Teaching a course I'm calling "Around the world in 40 stories". I have most of the world covered, but I need more short stories from Asia (Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Afghan, etc.) I know a lot of novels from the area, but not enough short stories. Hit me with your favorites!
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Mo Yan writes very good stories, especially the longer ones. Seagull Books did one called Change that was very good. Also the stories of A Yi are brilliant I think - kind of noir like, he used to be a provincial police detective.
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I've only read a couple of novels. A story of his would be good. Have you read a good Ma Jian story?
"Change" is 117 pages, that's stretching it for a short story!
1/ Murakami's stories from AFTER KOBE (later called AFTER THE QUAKE I think...) had a great contemporary (at the time) cultural mood. Not nearly as fanciful as the novels. Tanizaki's "Arrowroot". Yoko Ogawa's stories from the NYer very good. And I'd most highly recommend ...
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2/ Bashō's cross genre joy, "A Narrow Road to the Deep North". It's a masterpiece, and is so remote in time and referents it doesn't feel dated (as say Sophocles doesn't). Kawabata's PALM OF THE HAND STORIES are quite elegant and short but do feel a bit dated.
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