What do you think?
Rate this book
Rouge Street
" Rouge Street gives voice to an intriguing cast of characters left behind by China’s economic miracle . . . Shuang pulls no punches . . . From start to finish, his scope is close to the ground, his language sparingly emotive and unobtrusive."―Jing Tsu, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
Introduced by Madeleine Thien, author of the Booker finalist novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing
From one of the most highly celebrated young Chinese writers, three dazzling novellas of Northeast China, mixing realism, mysticism, and noir.
An inventor dreams of escaping his drab surroundings in a flying machine. A criminal, trapped beneath a frozen lake, fights a giant fish. A strange girl pledges to ignite a field of sorghum stalks.
Rouge Street presents three novellas by Shuang Xuetao, the lauded young Chinese writer whose frank, fantastical short fiction has already inspired comparisons to Ernest Hemingway and Haruki Murakami. Located in China’s frigid Northeast, Shenyang, the author’s birthplace, boasts an illustrious past―legend holds that the emperor’s makeup was manufactured here. But while the city enjoyed renewed importance as an industrial hub under Mao Zedong, China’s subsequent transition from communism to a market economy led to an array of social ills―unemployment, poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, divorce, suicide―that gritty Shenyang epitomizes.
Orbiting the toughest neighborhood of a postindustrial city whose vast, inhospitable landscape makes every aspect of life a struggle, these many-voiced missives are united by Shuang Xuetao’s singular style―one that balances hardscrabble naturalism with the transcendent and faces the bleak environs with winning humor. Rouge Street illuminates not only the hidden pains of those left behind in an extraordinary economic boom but also the inspirations and grace they, nevertheless, manage to discover.
Introduced by Madeleine Thien, author of the Booker finalist novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing
From one of the most highly celebrated young Chinese writers, three dazzling novellas of Northeast China, mixing realism, mysticism, and noir.
An inventor dreams of escaping his drab surroundings in a flying machine. A criminal, trapped beneath a frozen lake, fights a giant fish. A strange girl pledges to ignite a field of sorghum stalks.
Rouge Street presents three novellas by Shuang Xuetao, the lauded young Chinese writer whose frank, fantastical short fiction has already inspired comparisons to Ernest Hemingway and Haruki Murakami. Located in China’s frigid Northeast, Shenyang, the author’s birthplace, boasts an illustrious past―legend holds that the emperor’s makeup was manufactured here. But while the city enjoyed renewed importance as an industrial hub under Mao Zedong, China’s subsequent transition from communism to a market economy led to an array of social ills―unemployment, poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, divorce, suicide―that gritty Shenyang epitomizes.
Orbiting the toughest neighborhood of a postindustrial city whose vast, inhospitable landscape makes every aspect of life a struggle, these many-voiced missives are united by Shuang Xuetao’s singular style―one that balances hardscrabble naturalism with the transcendent and faces the bleak environs with winning humor. Rouge Street illuminates not only the hidden pains of those left behind in an extraordinary economic boom but also the inspirations and grace they, nevertheless, manage to discover.
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 2022
71 people are currently reading
6824 people want to read
About the author
Shuang Xuetao
20 books48 followersShuang Xuetao (Chinese: 双雪涛; born September 8, 1983, in Shenyang), is a contemporary Chinese novelist. He graduated from the Jilin University School of Law.
In 2010, Shuang happened to see that the newly established China Times International Chinese-language Film and Fiction Award was seeking submissions. An employee of the Liaoning branch of the China Development Bank at the time, he wrote his first novel, Gargoyle in just 20 days, winning the award. In 2012, Shuang was shortlisted for the 14th Taipei Literature Awards, winning a cash-prize of 200,000 NTD, becoming the first mainland Chinese author to win the prize. That same year, Shuang quit his job to devote himself to writing full-time. In 2015, he left Shenyang to attend further studies in creative writing at Renmin University in Beijing.
Since 2016, Shuang has published the novels Tianwu's Account, Era of the Deaf and Dumb and the short story collections The Aviator, The Hunter, among other works. The short story "Assassinate the Novelist", included in the collection The Aviator, has been adapted into a film of the same name, directed by Ning Hao.
His short story collection Moses on the Plain was translated into English as Rouge Street: Three Novellas by Jeremy Tiang, and published by the Metropolitan Books imprint of Henry Holt and Company in April 2022. The book is credited with initiating the Dongbei renaissance in Chinese literature.
(Chinese: 双雪涛)
In 2010, Shuang happened to see that the newly established China Times International Chinese-language Film and Fiction Award was seeking submissions. An employee of the Liaoning branch of the China Development Bank at the time, he wrote his first novel, Gargoyle in just 20 days, winning the award. In 2012, Shuang was shortlisted for the 14th Taipei Literature Awards, winning a cash-prize of 200,000 NTD, becoming the first mainland Chinese author to win the prize. That same year, Shuang quit his job to devote himself to writing full-time. In 2015, he left Shenyang to attend further studies in creative writing at Renmin University in Beijing.
Since 2016, Shuang has published the novels Tianwu's Account, Era of the Deaf and Dumb and the short story collections The Aviator, The Hunter, among other works. The short story "Assassinate the Novelist", included in the collection The Aviator, has been adapted into a film of the same name, directed by Ning Hao.
His short story collection Moses on the Plain was translated into English as Rouge Street: Three Novellas by Jeremy Tiang, and published by the Metropolitan Books imprint of Henry Holt and Company in April 2022. The book is credited with initiating the Dongbei renaissance in Chinese literature.
(Chinese: 双雪涛)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews
November 11, 2025
The sixth book in my new Read It or Unhaul It challenge!
YouTube Reading Vlog: https://youtu.be/oJFMuhg-B2g
Brief video reviews...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOmlQR...
TikTok: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSDBhPXdp/
Written review on the way!
You can find me on...
Youtube | Instagram | TikTok
You can join our book club over on Patreon...
PBB Book Club
YouTube Reading Vlog: https://youtu.be/oJFMuhg-B2g
Brief video reviews...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOmlQR...
TikTok: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSDBhPXdp/
Written review on the way!
You can find me on...
Youtube | Instagram | TikTok
You can join our book club over on Patreon...
PBB Book Club
May 16, 2022
A Chinese American Wild West
Read about unfamiliar places and the assumptions you developed over time dissolve as reality comes into focus-- for better or for worse. Shuang Xuetao's "Rouge Street" sets three novellas in the area around Shenyang, referred to as China's Rust Belt. Of course they have had a rust belt, of course there are neighborhoods riddled with crime and financial hardship... this is a country transitioning through the same problems as everyone else: there is no escaping the iron swing of the economic pendulum. It is a given the poor never have a chance, but as ideologies change and revolutionary dogma is no longer in vogue, many formerly in respected positions tumble into disgrace. These falls through the cracks in the system are brutal, inevitable.
In Colin Barrett's recent short story collection, "Homesickness," we see the Irish people of County Mayo dealing with the repercussions of their Celtic Tiger crash, people swept off their feet in the social collapse. What both books share is the spirit, wit, and humor characters show in dealing with overwhelming adversity and bleak circumstances. Shuang's Shenyang and Yanfen Street settings are rougher and more cut-throat than Barrett's Mayo. While Barrett's people are small town country folk, the souls here are the victims of industrial abandonment, collateral damage.
The "Rouge Street'' stories are told from different characters' points of view. In "The Aeronaut" a young man invents a personal flying machine to escape this world. The second novella, 'Bright Hall', finds a young man tracking down the assassin of a preacher, only to be interrogated by a bizarre fish-man. In "Moses On the Plain" there is an investigation of the murder of taxi drivers... and it ties into a young girl's dream to set fire to a large field. The book's value goes far beyond these plotlines. This is a character driven journey with surprising humor and the occasional element of magic mixed in. In the Preface, the translator quotes Shuang, "For me, Yanfen Street was like the American Wild West, a place inhabited by the downtrodden, lawless and free, and therefore full of life.”
"Rouge Street" is a challenging read, with all its twists and turns, but a rewarding one.
