There is a small, but growing number of Chinese novelists who use Foreign languages to write books. For example, Ha Jin has published several critical acclaimed books in English, and recently two stories from Li Yiyun’s award-winning debute, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, has been adapted into two movies by the Chinese-American director Wayne Wang. In the UK, Guo Xiaolu’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers entered this year’s Orange Broadband Prize shortlist.

Shan SaThe following is an interview with a Chinese author, Shan Sa, who writes in French:

TOKYO (AFP) — Chinese author Shan Sa’s identity has circumnavigated the world — she lives in France, is impassioned by Japan and is now turning her attention to her homeland.

The novelist, whose real name is Yan Nini, has lived in Paris for more than half her life as part of a literary diaspora that stretched its wings as China began opening up to the world three decades ago.

Like many other emigre authors who write in a foreign tongue — Dai Sijie in French or Ha Jin in English — Shan Sa has written mostly in French, apart from her first book of poems when she was 10 years old.

Her books include “The Girl Who Played Go,” which won an award in France and has been translated into English but remains unpublished in Chinese.

Her most recent book is “Shall We Meet in Tokyo at Four in the Morning?” in which she explores her own roots. It has been published first not in French but in Japanese in a collaboration with Richard Collasse, head of French fashion house Chanel in Tokyo.

Full report.

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