That We May Live: Speculative Chinese Fiction (Calico, 1)

“This remarkable anthology of Chinese speculative fiction offers seven tales of societal responsibility and individual freedom. . . . By turns cryptic and revealing, phantasmagorical and straightforward, these tales balance reality and fantasy on the edge of a knife.”―Publishers Weekly, starred review

A woman impulsively decides to visit her grandmother in a scene reminiscent of "Little Red Riding Hood," only to find herself in a town of women obsessed with a mysterious fermented beverage. An aging and well-respected female newscaster at a provincial TV station finds herself caught up in an illicit affair with her boss, who insists that she recite the news while they have sex. An anonymous city prone to vanishing storefronts begins to plant giant mushrooms for its citizens to live in, with disastrous consequences.

In this first book in the brand-new Calico Series, we bring you work by some of today’s most exciting writers from China and Hong Kong, including Dorothy Tse (tr. Natascha Bruce), Zhu Hui (tr. Michael Day), and Enoch Tam (tr. Jeremy Tiang). Lightly touching on issues of urbanization, sexuality, and propaganda, the collection builds a world both utterly disorienting and disturbing familiar, prompting the question: Where does reality end and absurdity begin in a world pushed to its very limits?

The Calico series, published biannually by Two Lines Press, captures vanguard works of translated literature in stylish, collectible editions. Each Calico is a vibrant snapshot that explores one aspect of our present moment, offering the voices of previously inaccessible, highly innovative writers from around the world today. That We May Live is the first book in the series.

Yan Ge was born in Sichuan, China. Her first short story collection was published in China when she was seventeen. She is the author of thirteen books, including six novels. She has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Maodun Literature Prize (Best Young Writer), and she was named by People’s Literature magazine as one of twenty future literary masters in China. The English translation of her novel The Chilli Bean Paste Clan was published in 2018, and her novel Strange Beasts of China, translated by Jeremy Tiang, is forthcoming from Tilted Axis Press in 2020.

Dorothy Tse is an award-winning writer from Hong Kong. She has published three story collections in Chinese and one in English, Snow and Shadow (translated by Nicky Harman). She was cofounder of the Fleurs des lettres literary journal and currently teaches literature and creative writing at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Chan Chi Wa, born in Hong Kong, is a freelance writer, editor, and film critic. He was the president of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society from 2012 to 2015 and editor of the literary magazine Fleurs des lettres from 2007 to 2011. His short story collection The Elephant That Vanished was published in 2008.

Chen Si’an is a playwright, theater director, poet, short story writer, and literary translator. She was born in Inner Mongolia and now lives and works in Beijing. She has written three collections of short stories and six plays. Her plays have been performed at the Royal Court Theatre, the Edinburgh International Festival, the National Theatre Company of China, and the Beijing International Fringe Festival. She is executive editor of Wings Poetry and founder of the international script-reading event Sound and Fury.

Enoch Tam has been writing for more than ten years and follows the practices of renowned Hong Kong authors Quanan, Xi Xi, Dung Kai-cheung, and Hon Lai-chu, and devotes his creativity to the combination of surrealist and magical realist city writings.