THE GOLDEN AGE

I met one of contempoary China’s greatest writers just before his death two decades ago, but didn’t understand his importance. This article tries to make amends.

The article introduces foreign readers to Wang Xiaobo, one of the most important and best-selling–but little-translated or known abroad–Chinese authors. It’s in the current issue of The New York Review of Books. It’s paywalled but will be made available for free by ChinaFile in late November, 2017. Fow now, click here for a PDF.

A big shout-out to so many people, especially his widow and current LGBT activist Li Yinhe. Also thanks to Eric Abrahamsen for his translations and insights, Sebastian Veg for his work, Professor David Der-wei Wang of Harvard for his time, Professor Ai Xiaoming for her insights and memories, and many others.Maybe the biggest thanks to my old friend, the photographer Mark Leong, who went with me to visit Wang in 1996 and took photos for The Baltimore Sun, where I was working as its Beijing correspondent. Amazingly, Mark still had the negatives in his archives! What photos–and actual rarities because Wang wasn’t so famous back then so rarely photographed, especially by a real pro like Mark.