2012: Dream of the Red Chamber Award for ''The Last Spring in Jiangnan'' * 2014:

for ''The Invisibility Cloak'' * 2014:

for ''The Invisibility Cloak'' * 2015:

for ''Jiangnan Trilogy''

References

External links

Ge Fei home page
at https://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ge, Fei 1964 births Living people Writers from Zhenjiang East China Normal University alumni Chinese male novelists Chinese male short story writers Educators from Zhenjiang Mao Dun Literature Prize laureates 20th-century Chinese short story writers Short story writers from Jiangsu