Chinese fiction is focusing on the fringes – of both map and mind

China's writers are scouring the nation's borders for inspiration, as well as the far reaches of surrealist and fantasy writing

I've spent four weeks exploring the far south-west corner of China – the bit where there are herds of wild elephants and the temples have Thai–style pointy roofs – in the company of Han Dong and Yan Ge. It has brought home to me how independent–minded Chinese writers are becoming seriously interested in the geographical fringes of "China proper", drawing on its people, their traditions and conflicts at work. Just look at Ou Ning's Chutzpah!, which recently devoted a whole issue to Uighur and Kazakh writing – a first for any Chinese literary magazine. Or Chi Zijian's novel Last Quarter of the Moon – now out in English – which is about the demise of reindeer-herding nomads on the China–Russia border. An essay in Memory, Remains has the dissident Liao Yiwu writing with uncomfortable honesty about the hostility he met as a Han Chinese in Xinjiang. And there is a (no doubt intentionally) provocative new novel from Chan Koonchung, The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver, about Tibet. Unlike the others, this book has already fallen foul of China's censors with its torrid sex scenes and references to Tibetan self-immolations.

Surrealist and fantasy writing (many writers cite Kafka and the Latin American magical-realists as their influences) flourish on another sort of literary fringe. You'll find stories such as Zhang Xinxin's Dragonworld, Sun Yisheng's The Shades Who Periscope Through Flowers to the Sky, and guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds