Magazines
A new literary magazine features new writing from Zhou ZuorenPosted by Joel Martinsen on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 5:19 PM
Following Zhang Yueran’s NEWriting (鲤), Han Han’s defunct Party (独唱团), and Di An’s ZUI Found (文艺风赏), Annie Baobei becomes the latest popular novelist to launch her own literary magazine. The inaugural issue of O-pen (大方) makes a splash by featuring a pair of literary giants. The first half of the magazine is devoted to a lengthy interview with Haruki Murakami. The interview, conducted over the course of three days in May 2010 by Matsuie Masashi, first appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of Kangaeru Hito (考える人, “The Thinker”). The O-pen version is translated by Zhang Lefeng. Accompanying the interview is a 1Q84-inspired trip through Tokyo courtesy of Peggy Kuo (郭正佩), the author of a book of photo-essays about the Tokyo locations featured in Murakami’s fiction. One of the issue’s other highlights is “What Are Dragons” (龙是什么), a previously unpublished essay by Zhou Zuoren. Critic and O-pen editorial board member Zhi An (止庵) describes the essay’s journey to publication:
In the essay itself, a rather lightweight investigation into the origins of the mythological creature, Zhou Zuoren briefly discusses traditional Chinese depictions of the dragon as a reptile, as a supernatural being, and as the Dragon King, before moving on to look at how dragons are depicted in India and in the West. He also compares the dragons to dinosaurs, crocodiles and lizards, and suggests, “We can conclude that the Chinese dragon actually existed as a large reptile, a kind of lizard. Closest to it today is probably the Komodo dragon, and hence it could be raised domestically. But the strange thing is that this not particularly sophisticated creature has left such a deep influence upon Chinese culture.” This issue also features a translation of “Pharmacy” from Elizabeth Strout’s collection Olive Kitteridge, an appreciation of Hou Hsiao-hsien by Jia Zhangke, a short story by Hong Kong writer Flora Wong Bik-wan (黄碧云), and an essay by Annie Baobei herself. Links and Sources
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Comments on A new literary magazine features new writing from Zhou Zuoren
I have an interesting side story about O-pen. In this inaugural issue, one of the major items was supposed to be proceedings of the Eileen Chang Symposium held in Beijing late last year. I was one of the major speakers and so I had a contribution.
Unfortunately right before the magazine went to print, it was discovered that a major portal had obtained a copy of the video of the symposium, made its own transcription, never checked with the speakers and published it on their website. There were numerous unspeakably horrible errors.
As a result, we decided to pull the story from the magazine. Those proceedings will eventually show up in a book with some value-added stuff (such as photos, etc).
But this was a lesson about the lack of respect for intellectual property rights in China. That is not news.