Wang Anyi
Wang Anyi is a Chinese writer, vice-chair of the China Writers Association since 2006 and a professor of Chinese Literature at Fudan University.
She writes novels, novellas, short stories and essays with diverse themes and topics. Much of her work is set in Shanghai, where she lived and worked for the majority of her life. She also regularly writes about the countryside in Anhui, where she was ‘sent down’ during the Cultural Revolution.
Her works have been translated into English, German and French, and studied as zhiqing (educated youth), xungen (roots-searching), Haipai (Shanghai style), and dushi (urban, cosmopolitan) literature.
Wang Anyi was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2011.
Background
Between 2005 - 2015, the Man Booker International Prize recognised one writer for their achievement in fiction.
Worth £60,000, the prize was awarded every two years to a living author who had published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language.
The winner was chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel and there were no submissions from publishers.
The Man Booker International Prize was different from the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction in that it highlighted one writer’s overall contribution to fiction on the world stage. In focusing on overall literary excellence, the judges considered a writer’s body of work rather than a single novel.