Name Su Tong Role Writer | Awards Asian Literary Prize | |
 | ||
Movies Raise the Red Lantern, Jasmine Women, Fly With The Crane Nominations Man Booker International Prize Books The Boat to Redemption, Rice, Wives and Concubines, My Life as an Emperor, Raise the Red Lantern Similar People Zhang Yimou, Joan Chen, Gong Li, Zhao Fei, Chiu Fu‑sheng | ||
Education Beijing Normal University | ||
Writer-in-Residence Public Seminars by Su Tong
Su Tong (simplified Chinese: 苏童; traditional Chinese: 蘇童; pinyin: Sū Tóng; born January 23, 1963) is the pen name of Chinese writer Tong Zhonggui (童忠贵; Tóng Zhōngguì). He was born in Suzhou and lives in Nanjing.
Contents
He entered the Department of Chinese at Beijing Normal University in 1980, and started to publish novels in 1983. He is now vice president of the Jiangsu Writers Association. Known for his controversial writing style, Su is one of the most acclaimed novelists in China.
Work
Su has written seven full-length novels and over 200 short stories, some of which have been translated into English, German, Italian and French.
He is best known in the West for his book Wives and Concubines, published in 1990. The book was adapted into the film, Raise the Red Lantern by director Zhang Yimou. The book has since been published under the name given to the film. His other works available in English translation are Rice, My Life as Emperor, Binu and the Great Wall (tr. Howard Goldblatt), Madwoman on the Bridge and Other Stories, Tattoo: Three Novellas and The Boat to Redemption, also translated by Goldblatt.
His novel Hongfen, about two Shanghai prostitutes at the time of Liberation in 1949, has been adapted to two films: Li Shaohong's Blush (Hongfen, 1994) and Huang Shuqin's Rouged Beauties (Hongfen Jiaren, 1995).
In 2009, he was awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize for his work The Boat to Redemption, the second Chinese writer to win the prize.
In 2011, Su Tong was nominated to win the Man Booker International Prize. In 2015, he was a co-winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize for Yellowbird Story.
He has been influenced by writers such as William Faulkner, J.D Salinger, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.