Contemporary Directions

Contemporary voices are more sparse. The most respected Shanghai writer today is Wang Anyi, whose bestselling novels (in China) include Love on a Barren Mountain, Baotown and Song of Everlasting Sorrow, the latter following a Shanghainese beauty pageant winner through four decades from the 1940s. Wang also co-wrote the script for Chen Kaige’s film Temptress Moon.

More recently, several high-school dropouts gained notoriety, beginning with Mian Mian, who vividly described the marginalised underbelly of China in Candy (see the boxed text, Click here). To date this remains her only novel translated into English.

Increasingly known in the West is writer/rally driver/musician/blogger Han Han, who skyrocketed to fame before his 18th birthday with his novel The Third Gate, a searing critique of China’s educational system. He inspired awe and disgust simultaneously by turning down a scholarship to the prestigious Fudan University in order to race cars in Beijing. Today, Han Han’s highly influential blogs are among the most widely read in China.

Sprinkled with snippets from the Shanghai dialect (but as yet untranslated), Wang Xiaoying’s Song of a Long Street (2010) is a vivid portrait of the textures and grain of everyday life in a Shanghai backstreet.

For a taste of contemporary Chinese short-story writing with both English and Chinese, buy a copy of Short Stories in Chinese: New Penguin Parallel Text (2012).

Translated into English, Vicissitudes of Life (2010) is a collection of stories from contemporary Shanghai writers, including Wang Xiao­ying, Qiu Maoru and Wang Jiren.

As with Chinese film, fiction dealing with contemporary Shanghai is far less successful at filling bookstore shelves than historically set novels. Historical fiction is a safer and far more popular publishing choice, meaning voices on contemporary issues are more marginalised.

Shanghai writers today share a common despair about the loss of the Shanghai dialect while having to compose in Mandarin (Shanghainese is not written down).

Music

Shanghai had a buzzing live-music scene in the 1930s, featuring every­thing from jazz divas to emigre Russian troubadours, but the contemporary scene has long been dominated by Filipino cover bands and saccharine-sweet Canto-pop. Things are changing, though, and while Shanghai’s live-music scene still lags behind Beijing’s, there are some cracking venues in town where you can catch local bands, the best of which are Yuyintang and MAO Livehouse. Look out for the JUE Festival (www.juefestival.com), a music and art festival held in Beijing and Shanghai in March.

Rock

Top Floor Circus, who play anything from folk to punk, are legendary on the Shanghai music scene. If they’re playing while you’re in town, do your best to get a ticket. Others worth checking out include Pinkberry (rock), indie popsters/rockers Candie Shop, Da Fresh, all-girl band Bigger Xifu and FAF (Forget & Forgive). Torturing Nurse, meanwhile, who make unusual and extremely loud sounds rather than music as such, are China’s leading ‘noise’ band. Check out www.noishanghai.org to find out where they’re playing.

For the lowdown on who’s playing where, grab a free copy of the monthly entertainment magazines Time Out Shanghai (www.timeoutshanghai.com), That’s Shanghai (www.urbanantomy.com) and City Weekend (www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai), or check their websites. Also check out Smart Shanghai (www.smartshanghai.com).

The Fairmont Peace Hotel Jazz Bar has been serenading punters for decades, with an average customer age of 77.

Jazz

Shanghai’s once world-famous jazz scene isn’t quite as snappy as it was, but there are still a number of places around town where you can sample the sounds of the 1930s. Cotton Club and JZ Club are the best choices; the latter has a popular branch in Hangzhou.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14