Thank you to Henry Holt & Company, Metropolitan Books, and NetGalley for providing an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
#RougeStreet #NetGalley
Read about unfamiliar places and the assumptions you developed over time dissolve as reality comes into focus-- for better or for worse. Shuang Xuetao's "Rouge Street" sets three novellas in the area around Shenyang, referred to as China's Rust Belt. Of course they have had a rust belt, of course there are neighborhoods riddled with crime and financial hardship... this is a country transitioning through the same problems as everyone else: there is no escaping the iron swing of the economic pendulum. It is a given the poor never have a chance, but as ideologies change and revolutionary dogma is no longer in vogue, many formerly in respected positions tumble into disgrace. These falls through the cracks in the system are brutal, inevitable.
In Colin Barrett's recent short story collection, "Homesickness," we see the Irish people of County Mayo dealing with the repercussions of their Celtic Tiger crash, people swept off their feet in the social collapse. What both books share is the spirit, wit, and humor characters show in dealing with overwhelming adversity and bleak circumstances. Shuang's Shenyang and Yanfen Street settings are rougher and more cut-throat than Barrett's Mayo. While Barrett's people are small town country folk, the souls here are the victims of industrial abandonment, collateral damage.
The "Rouge Street'' stories are told from different characters' points of view. In "The Aeronaut" a young man invents a personal flying machine to escape this world. The second novella, 'Bright Hall', finds a young man tracking down the assassin of a preacher, only to be interrogated by a bizarre fish-man. In "Moses On the Plain" there is an investigation of the murder of taxi drivers... and it ties into a young girl's dream to set fire to a large field. The book's value goes far beyond these plotlines. This is a character driven journey with surprising humor and the occasional element of magic mixed in. In the Preface, the translator quotes Shuang, "For me, Yanfen Street was like the American Wild West, a place inhabited by the downtrodden, lawless and free, and therefore full of life.”
"Rouge Street" is a challenging read, with all its twists and turns, but a rewarding one.
Thank you to Henry Holt & Company, Metropolitan Books, and NetGalley for providing an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.
#RougeStreet #NetGalley
May 25, 2022
❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀
Rouge Street presents its readers with three novellas by Shuang Xuetao which have been translated by Jeremy Tiang who once again has done a stellar job. The prose of these novellas is smooth and engaging, contrasting with the sometimes stark realities experienced by the characters populating these stories. The backdrop to most of these stories is Shenyang, which the author renders in gritty realism. The characters struggle to find stable employment and fulfilment as they attempt to navigate a perilous social and economic landscape. Many experiences or are close to people affected by poverty, addiction, and domestic violence. Some find themselves embroiled in murky businesses, while others attempt to make their dreams come true even when the cards are stacked against them. An element of magical realism reminiscent of the work Murakami comes into play in some of these narratives, lending an air of surreality to many of the events and scenes being described. The humor present in many of the character interactions also made me think of Murakami’s books, as Xuetao effectively incorporates humorous asides or funny lines into his otherwise bleak narratives. These moments of levity also add to the surreal, occasionally dreamy, atmosphere of these stories. The author's insights into contemporary Chinese society also are characterised by an almost rueful tone, one that lends itself to his novellas' subject matter(s). The family dynamics were lively and I appreciated how the author establishes generational gaps without resorting to the usual clichès.
What I struggled with was the shift in perspectives. I have never been a fan of shifts between 1st and 3rd povs, and here I sometimes had difficulties telling who was speaking and their connection to the other pov. To be fair, this issue I had may have something to do with the fact that I listened to the audiobook version of this collection. I think I would have been able to follow the storylines better if I’d read it for myself. I will probably revisit Rouge Street as I would like to gain a more in-depth understanding of its novellas.
Rouge Street presents its readers with three novellas by Shuang Xuetao which have been translated by Jeremy Tiang who once again has done a stellar job. The prose of these novellas is smooth and engaging, contrasting with the sometimes stark realities experienced by the characters populating these stories. The backdrop to most of these stories is Shenyang, which the author renders in gritty realism. The characters struggle to find stable employment and fulfilment as they attempt to navigate a perilous social and economic landscape. Many experiences or are close to people affected by poverty, addiction, and domestic violence. Some find themselves embroiled in murky businesses, while others attempt to make their dreams come true even when the cards are stacked against them. An element of magical realism reminiscent of the work Murakami comes into play in some of these narratives, lending an air of surreality to many of the events and scenes being described. The humor present in many of the character interactions also made me think of Murakami’s books, as Xuetao effectively incorporates humorous asides or funny lines into his otherwise bleak narratives. These moments of levity also add to the surreal, occasionally dreamy, atmosphere of these stories. The author's insights into contemporary Chinese society also are characterised by an almost rueful tone, one that lends itself to his novellas' subject matter(s). The family dynamics were lively and I appreciated how the author establishes generational gaps without resorting to the usual clichès.
What I struggled with was the shift in perspectives. I have never been a fan of shifts between 1st and 3rd povs, and here I sometimes had difficulties telling who was speaking and their connection to the other pov. To be fair, this issue I had may have something to do with the fact that I listened to the audiobook version of this collection. I think I would have been able to follow the storylines better if I’d read it for myself. I will probably revisit Rouge Street as I would like to gain a more in-depth understanding of its novellas.
December 26, 2023
4,5
labai įdomus skaitinys, visų pirma dėl to, kad kinija, kad labai stipri atmosfera, kad egzotiška, bet nejaukiai panašu į lietuvą (komunizmo mėsmalė, tada laukinis kapitalizmas, baisus skurdas, nusikaltimai, alkoholizmas ir vis atsikartojančios vyrų savižudybės), bet įspūdingiausia, kaip autorius tai pasakoja, kartais į vieną sakinį sudėdamas kolektyvinę šalies istoriją, priimdamas, kad taip yra, bet nesureikšmindamas, kaip ir jo personažai beveik niekada apie tai nekalba, tiesiog gyvena. tai būdavo, perskaitau sakinį ir žagteliu, o jis ramiai sau pasakoja toliau.
skaitant stebina, kiek šioje knygoje - nepaisant sąlygų - daug šilumos, meilės žmogui, smulkiems dalykams. įspūdinga, kaip trijose apysakose pinasi daugybės personažų keliai, kadangi vardai neįprasti, galva susisuka dar labiau, net bandžiau braižytis giminės medžius, veikėjų gyvenimai dažnai primena kitų veikėjų gyvenimus, yra daug atsikartojimų, susidubliavimų, todėl judant į pabaigą apėmė jausmas, kad mintyse viską narplioju ieškodama panašumų ir skirtumų. man asmeniškai stipriausia antra apysaka, gal dėl to, kad apie vaikus, plius labai patiko ta kreizova pabaiga, kai realizmas nebeatlaiko ir reikia griebtis sakmės ar pasakos.
šiek tiek nuvylė, kad paskutinė apysaka baigiasi paaiškinimu, norėjosi, kad paliktų daugiau miglos, neaiškumo, galimybę skaitytojui pačiam pasirinkti.
apibendrinant - patiks tiems, kas mėgsta pasakas ir niūrius peizažus, ir kam negaila atsisakyti pagrindinio veikėjo/-os vardan kolektyvinio pasakojimo.
labai įdomus skaitinys, visų pirma dėl to, kad kinija, kad labai stipri atmosfera, kad egzotiška, bet nejaukiai panašu į lietuvą (komunizmo mėsmalė, tada laukinis kapitalizmas, baisus skurdas, nusikaltimai, alkoholizmas ir vis atsikartojančios vyrų savižudybės), bet įspūdingiausia, kaip autorius tai pasakoja, kartais į vieną sakinį sudėdamas kolektyvinę šalies istoriją, priimdamas, kad taip yra, bet nesureikšmindamas, kaip ir jo personažai beveik niekada apie tai nekalba, tiesiog gyvena. tai būdavo, perskaitau sakinį ir žagteliu, o jis ramiai sau pasakoja toliau.
skaitant stebina, kiek šioje knygoje - nepaisant sąlygų - daug šilumos, meilės žmogui, smulkiems dalykams. įspūdinga, kaip trijose apysakose pinasi daugybės personažų keliai, kadangi vardai neįprasti, galva susisuka dar labiau, net bandžiau braižytis giminės medžius, veikėjų gyvenimai dažnai primena kitų veikėjų gyvenimus, yra daug atsikartojimų, susidubliavimų, todėl judant į pabaigą apėmė jausmas, kad mintyse viską narplioju ieškodama panašumų ir skirtumų. man asmeniškai stipriausia antra apysaka, gal dėl to, kad apie vaikus, plius labai patiko ta kreizova pabaiga, kai realizmas nebeatlaiko ir reikia griebtis sakmės ar pasakos.
