China

China: A Traveler's Literary Companion. Whereabouts, dist. by Consortium. 2008. 231p. ed. by Kirk A. Denton. pap. LIT~Alai's Tibetan fisherman in ""Fish!"" ignores cultural norms and casts his fishing rod where his culture traditionally forbids it, hooking abundant returns. So do readers of this anthology. Recommended for all libraries. Background: The seismic shifts in China's economic, political, and social climate over the last century reverberate in this varied collection of contemporary Chinese fiction, the volume in the publisher's series (see also Italy, Mexico). Written between 1921 and 2003, the 12 pieces probe the direction this swiftly tilting planet of a nation is hurtling--and the aftershocks such movement\xC5leaves in its wake. Organized geographically by region, the\xC5stories\xC5telescope the modern Chinese citizen and explore notions of place from Xinjiang to Zhezhang, the effects of the displacement of social values in a market economy, and nostalgia for China's past in an increasingly modern and unrecognizable landscape. ""Maijin, Baozi, and the White Kid"" offers a modern take on a tragic Miao/ Tuija folktale. The dreamy vignette ""Sealed Off"" imagines an unlikely courtship between two strangers in a stalled Shanghai tram car, where the claustrophobic conditions lend the illusion of freedom to a romance otherwise fraught with obstacles.--Anne Garner, NYPL.