Thanks, fixed it!

This is one of the most enjoyable podcasts i've listened to for a while. You guys should do more literary critiques, you got me really curious about Mo Yan, I would love to read his works. The parables sounded really captivating. On another note, Brendan is really leaving?!!?! That sucks for us popup chinese die hards, but congratulations!

@trevelyan,

My bad! I assumed he was going for good, but it's good to know he'll still be doing podcasts. Sorry if I misled anyone!

@华金,

Not to worry -- Popup Towers will continue to stand tall in my (temporary) absence. Thanks for the kind words!

I'd also recommend Charles Laughlin's response to Perry Link's first article about Mo Yan, "What Mo Yan's Detractors Get Wrong" -- and interested listeners should also check out some of the authors recommended by Perry Link in his response:

- 阿城 Ah Cheng's trilogy of novellas ("The King of Chess," "The King of Trees," and "The King of Children") is really, really good, and has been translated a couple of times. (Popup Chinese listeners at the upper Intermediate level should be able to get through the stories -- start with 棋王 -- without too much difficulty.) 棋王 was one of the first contemporary novellas I ever read all the way through.

- 王朔 Wang Shuo is an absolute pleasure to read, but will be considerably harder to get through for anyone unfamiliar with Beijing dialect. Most of his work has not made it into English, and the translations that are out there don't quite capture the qualities that make him so enjoyable. His novella 动物凶猛 (still untranslated) was the basis for the excellent film In the Heat of the Sun (阳光灿烂的日子). The short 顽主 (also untranslated) might make a good starting point for someone looking to check him out.

- 余华 Yu Hua is better represented in English. He's best known for 活着 To Live (which was the basis for the film of the same name), but his short stories are worth checking out as well. Mo Yan has been fortunate enough to have a single translator -- Howard Goldblatt -- giving him a consistent English voice in translation; Yu hasn't had the same luck, and some of his works travel between languages better than others.

These are all fine authors -- but they are of the same generation as Mo Yan, and contrary to what Perry Link says in his second piece, my sense is that Mo Yan's readers are mostly not "young and not very well schooled in Chinese history." Other than during the surge of post-Nobel interest, I don't remember ever hearing a Chinese friend under the age of 40 mention Mo. (At least in my experience; the plural of "anecdote" is not "data;" all disclaimers apply, etc.)

Finally: although, as I said, Mo's fiction mostly doesn't do very much for me, his short autobiographical piece "Change" is well worth a read.

Thanks for this.

Of course Perry Link has read Mo Yan's works because he used to teach Mo's literature in the States. I think it's no good to get defensive and assume others' ignorance when Mo gets crticised.

I came to it a bit late, but a thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing podcast. Made me wish that my Chinese training had allowed for more literature rather than only historical and political studies.

Hi @anka.gur -- I got a copy from Amazon's Kindle store. Don't know if the book will be available in print format here.