šiek tiek nuvylė, kad paskutinė apysaka baigiasi paaiškinimu, norėjosi, kad paliktų daugiau miglos, neaiškumo, galimybę skaitytojui pačiam pasirinkti.
apibendrinant - patiks tiems, kas mėgsta pasakas ir niūrius peizažus, ir kam negaila atsisakyti pagrindinio veikėjo/-os vardan kolektyvinio pasakojimo.
April 1, 2022
This is the first book I've read from a Chinese author and I've got to say I'd love to read more. It was very well-written, the book had some darkness. I enjoyed taking the journey through three different stories.
May 10, 2022
This took awhile for me to finish. Unfortunately I was losing interest between stories. The stories that are written in distant/omniscient POVs just felt very dry. I’m not sure if it was the translator or just the writing but it was hard to be invested in any of them.
The story in the middle (Big Fish, I think?) is probably the most speculative of the group. The other two aren’t speculative at all, so I’m not really sure why I was under the impression they were.
I will say I enjoyed the third novella much more than the other two. There is a lot of bouncing around from character to character but they were told in first person and gave a better glimpse/more insight into the characters. It was easy to care about them.
One boy who grew up on Rouge Street goes on to become a police officer, and ends up assigned to a cold case that took place on his street when he was a boy. This tells the stories of all the characters connected to him and incidentally to that murder. It was done very cleverly and easy enough to keep everyone straight despite introducing a pretty large cast in a condensed story. Everyone was sympathetic and morally grey which I always like. I think my only complaint about that story was that it felt unfinished? I would have liked a couple more lines to let us know what happened to Li Fei!
Anyway- not a bad book though as I said a little dry. Would like to check out more Chinese works in translation in the future.
Thank you to GoodReads and Macmillan for the copy I received in a giveaway.
The story in the middle (Big Fish, I think?) is probably the most speculative of the group. The other two aren’t speculative at all, so I’m not really sure why I was under the impression they were.
I will say I enjoyed the third novella much more than the other two. There is a lot of bouncing around from character to character but they were told in first person and gave a better glimpse/more insight into the characters. It was easy to care about them.
One boy who grew up on Rouge Street goes on to become a police officer, and ends up assigned to a cold case that took place on his street when he was a boy. This tells the stories of all the characters connected to him and incidentally to that murder. It was done very cleverly and easy enough to keep everyone straight despite introducing a pretty large cast in a condensed story. Everyone was sympathetic and morally grey which I always like. I think my only complaint about that story was that it felt unfinished? I would have liked a couple more lines to let us know what happened to Li Fei!
Anyway- not a bad book though as I said a little dry. Would like to check out more Chinese works in translation in the future.
Thank you to GoodReads and Macmillan for the copy I received in a giveaway.
September 9, 2024
Prieš kokį pusmetį būčiau buvęs skeptiškas šiuolaikinės kinų literatūros atžvilgiu, turbūt visų pirma dėl to, kad kiek teko matyti kiniškų filmų, jie buvo tiesiog tragiškai blogi. Bet po to suskaičiau Liu Cixin trilogiją, kuri susprogdino stogą, tad natūraliai užsimaniau dar kažko iš to mums menkai pažįstamo pusantro milijardo žmonių talpinančio tolimo krašto.
Keistos, šiek tiek mistiškos istorijos iš šiaurės Kinijos: postindustrinė visuomenė, niūri atmosfera, makabriški veikėjai, žodžiu, glamūras. Sunkiai protu paaiškinamos (tačiau nebūtinai antgamtiškos) situacijos yra tai, ką mėgstu, o čia jos visos trys būtent tokios. Įdomu, kad jos panašiai struktūruojamos - pasakojamos kelių veikėjų lūpomis, sudarytos iš epizodų, kurių vyksmo laiką skiria keli dešimtmečiai (paprastai kultūrinė revoliucija ir šiuolaikinė era, jau kažkada po Tiananmeno aikštės įvykių), o tuos epizodus jungia koks nors labai konkretus įvykis arba detalė.
Galbūt galėjo dar labiau pasileisti plaukus, ten kur groteskas, galėtų būti dar groteskiškiau, kur tragizmas - dar tragiškiau. Norėtųsi ir didesnės apimties, daugiau veikėjų vystymo, bet turbūt nereikėtų kaltinti apsakymo tuo, kad jis ne romanas.
Norėtųsi daugiau. Nebūtinai Shuang Xuetao, galbūt kažko kito iš šiuolaikinių kinų autorių. Gal bus puiki pradžia ir pasipils vertimai iš kinų kalbos?
Keistos, šiek tiek mistiškos istorijos iš šiaurės Kinijos: postindustrinė visuomenė, niūri atmosfera, makabriški veikėjai, žodžiu, glamūras. Sunkiai protu paaiškinamos (tačiau nebūtinai antgamtiškos) situacijos yra tai, ką mėgstu, o čia jos visos trys būtent tokios. Įdomu, kad jos panašiai struktūruojamos - pasakojamos kelių veikėjų lūpomis, sudarytos iš epizodų, kurių vyksmo laiką skiria keli dešimtmečiai (paprastai kultūrinė revoliucija ir šiuolaikinė era, jau kažkada po Tiananmeno aikštės įvykių), o tuos epizodus jungia koks nors labai konkretus įvykis arba detalė.
Galbūt galėjo dar labiau pasileisti plaukus, ten kur groteskas, galėtų būti dar groteskiškiau, kur tragizmas - dar tragiškiau. Norėtųsi ir didesnės apimties, daugiau veikėjų vystymo, bet turbūt nereikėtų kaltinti apsakymo tuo, kad jis ne romanas.
Norėtųsi daugiau. Nebūtinai Shuang Xuetao, galbūt kažko kito iš šiuolaikinių kinų autorių. Gal bus puiki pradžia ir pasipils vertimai iš kinų kalbos?
November 27, 2021
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher (Henry Holt & Co) for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This was a really special set of novellas. They were all written by a highly acclaimed Chinese author and recently translated into English. The third novella (Moses on the Plain) was actually turned into a movie (titled Fire on the Plain). I'm not sure if there are English subtitles available yet for the film, but if there are I will definitely be watching it.
The first story (The Aeronaut), is about a man who wants to invent a flying machine, the second (Bright Hall), is about two children who chase a criminal into a frozen lake and fight a giant fish-person, and the third (Moses on the Plain), is about the mysterious murders of taxi drivers.
To be completely honest, it was difficult to even write the above paragraph giving a synopsis for each story. They are all so much more than one chronological plot-line. Each novella has multiple POVs and many characters. While this added depth to the storytelling, it also sometimes got a bit confusing. Just as I would start to orient myself and understand each characters backstory, the novella would end and move onto the next one. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing at all - but I would've been happy to read three full novels for each of these stories.
While each novella has a completely different plot, they all had the same dark/sorrowful/realist atmosphere. Some of them are set near the real neighborhood in Shenyang known as Yanfen street (which is where the author grew up - and where the title originates). The Translator's note at the beginning was SO HELPFUL for setting the scene of the novellas and giving some cultural context. Yanfen street was described as a dull and muddy rough neighborhood (from what I can tell, in the 90s)- although today it is apparently a bustling metropolis.
In addition to the setting, I noticed a lot of Chinese history wound into the storytelling, with many references to the cultural revolution (1966-1976) and Chairman Mao Zedong. There's also a lot of conversation on the shift from communism to a market economy, and rampant poverty. If you have an interest and some background in Chinese history or economics/politics in general, I would highly recommend this book. I would say I have minimal knowledge on this topic, so a few times I did google searches to educate myself a bit more on historical references which added more depth to the experience. I am sure that if you already have this knowledge, some of the details and dialogue would would be much more clear and impactful.
The true beauty of this book is in the details, not in the overarching plot.
----------
This is a set of novellas I would recommend for someone who is willing to cherish them and spend quality time reading. I spent about a month on them, and I'm honestly glad I did. They were a bit dense for me, and I think that is mostly because of the cultural references I did not always understand, and the large number of characters and storylines. Overall, the prose was really beautiful, the few magical realism elements were intriguing, the setting was bleak but compelling, and it was truly a gem to read!!
This was a really special set of novellas. They were all written by a highly acclaimed Chinese author and recently translated into English. The third novella (Moses on the Plain) was actually turned into a movie (titled Fire on the Plain). I'm not sure if there are English subtitles available yet for the film, but if there are I will definitely be watching it.
The first story (The Aeronaut), is about a man who wants to invent a flying machine, the second (Bright Hall), is about two children who chase a criminal into a frozen lake and fight a giant fish-person, and the third (Moses on the Plain), is about the mysterious murders of taxi drivers.
To be completely honest, it was difficult to even write the above paragraph giving a synopsis for each story. They are all so much more than one chronological plot-line. Each novella has multiple POVs and many characters. While this added depth to the storytelling, it also sometimes got a bit confusing. Just as I would start to orient myself and understand each characters backstory, the novella would end and move onto the next one. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing at all - but I would've been happy to read three full novels for each of these stories.
While each novella has a completely different plot, they all had the same dark/sorrowful/realist atmosphere. Some of them are set near the real neighborhood in Shenyang known as Yanfen street (which is where the author grew up - and where the title originates). The Translator's note at the beginning was SO HELPFUL for setting the scene of the novellas and giving some cultural context. Yanfen street was described as a dull and muddy rough neighborhood (from what I can tell, in the 90s)- although today it is apparently a bustling metropolis.
In addition to the setting, I noticed a lot of Chinese history wound into the storytelling, with many references to the cultural revolution (1966-1976) and Chairman Mao Zedong. There's also a lot of conversation on the shift from communism to a market economy, and rampant poverty. If you have an interest and some background in Chinese history or economics/politics in general, I would highly recommend this book. I would say I have minimal knowledge on this topic, so a few times I did google searches to educate myself a bit more on historical references which added more depth to the experience. I am sure that if you already have this knowledge, some of the details and dialogue would would be much more clear and impactful.
The true beauty of this book is in the details, not in the overarching plot.
----------
This is a set of novellas I would recommend for someone who is willing to cherish them and spend quality time reading. I spent about a month on them, and I'm honestly glad I did. They were a bit dense for me, and I think that is mostly because of the cultural references I did not always understand, and the large number of characters and storylines. Overall, the prose was really beautiful, the few magical realism elements were intriguing, the setting was bleak but compelling, and it was truly a gem to read!!
August 26, 2021
Thank you to Henry Holt and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
First off, as a person of Chinese descent, I am so happy to support the publication of a Chinese author in the West! There are so many authors who are making waves in other countries, but we never hear about them over here because their works aren't translated into English. I would love if there were more works in translation published here so that these authors can be just as well known as they are in their home countries.
Thank you again to the publisher for this opportunity!
Rouge Street by Shuang Xuetao is a collection of three novellas translated from Chinese to English. The first novella, The Aeronaut, is about a man who takes off work to visit his aunt, and he reminisces on childhood memories with his relatives. There's a sad ennui that permeates throughout this story, and I definitely see the Murakami comparisons. The second novella, Bright Hall, is a boy who has a quasi-religious experience involving a minister, which clouds his later actions in life. The third novella, Moses on the Plain, starts off with a man and a woman talking about books that they've read recently, which leads to them getting married and starting a family in post-Cultural Revolution China.
Here is a darkly humorous excerpt from The Aeronaut, the first novella:
"I called my supervisor and told him I wouldn’t be at that afternoon’s soccer game, then gritted my teeth and asked for a week off. I’d actually promised this vacation time to my mother—we were supposed to go to Hong Kong. She spent all day watching TVB dramas and wanted a trip to Hong Kong to try the packed lunches there. I was looking forward to it too, to be honest. I wanted to visit Disneyland and ride those machines that toss you through the air. Some people are scared of heights, but my family has never been. In fact, a weird thing about us: we actually enjoy being high up. When Pa was still around, every time he got upset with Ma, he’d go sit on the roof. Ma would say, What, are you a monkey in disguise?"
Overall, Rouge Street is an impressive collection of novellas that will introduce a major player into the world of literary fiction in the West. After reading this book, I am stunned by the talent of the author and the depth of his novellas. The official synopsis makes this book sounds Kafka-esque or like a blend of fantasy and realism in the vein of Kelly Link. Although there is a magical transformation, the true magic of these stories is in the tiny details, the short conversations that you have with someone you're related to but barely know. It's in the feelings you get being in a familiar place but feeling out of place because you're older now. This collection evokes both melancholy and nostalgic emotions. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of short story collections, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in April!
First off, as a person of Chinese descent, I am so happy to support the publication of a Chinese author in the West! There are so many authors who are making waves in other countries, but we never hear about them over here because their works aren't translated into English. I would love if there were more works in translation published here so that these authors can be just as well known as they are in their home countries.
Thank you again to the publisher for this opportunity!
Rouge Street by Shuang Xuetao is a collection of three novellas translated from Chinese to English. The first novella, The Aeronaut, is about a man who takes off work to visit his aunt, and he reminisces on childhood memories with his relatives. There's a sad ennui that permeates throughout this story, and I definitely see the Murakami comparisons. The second novella, Bright Hall, is a boy who has a quasi-religious experience involving a minister, which clouds his later actions in life. The third novella, Moses on the Plain, starts off with a man and a woman talking about books that they've read recently, which leads to them getting married and starting a family in post-Cultural Revolution China.
Here is a darkly humorous excerpt from The Aeronaut, the first novella:
"I called my supervisor and told him I wouldn’t be at that afternoon’s soccer game, then gritted my teeth and asked for a week off. I’d actually promised this vacation time to my mother—we were supposed to go to Hong Kong. She spent all day watching TVB dramas and wanted a trip to Hong Kong to try the packed lunches there. I was looking forward to it too, to be honest. I wanted to visit Disneyland and ride those machines that toss you through the air. Some people are scared of heights, but my family has never been. In fact, a weird thing about us: we actually enjoy being high up. When Pa was still around, every time he got upset with Ma, he’d go sit on the roof. Ma would say, What, are you a monkey in disguise?"
Overall, Rouge Street is an impressive collection of novellas that will introduce a major player into the world of literary fiction in the West. After reading this book, I am stunned by the talent of the author and the depth of his novellas. The official synopsis makes this book sounds Kafka-esque or like a blend of fantasy and realism in the vein of Kelly Link. Although there is a magical transformation, the true magic of these stories is in the tiny details, the short conversations that you have with someone you're related to but barely know. It's in the feelings you get being in a familiar place but feeling out of place because you're older now. This collection evokes both melancholy and nostalgic emotions. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of short story collections, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in April!
January 30, 2022
Yanfen, (Rouge), Street Meets Cannery Row.........
I enjoyed this collection of three novellas very much, although possibly not in the way intended. All of the works tell the stories of the people dispossessed and abandoned by the transition from Mao's increasingly unbalanced version of Chinese Communism to a modern, private, and less ideological market economy. In Xuetao's only slightly fictionalized industrial neighborhood of Shenyang, which was left destitute by the change, there are drunks, petty criminals, violent brawlers, and all manner of desperate, dissolute, and hopeless characters. There are also moments of beauty, and people who have the grace and fortitude to battle and transcend, (if only briefly and perhaps fantastically), their bleak surroundings.
I admired Xuetao's style, and the simplicity, unembroidered directness, authenticity, and power of his language. (Think British kitchen sink realism meets Chinese Kang bed stove realism). American literature, indeed world literature, has a vast catalogue of authors and works that have addressed characters in similar social and economic circumstances. So the reader can go on a bit of an Easter Egg hunt. That part felt like Steinbeck; this bit smacked of Hemingway; was that an echo of Dreiser I heard there? Who's listening for Murakami and Camus and John Osborne? And so on.
The point isn't that Xuetao's work is derivative; far from it. The larger point, to paraphrase Tolstoy, is that "All happy countries resemble one another, but each unhappy country is unhappy in its own way. ". How Xuetao made this subject his, how he interpreted it for northern China, and how he expressed it as a Chinese experience, is what I found most rewarding and instructive.
So, whether you want to read stories about interesting people coping with dramatic problems in a foreign setting, or want to go all academic and scholarly, this is a book loaded with opportunities, worthy finds, and subtle but weighty questions.
