Shan Sa

Shan Sa (2011)

Shan Sa ( Chinese  山 颯  /  山 飒 , Pinyin Shān Sà , born October 26, 1972 in Beijing , People's Republic of China ) is a French writer and painter of Chinese origin.

Life

Shan Sa was born on October 26, 1972 in Beijing under the real name Yan Ni . Her pseudonym Shan Sa stands for "The rustling of the wind in the mountains" and comes from a poem by a poet of the Tang Dynasty , Bai Juyi .

At the age of eight, Shan Sa published her first collections of poetry, albeit still in Chinese ( Les poèmes de Yan Ni (1983), La libellule rouge (1988) and Que le printemps revienne (1990)), and won first prize in the national Chinese poetry competition for children under 12 years of age. At the age of 15 she was accepted into the Chinese Writers' Union.

After graduating from school and shortly after the bloody suppression of the student protests on June 4, 1989 in Tian'anmen Square , in which she had participated, Shan Sa decided to follow her father to France to start a new life there. Thanks to a scholarship awarded by the French government , Shan Sa was able to emigrate to Paris in August 1990 . Although she did not speak a word of French when they arrived, they learned the language quickly and made 1992 the French High School . When her father, who had previously taught at the Sorbonne , was forced to return to China, Shan Sa was left alone in France.

After 1994 had finished her studies in philosophy, Shan Sa worked between 1994 and 1996 as a secretary of the painter Balthus . The latter and his wife Setsuko introduced Shan Sa to Japanese art and culture, which had a strong impact on both Shan Sa herself and her artistic work.

In 1997 Shan Sa published her first novel, Porte de la Paix Céleste (Sky Dancer) , written in French . Further works followed: Les quatre vies du saule (bitter tea) appeared in 1999, Le Vent vif et le glaive rapide in 2000 . 2001 was La Joueuse de Go ( The Go-player ) published - Shan Sas first novel that outside of France appeared. For this novel she won the Prix ​​Goncourt des lycéens . In 2001 Shan Sa's first art exhibition took place in Paris. In 2002 a work on art followed ( Le Miroir du Calligraphe ). The novel Impératrice (Empress) , published in 2003 , attracted attention mainly through a publisher dispute between Albin and Grasset . Les Conspirateurs was published in 2005 , followed by Alexandre et Alestria in 2006 .

Shan Sa's novels are now published in more than 30 languages ​​and her art is exhibited in New York , Paris , Tokyo and Shanghai .

Writing style and topics

Shan Sa creates a connection between China and the western world through her works : She writes her novels in French , but all of her works, with the exception of Les Conspirateurs , are set in China. In this way she hopes to bring her Western readers closer to Chinese culture, which is difficult to access. In doing so, however, she never deviates from her position "in-between"; their writing style is neither like that of a Chinese author nor that of a native French speaker . Her writing style is very poetic and shaped by the use of many metaphors . She also describes the respective historical context of her stories with great precision and does not shy away from criticizing Chinese society.

In all of her novels, Shan Sa deals with questions of existentialism . Other frequent topics are experiences of war (in the narrower sense or in the broader sense in the form of psychological war) and seemingly hopeless love relationships.

Shan Sa herself reports that it is now difficult for her to write texts in Chinese. That is why she concentrates on the French language.

painting

Her abstract paintings show members of tribes, exotic plants, riding scenes, wild animals and volcanic eruptions. Since Shan Sa's painting is influenced not only by traditional Chinese art, but also by the works of great European artists, she uses bright colors with the aim of representing "life" and "light" by merging eastern and western colors.

Shan Sa sees a connection between painting and literature, which expresses itself differently depending on the cultural background of the artist: Just as in the Chinese tradition painters only draw the contours, the poetry is also rather suggestive and leaves a lot of scope for the imagination. European artists, on the other hand, use many colors and draw entire portraits and landscapes, just as the characters' feelings and thoughts are directly described in poetry .

Works

• 1983: Les Poèmes de Yan Ni
• 1988: Libellule rouge
• 1989: running out
• 1990: Que le printemps revienne
• 1997: Porte de la paix céleste , Éditions du Rocher, 1999, ISBN 978-2268026558 ( sky dancer , German by Elsbeth Ranke. Piper, Munich, 2006, ISBN 978-3492271271 ).
• 1999: Les quatre vies du saule , Gallimard, 2001, ISBN 978-2070414611 ( Bitter tea , German by Elsbeth Ranke. Piper, Munich, 2005, ISBN 978-3492271059 ).
• 1999: Le vent vif et le glaive rapide , Éditions William Blake & Co., 2002.
• 2001: La Joueuse de Go , Grasset, 2001, ISBN 978-2246616115 ( The Go player , German by Elsbeth Ranke. Piper, Munich, 2002, ISBN 978-3492044424 ).
  • Stage version: Johannes Kaetzler & Gerhard Seidel, Free Workshop Theater Cologne 2004, Ernst-Deutsch-Theater Hamburg 2007.
• 2002: Le Miroir du Calligraphe , Editions Albin Michel, 2002, ISBN 978-2226135032 .
• 2003: Impératrice , Éditions Albin Michel, 2003, ISBN 978-2226141835 ( Kaiserin , German by Elsbeth Ranke, Piper, Munich, 2005, ISBN 978-3492046459 )
• 2005: Les Conspirateurs , Éditions Albin Michel, 2006, ISBN 978-2226167255 .
• 2006: Alexandre et Alestria , Editions Albin Michel, 2006, ISBN 978-2226173362 .
• 2010: La Cithare nue , Éditions Albin Michel, 2010, ISBN 978-2226208446 .

Awards

in France:

• 1998: Prix ​​Goncourt du Premier Roman , prix de la Vocation and Prix du Nouvel An chinois for Porte de la paix céleste (sky dancer)
• 1999: Prix Cazes-Brasserie Lipp for Les quatre vies du saule (bitter tea)
• 2001: Prix ​​Goncourt des lycéens for La Joueuse de Go (The Go Player)
• 2005: Readers award from "Livre de Poche" for Impératrice (Empress)

in the USA:

• 2004: Kiriyama Prize for La Joueuse de Go (The Go Player)

in China:

• 1984: Winner of the 'National Competition of Children's Poetry'
• 1988: Silver Sail (awarded by the Chinese Ministry of Education)
• 1989: Title of "Promising Star of Beijing"
• 2004: Chinese Writers Association Award for La Joueuse de Go (The Go Player)

Web links

• Shan Sa's website
• Literature by and about Shan Sa in the catalog of the German National Library
• Detailed biography of the author (in French)

swell

• Biographical information about Shan Sa on the HarperCollins website
• Medard Ritzenhofen, Chinas Charme, France's Kowtow - A Tour d'Horizon from Paris to Beijing , in: Documents - Journal for Franco-German Dialogue, Issue 2/2004, GÜZ eV - On the influence of Franco-German history on art and Literature.
• Interview by PEN with Shan Sa: Crossover Artists: Writing in Another Language
• Article by Sophie Croiset on the trans-identity of Sino-French authors. (2009) , ISSN  1778-3887
• Anne-Marie Koenig, La soie et l'épée , in: Magazine Littéraire, issue 414, 2002.
• Alexandra Lemasson, La Joueuse de Go , in: Magazine Littéraire, issue 403, 2001.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Anne-Marie Koenig, 'La soie et l'épée. Le miroir du calligraphe. In: Magazine Littéraire, No. 414, 2002, Paris.
2. ↑ cf. Report in L'Express, September 11, 2003
3. ↑ cf. Article by Sophie Croiset on the trans-identity of Sino-French authors  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Interview with Shan Sa on Orient-Extreme
5. ↑ cf. Information on the HarperCollins homepage
6. ↑ cf. Interview by PEN with Shan Sa  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.