Ye Zhaoyan

b. 1957, Nanjing

Writer

Ye Zhaoyan came to prominence on the PRC literary scene in the early 1980s along with Mo Yan, Su Tong and Wang Anyi. Hailing from a literary family that includes his father, Ye Zicheng, a noted writer, and his grandfather, Ye Shengtao, a famed educator and writer of the Republican period, Ye Zhaoyan began writing in the late 1970s.

He earned his MA from Nanjing University in 1986. After graduation, Ye worked as an editor for the Jiangsu Arts and Literature Publishing House. In 1991, he left the publishing world to pursue writing full-time and has since produced an astounding twenty-eight books, including a seven-volume set of collected works.

An extremely versatile writer, Ye Zhaoyan has attempted endless narrative and literary experiments in his body of work, which ranges from historical fiction to the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly tradition (see Butterfly literature) and from detective fiction to the avant-garde. His major works include Evening Moor on the Qinhuai (Yebo Qinhuai), a series of four novellas set in Republican-era Nanjing; Flower Demon (Huasha), a fascinating story about a Western missionary in China; and Nanjing 1937: A Love Story (Yijiusanqinian de aiqing), a historical novel which juxtaposes the fall of the ancient capital with a love story that is as unlikely as it is epic. His novel The Flower’s Shadow (Huaying, 1994), a decadent tale of incest and addiction, was the basis for Chen Kaige’s film Temptress Moon (Fengyue).

MICHAEL BERRY