I love good Asian literature. I heard once that the Japanese have words for emotions we don’t give words to. What we will need a sentence to describe, they have a word for it. I’m not sure about Chinese, but if I need to judge by the stories of Xiaolu Guo, they sure know how to make a precise feeling without using too many words.
Xiaolu Guo is a Chinese that lives in the west, and she studied filmmaking. I think I felt it while reading her short stories, especially one that’s titled Beijing’s Slowest Elevator. The visual side is very strong, and the atmosphere is precise. The characters don’t say much, in fact there are very few spoken words in Guo’s short stories. What counts is the action, the inside of the characters meetss the outside world in a quiet clash.
Very good short story collection and I for sure will try to find also one of Guo’s films.
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