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Contributor

Can Xue

Portrait of Chinese writer Can Xue
Contributor

Can Xue

Can Xue, meaning “dirty snow,” “leftover snow,” but also “pure snow on the top of a mountain,” is the pseudonym of Deng Xiaohua. She was born in 1953 in Changsha City, Hunan Province; her parents were sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, and she completed only elementary school. Can Xue learned English on her own and wrote books on Borges, Shakespeare, and Dante. Her publications in English include FrontierThe Embroidered ShoesFive Spice StreetVertical Motion, and The Last Lover, which won the 2015 Best Translated Book Award for Fiction.

Articles by Can Xue

“The Fair-haired Princess” and Serious Literature
By Can Xue
An advanced modern reader acts like a detective.
Translated from Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping
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The Old Cicada
By Can Xue
He saw the leering youth approach.
Translated from Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping
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About the Young Writer Zheng Xialou
By Can Xue
Zheng Xiaolu, editor of a literary magazine, is only twenty-five years old. He was probably twenty-two when he wrote this story.Last year, he and another editor visited me to discuss how I arrange for…
Translated from Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping
The Bane of My Existence
By Can Xue
“Can Xue doesn’t trust reason.”—Ha Jin
Translated from Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping