August is, of course Women in Translation month, and I’ve taken part in this wonderful event for many years now. However, we’re quite well into the month now and I haven’t covered anything for WIT yet – so let’s put that right today, with a book from a lovely indie press! The publisher is Comma Press, and I’ve featured several of their books on the Ramblings, including a couple of wonderful titles from the great M. John Harrison and also “The Book of Newcastle”, which was excellent. In fact, Comma have a whole series of city books, and it’s their latest release I want to share my thoughts about today – “The Book of Beijing“.

These book are subtitled ‘A City in Short Fiction’ and bring together works which paint a vivid portrait of the city in question. China is a fascinating and complex country, and Beijing apparently has the largest population of any national capital city in the world. That element of overcrowding is something that creeps into many of the stories, and I was particularly keen to explore it when I realised how many of the writers were women. Of the ten stories, half are by female authors and so I’m happy to include this book in my #WITmonth reading.

“The Book of Beijing” is edited by Bingbing Shi, who also provides an introduction, and there are ten translators involved (who I’ll list at the end of my post). The fictions included here range over an interesting variety of topics and genres, from slightly scary visits to abandoned camps, through stories dealing with the complexities of everyday life, making a living and finding a home, to sci fi offerings which look at possible futures for what is a very overcrowded city. There wasn’t a duff story here for me, and I was really impressed overall with the book.

It’s always difficult writing about short story collections, but I’ll pick out a few stories which particularly struck me. The opener, ‘On the Subway‘ by Fu Xuiying, is an interesting one; her narrator bumps into an old acquaintance on the subway and the pair look back to their days of studying, their mutual friends and reflect on the differing paths all have taken. However, the background of the train rattling through the city, and the images of Beijing which the author describes flashing by, add an extra element to what could a traditional fiction.

‘Dogshit Football‘ by Xu Kun is a very different kind of story, exploring the impact of Western culture flooding into China, and here specifically an obsession with the footballer Maradona. The author’s female perspective on the mob culture surrounding the sport will probably surprise no-one who’s been in that kind of crowd, and her protagonist’s reaction is heartbreaking – literally. ‘The Second Ringroad‘ by Yu Wenling takes on the housing issues in Beijing and the extreme competition involved in trying to fund and find a suitable place to buy in the ‘right’ part of the city. Here, the female narrator is being financed by her mother and an inheritance, but struggles to find something her heart is happy with. The complexities of buying a property in Beijing, as revealed here, sound immense and frankly not something I would like to undertake…

Both of the sci fi entries here are really interesting: Gu Shi’s ‘The MagiMirror Algorythm‘ explores the effect of technology on people’s interactions with each other and is very thought-provoking. ‘Reunion‘ by Han Song takes things a little further, going into the extreme future when Beijing West Railway Station has grown into an uncontrollable organism with a life of its own – the effects are dramatic…

I think the story which stood out most for me, however, was ‘Date at the Art Gallery‘ by Wen Zhen; a subtle, beautifully written story told from the point of a young woman about to leave Beijing for the West, it explores her relationship with the man she’s leaving behind, her need to step away from the traditional route expected for Chinese women and the lack of understanding between them about this. It’s a powerful and heartbreaking story, and really lingered with me after finishing it.

So “The Book of Beijing” turned out to be a wonderful read; full of powerful, memorable, amusing and insightful stories, it’s entertaining, thought-provoking and gives a real insight into the city of Beijing. I’m never likely to visit China, but that’s the joy of books and stories like this – they can take you to places you’ve never seen and convince you that you know and understand them. The Cities series from Comma is a laudable one, and “The Book of Beijing” a stellar entry – highly recommended!!

*****

I thought I’d list the authors and translators – the latter do deserve kudos for their work, and I thank whoever is responsible for translators every day!!

Fu Xuiying – Christopher MacDonald
Xu Zecheng – Eric Abrahamsen
Xu Kun – Katherine Tse
Qui Huadong – Paul Harris
Gu Shi – Florence Taylor
Wen Zhen – Jack Hargreaves
Shi Yifeng – Hongyu Jasmine Shu
Ning Ken – Alison Sharpless
Yu Wenling – Helen Wang
Han Song – Carson Ramsdell

*****

Review copy kindly provided by the publisher, for which many thanks!