Ma Jian (writer)

Ma Jian is a Chinese writer. He was born in Qingdao on the August 18 1953. In 1986, he moved to Hong Kong after a clampdown in which some his works were banned. In 1997, he moved to Germany, and in 1999 he again moved to England. He now lives in London with his partner and translator, Flora Drew.

Ma came to the attention of the English-speaking world with his story collection ''Stick Out Your Tongue'', translated into English in 2006. The stories are set in Tibet. Their most remarked-upon feature is that traditional Tibetan culture is not idealised, but rather depicted as harsh and often inhuman; one reviewer noted that the "stories sketch multi-generational incest, routine sexual abuse and ritual rape". The book was banned in as a "vulgar and obscene book that defames the image of our Tibetan compatriots."

His ''Beijing Coma'' tells the story of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 from the point of view of the fictional Dai Wei, a participant in the events left in a coma by the violent end of the protests. The comatose narrator functions as a metaphor for the ability to remember and the inability to act.

Works

*''Stick Out Your Tongue'' with 2006 English translation. Banned in China.
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*''The Noodle Maker''
*''Beijing Coma''