Strange Beasts of China (2020) by Yan Ge

Book Review

Strange Beasts of China (2020)

by Yan Ge

  Reading contemporary Chinese literary fiction is interesting because...if it comes from China, it means that the text has passed the censor's pen and been granted permission to be published by the Chinese Communist Party.  But what does that mean?  It's not a blanket prohibition on criticizing Chinese party because many of the Chinese language books I've read can be easily interpreted as a critique of contemporary aspects of Chinese society, materialism for example.  Criticizing the impact of capitalism or "business culture" on workers seems to be all right.   

  Mostly what you get is oblique allegories where it is impossible to determine what secret more or political truth is being described.  Some of the difficulty stems from inability to directly criticize the Chinese Communist Party and I think some of it comes from the collection of ideas that can be described as "things lost in translation." 

   The gently surreal world of Strange Beasts of China is one where everything is basically the same with the exception of different tribes of human-like monsters who co-exist under difficult circumstances with their human counter-parts.  I was hopeful for Strange Beasts of China, but everything is just so oblique.  I honestly don't know what to make of it.