(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
I enjoyed this collection of three novellas very much, although possibly not in the way intended. All of the works tell the stories of the people dispossessed and abandoned by the transition from Mao's increasingly unbalanced version of Chinese Communism to a modern, private, and less ideological market economy. In Xuetao's only slightly fictionalized industrial neighborhood of Shenyang, which was left destitute by the change, there are drunks, petty criminals, violent brawlers, and all manner of desperate, dissolute, and hopeless characters. There are also moments of beauty, and people who have the grace and fortitude to battle and transcend, (if only briefly and perhaps fantastically), their bleak surroundings.
I admired Xuetao's style, and the simplicity, unembroidered directness, authenticity, and power of his language. (Think British kitchen sink realism meets Chinese Kang bed stove realism). American literature, indeed world literature, has a vast catalogue of authors and works that have addressed characters in similar social and economic circumstances. So the reader can go on a bit of an Easter Egg hunt. That part felt like Steinbeck; this bit smacked of Hemingway; was that an echo of Dreiser I heard there? Who's listening for Murakami and Camus and John Osborne? And so on.
The point isn't that Xuetao's work is derivative; far from it. The larger point, to paraphrase Tolstoy, is that "All happy countries resemble one another, but each unhappy country is unhappy in its own way. ". How Xuetao made this subject his, how he interpreted it for northern China, and how he expressed it as a Chinese experience, is what I found most rewarding and instructive.
So, whether you want to read stories about interesting people coping with dramatic problems in a foreign setting, or want to go all academic and scholarly, this is a book loaded with opportunities, worthy finds, and subtle but weighty questions.
(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
October 2, 2021
**I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.**
I really enjoyed this trio of novellas - and I'm not normally one for novellas. I always tend to feel that they should have been shoved to either end of the spectrum - either cut to make a short story, or elongated to make a proper novel - but I didn't feel that at all here. Oh, to be sure, I thought the endings of the first two novellas were a little rushed (the ending of the third one, however, was pretty perfect), but it didn't bother me as much as it might have, and that's down to the strength of Shuang's writing. His writing reads quickly, and contains just the right amount of detail. And his characters - some of whom only get the bare minimum amount of page time - all feel realistically rendered. Although I do kind of wish the endings of the first two novellas had been fleshed out a bit more, I would still be interested in reading more of Shuang's writing.
I really enjoyed this trio of novellas - and I'm not normally one for novellas. I always tend to feel that they should have been shoved to either end of the spectrum - either cut to make a short story, or elongated to make a proper novel - but I didn't feel that at all here. Oh, to be sure, I thought the endings of the first two novellas were a little rushed (the ending of the third one, however, was pretty perfect), but it didn't bother me as much as it might have, and that's down to the strength of Shuang's writing. His writing reads quickly, and contains just the right amount of detail. And his characters - some of whom only get the bare minimum amount of page time - all feel realistically rendered. Although I do kind of wish the endings of the first two novellas had been fleshed out a bit more, I would still be interested in reading more of Shuang's writing.
May 25, 2025
A harsh and melancholic set of novellas. Xuetao’s voice possesses the signature industrial matter-of-factness that permeates a lot of translated Chinese writing. Much of which is usually bleak and politically heavy, but with the sense that the author isn’t necessarily even trying to make a statement- I guess that’s just how they think over there. Each novella revolves around a family navigating the rusty underbelly of a 1990s post-Cultural revolution China, their lives woven with poverty, political instability, gang violence, and crime. Characters lead unfulfilling and kind of miserable lives: factory workers laid off from their jobs, children whose families can’t pay for high school, fathers driven to murdering taxi drivers to pay off debt, soldiers beating professors to death for political objections.
Murakami’s work (who Xuetao is often compared to) often seems to exist in an apolitical void, where his characters are the only people in the universe; frankly with a few adjustments his books could take place in about any place in the world. In Xuetao’s writing the political inanity of his nation infects the lives of every character. Their destinies are tossed every which way by the trickle-down societal effects of an unsympathetic government, which seems to have abandoned them to rot along with the collapse of the nation’s industry. State sanctioned violence and corruption function as divine forces, as if they were uncontrollable natural disasters like floods or tornadoes. Characters talk about blind old men being beaten to death by the police with as much disinterest as if they were talking about the meal they made that day. The jovial “bootstraps” mentality found in American novels of the same genre is profoundly absent; these people are beaten down, resigned to their fate of poverty, addiction, ill health… when an old factory worker is arrested for financial crime, he only tells the police he wishes they took him in sooner, before he ruined the lives of his wife and daughter. This is contrasted by the novella’s direct Abrahamic symbolism, which color the pieces with a sense of magical realism and grim hopefulness. Characters sin and are forgiven. A man becomes a policeman after a childhood of petty crime, a pastor leads a church in worship, a boy is swallowed by a whale. The novel even ends with a metaphorical parting of the sea.
In “Moses on the Plain”, a character makes an offhand comment about a statue of Chairman Mao being torn down and replaced with a phoenix, which then years later is inexplicably torn down again and replaced with the exact same statue of Chairman Mao. Reading this book I could clearly see Xuetao’s vision of a developing rural China in my mind’s eye: dirt roads choked with engine smoke, hands smeared with coal and dirt, rifles, uniforms, stray dogs, men in stained tank tops squatting and smoking by a field of sorghum, the red flag waving in an empty square. Reading stories set in the mainland I never grew up in and only experienced through intermittent family visits always fills me with a kind of vacant and yearning nostalgia, like watching a reenactment of a familiar play through a veil of dust.
Definitely necessitates a reread, as I felt that some elements went way over my head. One day I would love to revisit this untranslated in the original text, but I should probably first learn to read Mandarin.
8.5/10
Murakami’s work (who Xuetao is often compared to) often seems to exist in an apolitical void, where his characters are the only people in the universe; frankly with a few adjustments his books could take place in about any place in the world. In Xuetao’s writing the political inanity of his nation infects the lives of every character. Their destinies are tossed every which way by the trickle-down societal effects of an unsympathetic government, which seems to have abandoned them to rot along with the collapse of the nation’s industry. State sanctioned violence and corruption function as divine forces, as if they were uncontrollable natural disasters like floods or tornadoes. Characters talk about blind old men being beaten to death by the police with as much disinterest as if they were talking about the meal they made that day. The jovial “bootstraps” mentality found in American novels of the same genre is profoundly absent; these people are beaten down, resigned to their fate of poverty, addiction, ill health… when an old factory worker is arrested for financial crime, he only tells the police he wishes they took him in sooner, before he ruined the lives of his wife and daughter. This is contrasted by the novella’s direct Abrahamic symbolism, which color the pieces with a sense of magical realism and grim hopefulness. Characters sin and are forgiven. A man becomes a policeman after a childhood of petty crime, a pastor leads a church in worship, a boy is swallowed by a whale. The novel even ends with a metaphorical parting of the sea.
In “Moses on the Plain”, a character makes an offhand comment about a statue of Chairman Mao being torn down and replaced with a phoenix, which then years later is inexplicably torn down again and replaced with the exact same statue of Chairman Mao. Reading this book I could clearly see Xuetao’s vision of a developing rural China in my mind’s eye: dirt roads choked with engine smoke, hands smeared with coal and dirt, rifles, uniforms, stray dogs, men in stained tank tops squatting and smoking by a field of sorghum, the red flag waving in an empty square. Reading stories set in the mainland I never grew up in and only experienced through intermittent family visits always fills me with a kind of vacant and yearning nostalgia, like watching a reenactment of a familiar play through a veil of dust.
Definitely necessitates a reread, as I felt that some elements went way over my head. One day I would love to revisit this untranslated in the original text, but I should probably first learn to read Mandarin.
8.5/10
dnf
April 2, 2022This was an error of expectations on my part. I was expecting magical realism along the lines of Gaiman from the snippets in the synopsis, but it’s more like literary fiction which isn’t really my speed. It reminds me of the Cultural Revolution chapters from The Three Body Problem. From what I’ve read of it I think it’s very well written and will be compelling to readers who like this kind of thing, sadly not for me though.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced review copy.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced review copy.
May 15, 2022
Most of the narratives of those novellas take place in a poor industrial district in China in the 90's. There's hardship and despair, but also hope, together with some strange, somehow disconnected kindness. And just a hint of a fantastical.
Lately I've been quite into Chinese authors, and from what I've read I'd say Shuang Xuetao's work is a good place for the Europeans to start to get acquainted with Chinese literature, if you want to read something authentic and different, but not too weird (like Can Xue) or disturbing (like Mo Yan). "Rouge Street" reads a bit slow, but there's a clear setting and empathy, often important to the Western readers.
