Quick Facts
Biography
Su Tong (simplified Chinese: 苏童; traditional Chinese: 蘇童; pinyin: Sū Tóng; born January 23, 1963) is the pen name of Chinese writer Tong Zhonggui (童忠贵; Tóng Zhōngguì). He was born in Suzhou and lives in Nanjing.
He entered the Department of Chinese at Beijing Normal University in 1980, and started to publish novels in 1983. He is now vice president of the Jiangsu Writers Association. Known for his controversial writing style, Su is one of the most acclaimed novelists in China.
Work
Su has written seven full-length novels and over 200 short stories, some of which have been translated into English, German, Italian and French.
He is best known in the West for his book Wives and Concubines, published in 1990. The book was adapted into the film, Raise the Red Lantern by director Zhang Yimou. The book has since been published under the name given to the film. His other works available in English translation are Rice, My Life as Emperor, Binu and the Great Wall (tr. Howard Goldblatt), Madwoman on the Bridge and Other Stories, Tattoo: Three Novellas and The Boat to Redemption, also translated by Goldblatt.
His novel Hongfen, about two Shanghai prostitutes at the time of Liberation in 1949, has been adapted to two films: Li Shaohong's Blush (Hongfen, 1994) and Huang Shuqin's Rouged Beauties (Hongfen Jiaren, 1995).
In 2009, he was awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize for his work The Boat to Redemption, the second Chinese writer to win the prize.
In 2011, Su Tong was nominated to win the "Man Booker International Prize." In 2015, he was a co-winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize for Yellowbird Story.
He has been influenced by writers such as William Faulkner, J.D Salinger, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Selected works in translation
- Tattoo: Three Novellas. Translator Josh Stenberg. Portland, Me.: MerwinAsia. 2010. ISBN 9780552774543.
- The Boat to Redemption. Translator Howard Goldblatt. London: Black Swan. July 2010. ISBN 9780552774543.
- Binu and the Great Wall of China. Translator Howard Goldblatt. Edinburgh: Canongate Books. August 2009.
- Madwoman on the Bridge. Translator Josh Stenberg. London: Black Swan. August 2008. ISBN 9780552774529.
- My Life as Emperor. Translator Howard Goldblatt. Hyperion East. 2005.
- Rice. Translator Howard Goldblatt. New York: Perennial. 2004. ISBN 0060596325.
- Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas. Translator Michael S. Duke. New York: Penguin Books. 1996. ISBN 0140260307.