Kafu Nagai was an unapologetic sentimentalist, always an era out of step with the times. Born in the Meiji Era...
Day: March 11, 2014
Angela Carter wrote that Tokyo possessed the “indecipherable clarity of a dream,” one in which you might think you are...
Authors, editors, publishers and translators gather with book fans this week to celebrate the second Tokyo International Literary Festival, which...
A key value of passing down a culture by word of mouth is that it takes on so many different...
A writer of Yan Lianke's stature can write what he wants, and he doesn't worry much if the truth hurts...
US scholar and lifelong music enthusiast Andrew Field brings to life the legendary jazz era of 1930s Shanghai, writes MikePeters: China Daily He has a gift for using nightlife as a lens for seeing the city, the urban life. That's AndrewField's quick assessment of modernist writer Mu Shiying, the subject of Field's new book. Butthe words might well be a snapshot of Field himself. Long fascinated by the legendary jazz era of 1930s Shanghai, the US scholar born in Acton,Massachusetts, has made his adopted city's music scene, past and present, a milieu of hisown - culminating in Shanghai's Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics, 1919-1954. After years of research and writing, he now leads one or two city walks each month,sharing the stories of celebrity hostesses and the gangsters who made them the heart of abygone social era. Read More
Days of Longing Nirmal Verma, translated by Krishna Baldev Vaid Penguin (2013) The red tin roof Nirmal Verma, translated by...