Dave Haysom
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spittingdog.net
Dave Haysom
@spittingdog.net
Translator of 李洱 Li Er’s *Cherries on a Pomegranate Tree* and 文珍 Wen Zhen’s *Nothing but the Now* (2023). Managing editor of *Pathlight* (2014-2018). Occasional critic and regular teacher of literature. Based in Beijing since 2007.
big news!
could not be more excited to be translating《小花旦》by Wang Zhanhei 王占黑.

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
August 27, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Dave Haysom
I've written on the curious arrival of the Monkey King within its Southern gothic landscape in SINNERS, Ryan Coogler’s audacious and genre-defying box office success, in the latest issue or @worldlittoday.bsky.social, devoted to the art of review.

worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
。。。。。
August 27, 2025 at 4:55 AM
hey, I see you’re reading a book there huh? some interesting words there, in your book? I once read a book too, actually, would you like me to tell you about it?
August 8, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Dave Haysom
After a plagiarism scandal upended China’s literati, a spate of bestselling books published by amateur writers has changed what Chinese readers consider as literature.

Read Na Zhong's latest What China's Reading column: chinabooksreview.com/2025/07/29/w...
July 29, 2025 at 12:05 PM
summer holiday book haul 2025
July 29, 2025 at 6:20 AM
yes the sights were lovely but what I shall remember of Paris always is the infinite variety of instrumental Hotline Bling covers. accordion Hotline Bling, jazz piano Hotline Bling, steel drum Hotline Bling. the Eiffel Tower lurks around every street corner and so too does panpipe Hotline Bling.
July 18, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Beijing audience reaction to Mission Impossible – Final Reckoning: at least three boyfriends continually whispering a plot explanation to girlfriends; sporadic swearing and fist shaking when Beijing threatened with nuke attack; general warmth and enthusiasm for Tapeesa the dog sledding lady.
June 9, 2025 at 4:45 AM
there were only 8 other people in my Beijing IMAX holiday weekend screening of Thunderbolts, but by the end of the film there were 8 enthusiastic fans of Red Guardian.
May 4, 2025 at 11:16 AM
so far season 2 of Andor is nicely validating my decision to teach it to my English students alongside Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (a novel about a government deliberately instigating an act of terrorism to justify the suppression of revolutionaries).
May 4, 2025 at 9:11 AM
the deepseek seal of approval
April 27, 2025 at 6:47 AM
that sweet sweet Shijiazhuang marathon swag
March 29, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Dave Haysom
my translation of The Hedgehog by Zheng Zhi 郑执 is in The Paris Review

www.theparisreview.org/fiction/8386...
The Hedgehog by Zheng Zhi, translated by Jeremy Tiang
I found out only later that when my ma called Ensign Wang a lunatic, she’d meant it literally—he really was a mental patient.
www.theparisreview.org
March 19, 2025 at 12:08 AM
March 8, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Reposted by Dave Haysom
The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing - welcome to Bluesky!
@writingchinese.bsky.social -
The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing (@writingchinese.bsky.social)
A centre for contemporary Chinese writing at the University of Leeds. For authors, translators, publishers, everyone. https://writingchinese.leeds.ac.uk/
writingchinese.bsky.social
February 7, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Dave Haysom
[𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗘𝗫𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘—𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗔𝗬] Winifred Dongyi Wang writes on Lin Zhao and her 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑘 & 𝑇𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑙 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑡: "Lin Zhao is an enigma. There are few adjectives in the English language that can adequately encapsulate this emerging supernova of contemporary Sinophone literature." chajournal.blog/2025/01/29/l...
[EXCLUSIVE] “Rewriting the Southeast Chinese Frontier with Tenderness: Lin Zhao’s 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑘 and 𝑇𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑙 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑡” by Winifred Dongyi Wang
📁RETURN TO FIRST IMPRESSIONS📁RETURN TO CHA REVIEW OF BOOKS AND FILMS ▚ Lin Zhao, Flowing Creek 流溪 (originally published in Mandarin Chinese), Shanghai Sanlian Publishing Company, 2020, 19…
chajournal.blog
January 29, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Universal executives: sorry Chris, there just isn’t room in Oppenheimer for any more scenes of the wife waiting around for her husband to come home.
Christopher Nolan: *shakes fist, clutching Penguin Classics edition of the Odyssey* just… you… wait…
January 25, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Dave Haysom
My thoughts on 5 2024 China books with a lot to offer (well 4 books & a special issue of Granta), fivebooks.com/best-books/t...
The Best China Books of 2024
From an issue of a literary magazine that brings together contemporary writing from across mainland China to books focusing on different periods of its 20th-century history, it's been another good yea...
fivebooks.com
December 23, 2024 at 4:51 AM
Sunday afternoon in 798, Beijing.
December 8, 2024 at 9:41 AM
mad as a
December 8, 2024 at 4:39 AM
Shanghai Marathon 2024 – ALL-IMPORTANT RATINGS!
December 2, 2024 at 8:14 AM
yeah okay ORBITAL’s pretty good but it’s not like 24 HOURS IN SPACE good
November 22, 2024 at 10:39 AM
the books I am teaching this semester:
November 19, 2024 at 8:47 AM
OUT NOW: The Granta China Issue – what a great line up!

My favourite thing about this 王占黑 Wang Zhanhei story is the absences: all these sneakily significant gaps and elisions that you barely notice on a first read.

Available for purchase now: granta.com/products/gra...
Granta 169: China | Granta
At a time when China has become a unifying spectre of menace for Western governments,...
granta.com
November 19, 2024 at 3:13 AM
COMING SOON: Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons
These vibrant poems by 杜绿绿 Du Lulu make me picture silhouettes dissolving into the texture behind them, of figures absorbing and processing and projecting themselves onto their surroundings. Available for pre-order: honfordstar.com/products/ten...
Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons: New Chinese Writing (Pre-order
Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons gathers sixteen phenomenal writers of the Chinese language in their English debut: eight fiction writers, six poets, and two essayists. Amongst these dazzling te...
honfordstar.com
November 19, 2024 at 3:12 AM