Yan Ge (,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: ''Yán Gē'', born December 1984) is the pen name of Chinese writer Dai Yuexing (,

: ''Dài Yuèxíng'').

Life and career

Yan Ge was born Dai Yuexing in December 1984 in the Pixian district of

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

. She began writing at the age of ten and her first book was published when she was 17 years old. Yan completed a

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 ...

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

Sichuan University Sichuan University (SCU) is a public university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. The university is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. I ...

and is the Chair of the China Young Writers Association. Her writing includes substantial amounts of her native

Sichuanese Sichuanese, Szechuanese or Szechwanese may refer to something of, from, or related to the Chinese province and region of Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jin ...

, rather than

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...

. ''People's Literature'' (''Renmin Wenxue'' ) magazine recently chose her – in a list reminiscent of The New Yorker's '20 under 40' – as one of China's twenty future literary masters. In 2012, she was chosen as Best New Writer by the prestigious Chinese Literature Media Prize (). In 2011, she was awarded a visiting scholar position at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. Yan was a guest writer at the

Crossing Border Festival Crossing Border Festival is an annual festival in The Hague, Netherlands focusing on new pop music acts and literature. It is one of the largest combined music and literature festivals in Europe. The first edition took place in 1993, as a larger fo ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

in November 2012, and has since appeared at numerous literary festivals throughout Europe. She has lived in Dublin with her husband, Daniel, and their child since 2015. Yan has been writing in English in addition to Mandarin and Sichuanese. Her first English book is a 2023 short story collection ''Elsewhere: stories''. Reviewer Chelsea Leu wrote Reviewer Sindya Bhanoo wrote that the stories "explore the power of language across the Chinese diaspora to either bring people together or push them apart."

Awards

* 2003 - Chinese Literature Media Award * 2002 - 1st prize, New Concept Writing Competition * 2001 - Honored as one of China's Top 10 Young Fiction Writers by the

Lu Xun Lu Xun ( zh, c=魯迅, p=Lǔ Xùn, ; 25 September 188119 October 1936), pen name of Zhou Shuren, born Zhou Zhangshou, was a Chinese writer. A leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in both vernacular and literary Chinese as a no ...

Literature School of the

China Writers Association The China Writers Association (CWA) is a subordinate people's organization of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC). Founded in July 1949, the organization was initially named the China National Literature Workers Association. ...

Publications

* ''May Queen'', 2008 - novel * ''Sissy Zhong'' - short story (translated by Nicky Harman) * ''White Horse'' - novella (translated by Nicky Harman) * ''Demon-Reflecting Mirror''- novella * ''Sad Stories of Pingle Township'' (5 stories including ''White Horse'' and ''Demon-Reflecting Mirror''). * ''Our Family'', 2013. **English translation: ''The Chilli Bean Paste Clan'', translated by Nicky Harman, Balestier Press, 2018; also German and French editions. * ''Record of Strange Beasts'', 2006. **English translation: '' Strange Beasts of China'', translated by

Jeremy Tiang Jeremy Tiang (born 17 January 1977) is a Singaporean writer, translator and playwright based in New York City. Tiang won the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize for English fiction for his debut novel, ''State of Emergency'', published in 2017. Car ...

, Melville House Publishing, 2021. * ''Elsewhere: stories'', 2023 - short stories. Scribner (US) and Faber (UK) (published in English)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yan, Ge 1984 births Living people 21st-century Chinese novelists Short story writers from Sichuan Chinese women short story writers Chinese women novelists Chinese expatriates in Ireland Sichuanese 21st-century Chinese short story writers Sichuan University alumni Chinese science fiction writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers Chinese fantasy writers Pseudonymous women writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers Writers from Chengdu