Peach Blossom Paradise with Canaan Morse

Episode 6 February 07, 2023 01:25:46
Peach Blossom Paradise with Canaan Morse
Unburied Books
Peach Blossom Paradise with Canaan Morse

Feb 07 2023 | 01:25:46

/

Show Notes

Translator and poet Canaan Morse joins us to discuss his translation of Peach Blossom Paradise, a Chinese historical novel written by Ge Fei. In this conversation, we unpack the book's relationship to utopia, revolution, and Communist history. We also learn more about Canaan's background and the publication process at NYRB Classics. Listeners unfamiliar with the plot may want to wait until they've read the book to tune in.

Books and authors (and songs!) mentioned:
The Invisibility Cloak
Mo Yan
Kang Youwei
White Deer Plain by Chen Zhongshi
Water Margin by Shi Nai'an
To Live by Yu Hua
Li Shangyin
Matteo Ricci
Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin
Ulysses by James Joyce
Diary of a Madman by Lu Xun
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
"Stench" by Cao Kou (read Canaan's translation here: https://www.thewhitereview.org/fiction/stench/)
"Chang Hui Jia Kan Kan"
Yang Xiaobin
Seamus Heaney
Wang Wei
Hanshan
19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger
Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong

To purchase books we've covered and browse some of Dylan & Kassia's favorites, please visit our digital bookshop at https://bookshop.org/shop/unburiedbooks. Buying them here helps to support the show.

Other Episodes

Episode 13

November 28, 2023 01:17:06
Episode Cover

Zama with Esther Allen

Writer Esther Allen joins us to discuss her translation of Antonio di Benedetto's Zama, an Argentine existential novel originally published 1956. We discuss the...

Listen

Episode 22

November 21, 2024 00:02:49
Episode Cover

Teaser: Stranger than Fiction with Edwin Frank

NYRB Classics editorial director Edwin Frank returns to talk about his new book on the 20th-century novel. We discuss how he defined the category,...

Listen

Episode 2

June 27, 2023 00:54:18
Episode Cover

An African in Greenland with Chris Lee

Writer Chris Lee joins us to discuss An African in Greenland written by Tété-Michel Kpomassie and translated from French by James Kirkup. The book...

Listen