Lately I've been quite into Chinese authors, and from what I've read I'd say Shuang Xuetao's work is a good place for the Europeans to start to get acquainted with Chinese literature, if you want to read something authentic and different, but not too weird (like Can Xue) or disturbing (like Mo Yan). "Rouge Street" reads a bit slow, but there's a clear setting and empathy, often important to the Western readers.
Read
April 19, 2022Rouge Street was released today, April 19, 2022.
A set of three novellas by Chinese author Shuang Xuetao, Rouge Street is his first book to appear in English (translated by Jeremy Tiang). As someone who hasn’t read a lot of Chinese fiction, I defer to others to better contextualize this book (for example, Jing Tsu in her NYT review published today, and Tiang in the Translator’s Note), but in short, it is set in a rundown neighborhood of the city of Shenyang, which is situated in a region known as China’s Rust Belt (with the associated industrial and economic implications), in the decades after the Cultural Revolution into the near-present day.
Though some of the marketing for this book (as well as its very cool cover art) suggested to me a sort of sci-fi vibe, Xuetao’s stories are mostly defined by a kind of gritty realism. There are rare moments suggesting something akin to magic realism (mostly in the second novella), but overall the stories are defined by a down-to-earth character-focused approach that brings the reader into the lives of numerous people with different perspectives and motivations, though they are united by the intergenerational and situational burdens of their hometown, and cross paths with each other in unexpected ways.
Xuetao does a remarkable job of presenting his characters’ troubles as the course of their everyday lives, without impressing an undue degree of piteousness. An undercurrent of dark humor is part, but not all of what buoys them along; there’s also a common element of straightforward practicality in the face of circumstances outside of their control. The stories and the lives of Xuetao’s characters are as twisty and meandering as the streets of Shenyang, and I enjoyed being taken on the journey. I was also excited to learn of another kind of stove you can sleep on, in this case, a kang.
I will definitely be checking out more of Xuetao’s work when it is translated.
Thank you to Henry Holt & Company, Metropolitan Books for the NetGalley ARC.
A set of three novellas by Chinese author Shuang Xuetao, Rouge Street is his first book to appear in English (translated by Jeremy Tiang). As someone who hasn’t read a lot of Chinese fiction, I defer to others to better contextualize this book (for example, Jing Tsu in her NYT review published today, and Tiang in the Translator’s Note), but in short, it is set in a rundown neighborhood of the city of Shenyang, which is situated in a region known as China’s Rust Belt (with the associated industrial and economic implications), in the decades after the Cultural Revolution into the near-present day.
Though some of the marketing for this book (as well as its very cool cover art) suggested to me a sort of sci-fi vibe, Xuetao’s stories are mostly defined by a kind of gritty realism. There are rare moments suggesting something akin to magic realism (mostly in the second novella), but overall the stories are defined by a down-to-earth character-focused approach that brings the reader into the lives of numerous people with different perspectives and motivations, though they are united by the intergenerational and situational burdens of their hometown, and cross paths with each other in unexpected ways.
Xuetao does a remarkable job of presenting his characters’ troubles as the course of their everyday lives, without impressing an undue degree of piteousness. An undercurrent of dark humor is part, but not all of what buoys them along; there’s also a common element of straightforward practicality in the face of circumstances outside of their control. The stories and the lives of Xuetao’s characters are as twisty and meandering as the streets of Shenyang, and I enjoyed being taken on the journey. I was also excited to learn of another kind of stove you can sleep on, in this case, a kang.
I will definitely be checking out more of Xuetao’s work when it is translated.
Thank you to Henry Holt & Company, Metropolitan Books for the NetGalley ARC.
June 5, 2022
I enjoy Chinese fiction, and I'm not put off by names that are unusual to an American ear so that they require more attention to remember and keep straight. I enjoy the immersion in a culture different from my own, so I was looking forward to this book, but I found it a little flat. I liked the characters in the last story the best, and in caring about them I found that the story grabbed my attention so that I followed the ins and outs of the plot more easily, and I liked the way that it came together at the end. If you get bogged down in the first two stories, hang in there, or just skip ahead to the third. I can see why Shuang Xuetao is considered a promising writer because all of the stories in this book had interesting original elements and were well crafted. I don't get the comparisons of his writing to Hemingway or Murakami. Neither of those rang true for me. He's more like a contemporary Lu Xun, using Western form in a Chinese setting.
January 31, 2023
I haven’t read much (maybe any?) Chinese literature, particularly anything contemporary. This lack alone was enough to pique my interest in this book when it hit my radar, but after reading the description of ‘Rouge Street’, I was sold enough to bump this up my to read pile. Sadly, while I enjoyed the gritty vibe and the ambition of these novellas, none of them quite hit the mark for me in the way I was hoping.
I really did like a lot of what ‘Rouge Street’ was attempting to do here. Firstly, I did enjoy the overall style of these novellas. All were set in the titular Yanfen (which has been translated to Rouge for the title) Street, a rough and deprived area of China, and all the stories oozed this sense of place from their very pores. You can always tell when something is written by someone with a strong connection to a particular setting that they themselves clearly live and breathe and this was definitely one of the strengths of this collection. The style that naturally accompanied this - that kind of gritty, almost noir in places, also worked very, very well with it.
I think the strongest element present was actually Xuetao’s plots. These were so concrete that even through the problems, I could always, always see what he was trying to do. I could tell the core of the story was good in every single one, even if the telling wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. Even in stories such as the second, ‘Bright Hall’, where I didn’t enjoy the kind of magical realism angle that the story slipped into by the end, I didn’t think it was fundamentally flawed at its heart. It just didn’t work for me personally, or in the case of the other stories had some other issue holding it down.
The prose was never bad, and particularly good in the first novella which was definitely my favourite. It had this bleak humour that really worked with the story and setting very well. Sometimes the dialogue was a little awkward or unrealistic across the stories, but the writing was generally serviceable (at least) in all places. However, I do unfortunately think it was definitely oversold - comparing prose to authors as revered and unique as someone like Hemingway is just setting someone up for failure. When you’re told this and the prose is actually just fine, it makes it seem worse than it is and I definitely found myself more disappointed than I otherwise might have been.
I’d actually say the biggest sin of ‘Rouge Street’ is that it lacks a level of clarity that is necessary for its success. While I appreciated the idea of the shifting perspectives that were so common amongst these novellas, and how they worked with the stories told, their use required a certain level of characterisation that was unfortunately just not quite strong enough to carry Xuetao’s ambition here. The characters were simply not concretely established enough up front before moving on. This problem was then compounded by a few other factors. Sometimes there were just too many characters that we were cycling between, which would have been enough to cause some confusion in and of itself. This was particularly prevalent in the last story (‘Moses on the Plain’) where I could start to see the pieces kind of slotting together, but there were just too many characters that I couldn’t distinguish for it to come together as it otherwise should have. It was like being able to figure out how the pieces of a jigsaw fit together but arbitrarily through their shape, not by seeing the beautiful picture come together.
The other issue, and I’m sure this is likely a translation problem, is that too many characters were referred to (and sometimes defined by) their relation to the character we were in the point of view of. I don’t think is strictly the fault of the translator - I’m sure in Chinese these descriptors (e.g. Youngest Aunt) have much more natural language than in English, but I found it very hard to keep track of people as defined by their relations only. Not only this, but the most confusion came in going from the first story to the second particularly. Both of these stories contain important characters that are referred to by simply as ‘Eldest Aunt’ or ‘Pa’ etc, however these are completely different characters in completely different stories. It was almost impossible to reset my brain between these short novellas to unwire the characters I had already attached to these monikers. It felt like the equivalent of giving everyone the same name in all of your stories. This, with the common setting, just made a lot of these stories fuzz together in an unsatisfying way for me.
‘Rouge Street’ is definitely another case of one of those books where I wanted to like it so much more than I really did. While there was some genuinely solid stuff here, there were just too many issues with it that compromised the integrity of it as a whole. I almost found it more frustrating at times, being able to see the potential so clearly but for it to be so consistently muddied that I couldn’t derive the enjoyment from it that I should have. I also think this is definitely another case of a blurb overselling a book - but I won’t get too deep into that since this review is already overlong and I think a rant about the marketing habits of the publishing industry might really push anyone still reading at this point fully over the edge.
