Strange Beasts of China

The novel is written in the style of magical realism, similar to the writing of Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics.[1] The setting is based on a recognizable, contemporary urban environment in China, augmented and enhanced by the presence of the various beasts described by the narrator.

The Washington Post's review of the novel described it as a modern, urbanized form of the Chinese classic The Classic of Mountains and Seas.[2] In China, Strange Beasts of China was adapted into a TV series.[3] The author commented in an interview she was aware that Chinese censorship laws would change some elements of her story in the series, and had come to terms with it as she had written and published the book more than a decade before the TV series began.[3]

The novel features an unnamed narrator in the city of Yong'an, a large industrial city. One feature that sets Yong'an apart from other large cities in China is the presence of different sorts of beasts.[2] The unnamed narrator is a self-identified cryptozoologist. She was a zoology student who eventually dropped out of school and now makes a living as a journalist writing beast stories.[4] The story is told chronologically, with each chapter focusing on a different species of beast.[2] When she is not tracking down stories of beasts, the narrator is chain-smoking and drinking, alone or with company, at the Dolphin bar.[2]

Throughout the novel, the narrator meets and, inevitably, becomes emotionally involved with each type of beast.[5] Along with the narrator, other significant characters are her cousin, cousin's daughter (her "niece") Lucia, past professor, and professor's assistant Zhong Liang. As the story progresses, there is a tense love-hate relationship fostered between the narrator and her professor. She grows closer to Zhong Liang, the professor's new assistant.[5] As the plot line progresses and new types of beasts are introduced, layers of connection and involvement between the narrator's friends and certain beasts are unveiled and explored.[5] The exposure of how beasts can be involved in so many aspects of the narrator's life starts to break down the artificial separation between humans and beasts as the narrator questions her identity and the identity of the human race itself.[5]

The novel can be interpreted as a social commentary on society's mistreatment and control over minority groups. The beasts are treated as an other-group due to their differences and are forced to fit into a human-dominated society.[2] Beasts that do not serve a function are killed, while those that do are exploited, i.e. for their flesh, sexual use, and labor.[9] The book questions human nature and whether humanity is what makes people moral along with questioning morality in general.[10]

The novel also draws from themes found within Buddhism, including allusions to the six realms in Buddhism, specifically the realm that contains animals. This is the only realm visible by humans - the unnamed narrator would be witnessing a domain of samsara when writing her accounts of the beasts.[11]

This book was originally published in 2006 in Chinese, and was translated into English in 2021 by Jeremy Tiang.[2] Although the English translation of the book was well received, there are criticisms with how the book is translated, such as the lack of footnotes to explain culture specific references.[12][13] Notable examples include the character, Zhong Kui, the name of a famous demon killer in Chinese mythology. Another pun in the Chinese language version are two characters named "Cloud" and "Rain" - the phrase "clouds and rain" is a euphemism for sex in Chinese, a detail that is not clearly conveyed in translation.[11]

Additionally, each chapter begins with a brief description of the beast which, in the original writing, was written in Classical Chinese, while the rest of the book was written in standard Chinese. However, the English translation made no distinction between the language at the beginning of each chapter and the remainder of the text. Additionally, the original version had a strong Sichuanese dialect which gave it a distinct style compared to standard Mandarin; however, this distinction in dialectal difference was not conveyed by Tiang in the English translation.[11]

Strange Beasts of China has been well received by critics, appearing on both The New York Times Book Review's list of 100 Notable Books of 2021[13] and The Washington Post's list of Best science fiction, fantasy and horror of 2021.[12] It was also a runner-up for the 2021 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.[14]