Geling Yan (; born 16 November 1958
Early life
Yan was born in
Shanghai, China in 1958. She is the second child of Yan Dunxun and Jia Lin. She has an elder brother Yan Geping (严歌平).
[ 严歌苓： 翻手苍凉 覆手繁华 Retrieved 2017-01-14] Her father is an alumnus of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University.
[ "家"系列之严歌苓 Retrieved 2017-01-14]
Yan began performing as a dancer at age 12. She served in the People's Liberation Army in Chengdu, during the Cultural Revolution in Tibet and later as a journalist in the Sino-Vietnamese War, achieving a rank equivalent to lieutenant colonel.
Yan holds a bachelor's degree in literature from Wuhan University, and a Master's in Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago.
Career
Works
Her first novel was published in 1985. She is the author of such novels as
The Banquet Bug (published as
The Uninvited in the UK) and
The Lost Daughter of Happiness, as well as a story collection entitled
White Snake and Other Stories. Several of Yan's works have been adapted for film, including
, which was directed by
Joan Chen, and
Siao Yu, directed by
Sylvia Chang and screenplay co-written by
Ang Lee.
Zhang Yimou, the Chinese director of
To Live and
Raise the Red Lantern adapted her novella
13 Flowers of Nanjing to the screen as
The Flowers of War, and his movie
Coming Home was based on Yan's novel
The Criminal Lu Yanshi.
She has worked on other scripts including a biography of
Mei Lanfang, the Peking opera star, for Chinese director
Chen Kaige.
Novels in English
-
The Banquet Bug (written in English, published as The Uninvited in the UK 简体版《赴宴者》)
-
The Lost Daughter of Happiness (tr. Cathy Silber, Chinese title Fusang 《扶桑》)
-
The Flowers of War (tr. Nicky Harman, Chinese title Jinling shisan chai 《金陵十三钗》)
-
Little Aunt Crane (tr. Esther Tyldesley, Chinese title Xiaoyi Duohe 《小姨多鶴》)
-
The Criminal Lu Yanshi (adapted into a movie, titled Coming Home)《陆犯焉识》
-
The Secret Talker
Novels in Chinese （Chronological order of publication）
-
绿血
-
一个女兵的悄悄话 ( Yi ge nü bing di qiao qiao hua)
-
雌性的草地
-
草鞋权贵 (In 2009, the name was changed to Shuangjiang《霜降》)
-
扶桑 ( The Lost Daughter of Happiness )
-
人寰 (In 2009, the name was changed to Xinli Yisheng Zaima 《心理医生在吗》）
-
无出路咖啡馆
-
花儿与少年
-
第九个寡妇（The Ninth Widow）
-
一个女人的史诗
-
小姨多鹤（Auntie Duohe）
-
寄居者
-
铁梨花
-
陆犯焉识
-
金陵十三钗（The Flowers of War）
-
补玉山居
-
妈阁是座城（A City Called Macau）
-
老师好美
-
床畔
-
舞男
-
芳华（Youth）– English title: You Touched Me –
-
666号
-
小站
-
蜃楼
Short stories in English
-
The Landlady (tr. Lawrence A. Walker)
-
Disappointing Returns (tr. David Haysom)
-
White Snake and Other Stories (tr. Lawrence A. Walker)
Title
She is a member of the Hollywood Writers Guild of America, the Writer's Association of China, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Censorship in China
In February 2022, Yan was blacklisted in China after appearing on a YouTube show hosted by Zhou Xiaozheng, a former associate professor of sociology at Renmin University. During the show, Yan criticized the Chinese government’s handling of the Xuzhou chained woman incident and echoed remarks by Zhou, who described Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a "human trafficker" who imposed large mandatory "donations" on foreign families adopting Chinese orphans.
deleted Yan's entry and the searches for her name on
Sina Weibo became unavailable.
’s film
One Second, adapted from Yan's novel, was released with her name removed from the credits.
Personal life
Yan's ex-husband is Li Kewei; they divorced in the 1990s. In 1992, Yan married her second husband Lawrence Walker in San Bruno, California. Walker is a diplomat. They have no biological children together, but have adopted a Chinese girl, Yanyan.
[ 严歌苓：做一个在美国畅销的中国作家 Retrieved 2017-01-14]
External links
