Update on Chinese Science Fiction

I've been working on that collection of 2002's Best Science Fiction (China) for a while now, but have been a bit slow about the reading (busy days of late!). I finished one rather long story by He Xi (何夕) called 《六道众生》. It was not a bad read, even though it took me a while to get into it (my problem, not the story's). I found the reading to be doable for me, something I was rather proud of, from a language-learning perspective. It wasn't exactly easy (thus the slow reading), but manageable.

The story is something I little different than what I would actually class as science fiction. To me, it seems to fit more into the category of speculative fiction (the broader genre that definitely encompasses this piece), and I might just label it fantasy. Not a lot of real science in it, actually. But still, it is the type of literature I am wanting to read more of in Chinese, and I am glad to have gotten started with this story.

Right now I am working on another called 《午后》by Yang Ping (杨平). I'll have more to say on it when I finish.



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Waterhorse

I finally got around to watching the movie Waterhorse on DVD this past weekend. It was a fun movie, one that made me smile several times. I picked that one to watch because I didn't feel l like anything heavy, just wanting something nice and relaxing... and even cute, Waterhorse was a perfect fit.

The Scottish landscapes in the film are quite beautiful, and the little Loch Ness Monster is quite cute. The boy who acts in the film does a nice job, and it all comes together well enough.

If you are looking for a DVD to enjoy on a quiet night at home — one of those that is just nice for "switching off" — pick up Waterhorse. It's just perfect for that kind of viewing.

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This should be interesting...

My Chinese teacher yesterday loaned me 3 sci-fi books, all in Chinese. I've never read Chinese sci-fi before, and have only seen one or two Chinese movies in the genre. It should be quite interesting to see how it goes... and of course it will take me forever to finish the books. One is a translation of English sci-fi writers (I'm leaving it 'til last, for obvious reasons). The other two are by Chinese writers.


I'm beginning with a 2002 anthology of the year's best science fiction stories in Chinese. Should be fun! I'll update how I'm progressing with the book in a few days.


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Scifaikuest

Good news — I am the featured poet for this issue (Nov 2008) of Scifaikuest! I am very pleased about this, as Scifaikuest is one of the best poetry magazines around.

If you'd like to have a look, you can visit the Scifaikuest website. You'll find a link there to order the print magazine, which is where you will find 15 of my poems in the Nov 2008 issue.

Also, if you'd like more updates about what is going on in the world of speculative poetry, you can see my regular update on my main blog.

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