I don’t think I’d discourage anyone from trying ‘Rouge Street’ but I would certainly offer some kind of warning to anyone interested. I also think I’d still try something else of Xuetao’s too - having seen more than enough of something here that I’d just hope he was able to express with more success elsewhere. I can also say that while previously neglected by me, this at least won’t be my last foray into Chinese literature. That’s for sure.
I really did like a lot of what ‘Rouge Street’ was attempting to do here. Firstly, I did enjoy the overall style of these novellas. All were set in the titular Yanfen (which has been translated to Rouge for the title) Street, a rough and deprived area of China, and all the stories oozed this sense of place from their very pores. You can always tell when something is written by someone with a strong connection to a particular setting that they themselves clearly live and breathe and this was definitely one of the strengths of this collection. The style that naturally accompanied this - that kind of gritty, almost noir in places, also worked very, very well with it.
I think the strongest element present was actually Xuetao’s plots. These were so concrete that even through the problems, I could always, always see what he was trying to do. I could tell the core of the story was good in every single one, even if the telling wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. Even in stories such as the second, ‘Bright Hall’, where I didn’t enjoy the kind of magical realism angle that the story slipped into by the end, I didn’t think it was fundamentally flawed at its heart. It just didn’t work for me personally, or in the case of the other stories had some other issue holding it down.
The prose was never bad, and particularly good in the first novella which was definitely my favourite. It had this bleak humour that really worked with the story and setting very well. Sometimes the dialogue was a little awkward or unrealistic across the stories, but the writing was generally serviceable (at least) in all places. However, I do unfortunately think it was definitely oversold - comparing prose to authors as revered and unique as someone like Hemingway is just setting someone up for failure. When you’re told this and the prose is actually just fine, it makes it seem worse than it is and I definitely found myself more disappointed than I otherwise might have been.
I’d actually say the biggest sin of ‘Rouge Street’ is that it lacks a level of clarity that is necessary for its success. While I appreciated the idea of the shifting perspectives that were so common amongst these novellas, and how they worked with the stories told, their use required a certain level of characterisation that was unfortunately just not quite strong enough to carry Xuetao’s ambition here. The characters were simply not concretely established enough up front before moving on. This problem was then compounded by a few other factors. Sometimes there were just too many characters that we were cycling between, which would have been enough to cause some confusion in and of itself. This was particularly prevalent in the last story (‘Moses on the Plain’) where I could start to see the pieces kind of slotting together, but there were just too many characters that I couldn’t distinguish for it to come together as it otherwise should have. It was like being able to figure out how the pieces of a jigsaw fit together but arbitrarily through their shape, not by seeing the beautiful picture come together.
The other issue, and I’m sure this is likely a translation problem, is that too many characters were referred to (and sometimes defined by) their relation to the character we were in the point of view of. I don’t think is strictly the fault of the translator - I’m sure in Chinese these descriptors (e.g. Youngest Aunt) have much more natural language than in English, but I found it very hard to keep track of people as defined by their relations only. Not only this, but the most confusion came in going from the first story to the second particularly. Both of these stories contain important characters that are referred to by simply as ‘Eldest Aunt’ or ‘Pa’ etc, however these are completely different characters in completely different stories. It was almost impossible to reset my brain between these short novellas to unwire the characters I had already attached to these monikers. It felt like the equivalent of giving everyone the same name in all of your stories. This, with the common setting, just made a lot of these stories fuzz together in an unsatisfying way for me.
‘Rouge Street’ is definitely another case of one of those books where I wanted to like it so much more than I really did. While there was some genuinely solid stuff here, there were just too many issues with it that compromised the integrity of it as a whole. I almost found it more frustrating at times, being able to see the potential so clearly but for it to be so consistently muddied that I couldn’t derive the enjoyment from it that I should have. I also think this is definitely another case of a blurb overselling a book - but I won’t get too deep into that since this review is already overlong and I think a rant about the marketing habits of the publishing industry might really push anyone still reading at this point fully over the edge.
I don’t think I’d discourage anyone from trying ‘Rouge Street’ but I would certainly offer some kind of warning to anyone interested. I also think I’d still try something else of Xuetao’s too - having seen more than enough of something here that I’d just hope he was able to express with more success elsewhere. I can also say that while previously neglected by me, this at least won’t be my last foray into Chinese literature. That’s for sure.
May 11, 2024
I received this book as an arc ages and ages ago.
I started this book a few times before but I kept getting so confused in the changes in POV I kept putting it down but today I can say I finally finished it! That first story was not it for me, but 2 & 3?? So good!!!! The last one felt like watching criminal minds. Glad I finally read it:)
I started this book a few times before but I kept getting so confused in the changes in POV I kept putting it down but today I can say I finally finished it! That first story was not it for me, but 2 & 3?? So good!!!! The last one felt like watching criminal minds. Glad I finally read it:)
January 20, 2024
Po dviejų apsakymų strigau, ėmė skaitytis lėtokai, nors pastebiu, kad daug kas būtent trečią apsakymą išskiria kaip labiausiai patikusį. Man labiausiai patiko du pirmieji, ypač geras antrojo maginis momentas, bet ir apskritai puikiai perteikta atmosfera tolimo Kinijos kampelio, sutelkusio visuomenės atstumtuosius. Priminė matytus kelis kinų filmus apie poindustrinių miestų ir kaimelių tykų ir keistą gyvenimą, po kurio paviršiumi vis tiek daug žaizdų, aistrų, pavojų.
3.5
3.5
Read
July 21, 2022As a kid from an immigrant family, I primarily read Eastern European novels; they were my go to books for pleasure and thought. I did read a lot of American novels, but mostly to try to understand the culture and interior lives of English speaking, Christian American families. I wanted to be able to fit in when necessary. Nowadays, I rarely read American fiction and mostly do so to understand the changing nature of the American marketplace for books. When I read fiction, I’m almost always reading books by foreign authors that describe the interior lives of people in their countries. Rouge Street is an eye opening, funny and insightful look at family life in provincial China. I definitely want to read more books like this one.
May 12, 2022
Three quite clever, eventful, evocative, plot-driven novellas set in a snowy and grey city of Northern China.
I only had the audiobook and have to say it was challenging to follow the storylines when not seeing the Chinese names written out. The narrator is not bad, but the writing style is rather factual so that in the space of two sentences several important developments can take place. I found myself going back 30 seconds all the time. A physical copy would have come in handy. My dramatic knowledge of the Cultural Revolution didn't help either.
Still, it was a worthwhile reading experience, I am happy to finally have read something by a modern Chinese author and would definitely recommend (a physical copy) it to people with in an interest in China. Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the audio-arc.
I only had the audiobook and have to say it was challenging to follow the storylines when not seeing the Chinese names written out. The narrator is not bad, but the writing style is rather factual so that in the space of two sentences several important developments can take place. I found myself going back 30 seconds all the time. A physical copy would have come in handy. My dramatic knowledge of the Cultural Revolution didn't help either.
Still, it was a worthwhile reading experience, I am happy to finally have read something by a modern Chinese author and would definitely recommend (a physical copy) it to people with in an interest in China. Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the audio-arc.
October 9, 2022
Throughout all three novellas it is really the urban decay of post-industrial northern China that feels like the main protagonist, a maize of streets, dilapidated houses and factories with its own unique reverberance. Beyond this unsettling background I personally struggled to connect with the novel: the many characters often felt anonymous, the narrative too fractured and disjointed, and the sparse use of surrealist elements never really landed and felt oddly out of place rather than complementary, and even the more traditional noir plot points were not enough to keep me engaged.
September 8, 2021
Wow! This is a fantastic collection of novellas. It's realism with some fantasy elements and subtle dark humor set in a gritty area in Northeast China, which seems to transcend the stories and almost becomes a supporting character in all three novellas. Nostalgia plays a big role here, as does observing how everyday interactions, whether big or small, shape who we are.
Engaging translation, poignant stories.
Engaging translation, poignant stories.
February 24, 2022
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Henry Holt and Company for an advanced copy of this collection of novellas from China.
Three very different novellas, each featuring the industrial city of Shenyang, located in the frigid area of northeast China, as the main character and primary muse in Shuang Xuetao's Rouge Street. Compared to such authors a Murakami, and Hemingway, Shuang Xuetao is a young writer that is making a name for himself in both the Chinese and world literary scene, along with the writer Yan Ge, who also writes of cities and the effects on its inhabitants.
