Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China, recently published by Comma Press, gathers ten fictions by writers from cities of varying affluence, nature and distance in contemporary China, not to mention the varying styles of prose and stances of the protagonists.
Dispelling the naive notion of a vast land of unified thinking, Shi Cheng (“ten cities”) tells not the comprehensive biographies of each city, but zooms in further, allowing the reader to connect with individual voices on an almost cellular level. Yet, as the editors suggest, when looking this close it’s possible that we can all relate to the universal human themes.
The stories collected here give a rich sense of the environments and their impact on modern men and women. Acting as cultural antennae, they send back vibrations of what life might be like for those in such places – alluring whispers of real lives. Keep a keen eye out for more from Comma Press.