The stories offer different views of the city and how it became and where it is going. Starting first as a town known for the manufacture of the emperor's makeup the city has seen revolution, cultural and new economies come and well not go, but stay and effect the people in different ways. The stories start with a theme, but move onto tangents, a man wants to build a flying machine, a criminal avoids capture but strange things happen, taxi drivers are the victims of crimes, while a young girl dreams of burning a field. Simple in idea, but in execution the stories range across a variety of themes, mostly the separation of families, friends, and colleagues that working for a large machine with will cause. Shenyang grows, but nothing around it changes, just a cold landscape that surrounds a colder story.
The stories are good, and though they might seem to meaner a bit, cover a lot of ground and time. Characters that seem important, disappear and others suddenly become the focus and the reason that things are happening. I am not sure how the translation by Jeremy Tiang is, however he did translate the book Strange Beasts of China which I also enjoyed, but I had no problems enjoying or following the story. The is much sadness in the book, characters seem to deal with family by referencing either drink or suicide. There are a lot of expectation of characters, and not a lot of hope that they will be met. There is a bit of remove in the characters and sometimes a bit of if not magic, but bit of supernatural, a bit like Murakami. I quite enjoyed all the novellas, something that is rare for me in collections.
I have found myself reading a lot more authors from China than I have in the past. Most of my reading was in the genre of science fiction, but I am finding a lot of new authors that I enjoy. The writing in Rouge Street is very good, with a interesting way of sharing themes that we all have in common. I am excited to read more by Shuang Xuetao.
Three very different novellas, each featuring the industrial city of Shenyang, located in the frigid area of northeast China, as the main character and primary muse in Shuang Xuetao's Rouge Street. Compared to such authors a Murakami, and Hemingway, Shuang Xuetao is a young writer that is making a name for himself in both the Chinese and world literary scene, along with the writer Yan Ge, who also writes of cities and the effects on its inhabitants.
The stories offer different views of the city and how it became and where it is going. Starting first as a town known for the manufacture of the emperor's makeup the city has seen revolution, cultural and new economies come and well not go, but stay and effect the people in different ways. The stories start with a theme, but move onto tangents, a man wants to build a flying machine, a criminal avoids capture but strange things happen, taxi drivers are the victims of crimes, while a young girl dreams of burning a field. Simple in idea, but in execution the stories range across a variety of themes, mostly the separation of families, friends, and colleagues that working for a large machine with will cause. Shenyang grows, but nothing around it changes, just a cold landscape that surrounds a colder story.
The stories are good, and though they might seem to meaner a bit, cover a lot of ground and time. Characters that seem important, disappear and others suddenly become the focus and the reason that things are happening. I am not sure how the translation by Jeremy Tiang is, however he did translate the book Strange Beasts of China which I also enjoyed, but I had no problems enjoying or following the story. The is much sadness in the book, characters seem to deal with family by referencing either drink or suicide. There are a lot of expectation of characters, and not a lot of hope that they will be met. There is a bit of remove in the characters and sometimes a bit of if not magic, but bit of supernatural, a bit like Murakami. I quite enjoyed all the novellas, something that is rare for me in collections.
I have found myself reading a lot more authors from China than I have in the past. Most of my reading was in the genre of science fiction, but I am finding a lot of new authors that I enjoy. The writing in Rouge Street is very good, with a interesting way of sharing themes that we all have in common. I am excited to read more by Shuang Xuetao.
August 17, 2022
“Yanfen Street, or Rouge Street, winds through Tiexi District, in the city of Shenyang, in the province of Liaoning. The district was settled by people thrown unceremoniously together—alleged class enemies and their equally despised children, former felons, hooligans, peasants, migrant workers, and the poor. Together, they formed a vast labor pool, disappearing into mines, smelters, and machine factories, tasked with building tractors or transformers, cleaning toilets, or making cigarettes.”
Yanfen Street is where Shuang Xuetao’s collection of three novellas, Rouge Street, takes place. It’s also where the author grew up... probably why we feel such a strong connection to this foreign world. As a reader we are pulled in and, even through its dark descriptions and sombre political climate, we feel the light.
(Interestingly, Yanfen means “bright powder” or “rouge”. The name is thought to date back to the Qing dynasty when the land was used to cultivate the plants, then turned into make-up for the palace.)
Much like the different characters we meet along the way; broken and grieving families, misplaced and lonely individuals - battling the elements, searching, growing and shining best they can.
Translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, with a foreword by Madeleine Thien, Rouge Street is packed full of intrigue and wonder. An unforgettable voyage!
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy.
Yanfen Street is where Shuang Xuetao’s collection of three novellas, Rouge Street, takes place. It’s also where the author grew up... probably why we feel such a strong connection to this foreign world. As a reader we are pulled in and, even through its dark descriptions and sombre political climate, we feel the light.
(Interestingly, Yanfen means “bright powder” or “rouge”. The name is thought to date back to the Qing dynasty when the land was used to cultivate the plants, then turned into make-up for the palace.)
Much like the different characters we meet along the way; broken and grieving families, misplaced and lonely individuals - battling the elements, searching, growing and shining best they can.
Translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, with a foreword by Madeleine Thien, Rouge Street is packed full of intrigue and wonder. An unforgettable voyage!
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy.
March 25, 2022
I knew nothing of this book when I requested it from NetGalley, but what sold me (and immediately made me wonder) were the comparisons to Ernest Hemingway and Haruki Murakami readers have made of this celebrated up-and-coming Chinese writer. I also thought the summaries of the three novellas of Rouge Street were pretty spectacular:
An inventor dreams of escaping his drab surroundings in a flying machine. A criminal, trapped beneath a frozen lake, fights a giant fish. A strange girl pledges to ignite a field of sorghum stalks.
I mean, how could I resist something so wonderfully odd?! I couldn't. I wouldn't exactly stack this against anything by Hemingway or Murakami, but I can see why it's gotten so much attention abroad. These novellas were recently translated to English, and I'm hoping I can scope out some of his other books.
An inventor dreams of escaping his drab surroundings in a flying machine. A criminal, trapped beneath a frozen lake, fights a giant fish. A strange girl pledges to ignite a field of sorghum stalks.
I mean, how could I resist something so wonderfully odd?! I couldn't. I wouldn't exactly stack this against anything by Hemingway or Murakami, but I can see why it's gotten so much attention abroad. These novellas were recently translated to English, and I'm hoping I can scope out some of his other books.
Read
July 31, 2022I haven't read much by Chinese authors and the narrative construction is a different than a typical western format. Shifting perspectives and extended networks of characters were a bit hard to follow because it's not very familiar to me. But well worth it, and I enjoyed the prose. Moses on the Plain was my favorite of the three novellas because the murder mystery unfolding through the perspectives of so many people was expertly told.
It was lovely to revisit Shenyang--makes me want jiaozi and a glass of peanut milk!
It was lovely to revisit Shenyang--makes me want jiaozi and a glass of peanut milk!
June 8, 2025
‘—I understand, in a way. You need to be completely ruthless to get anything done. Risk death boldly, or starve like a coward.’
RTC later maybe. Not sure if I fully ‘enjoyed’ this or if I found much ‘resonance’ in this, or appreciated this one enough, but the text and translation is clearly and very certainly brilliant. And in any case, I look forward to reading more of Shuang’s work — notably/especially Hunter .
‘—I picked this book because I wanted you to know that as long as what's in your heart is genuine and sincere, the mountains and oceans will part for you, and the people coming after you, the ones who didn't make space for you, will all get punished. When you're grown, when you're older, I want you to hold on to that thought. Li Fei didn't say anything, just looked out the window. I wasn't sure if she'd understood what I was trying to tell her.’
September 6, 2023
Rouge Street was dark, witty, and mysterious. Shuang paints a distinct portrait of post-industrial China through each character of his short stories. Using multiple points of view, often spanning generations, you gain a clearer picture of the story’s “reality” with each perspective. These realities, however, are centered in both historical accuracy and dream-like fantasy. Dreams and reality are blended together seamlessly, and it was honestly a bit of a trippy read.
This book was articulate and well written, but it took me some time to get through.
This book was articulate and well written, but it took me some time to get through.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews