/lit/ - Literature

>>20330711
The New Year Train - Hao Jingfang (2017/2017)
An unregulated and illegal train that traveled through the space-time continuum disappears. The story was a set-up for the punchline, which I wasn't amused by at all.
Blah

The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales - Fei Dao (2014/2017)
This sort of surreal and absurd allegorical odyssey was not what what I wanted to read at all. I have no doubt that it would be exceedingly enjoyable to right person, but that wasn't me at all.
Blah

The Snow of Jinyang - Zhang Ran (2014/2016)
This was a chuanyue story, which meant historical time travel. A guy from the future goes to 979 CE and planned to prevent the fall of Jinyang, a city, to be able to return to his own time. While there he quickly tried to establish modern technology and had surprising amount of success. It was told from the perspective of a local who really enjoyed these modern perks, especially their version of the Internet. There was a lot about this that I ought to have really liked, but the characters, especially the future guy are terrible, obnoxious, and entirely dislikeable. I surely missed several references aside from a few about Western and Japanese pop culture.
Ok

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Laba Porridge - Anna Wu (2014/2015)
A story about the sacrifices a writer made of their self and those that they knew in pursuit of literary and commercial greatness.
Meh

The First Emperor’s Games - Ma Boyong (2010/2017)
This story mixed videogame culture with ancient Chinese history. If you don't know all the many games and their relevance, the references won't mean anything. I knew everything related to the games, but didn't find the memes or references that amusing. They were mostly name-dropping and talking about game mechanics. I looked up the Chinese history. It just wasn't my sort of humor, or maybe it was because it's a translation.
Ok

Reflection - Gu Shi (2014/2017)
A man met clairvoyant who can only remember the future, then silliness happened.
Ok

The Brain Box - Regina Kanyu Wang (-/2017)
A husband underwent memory imprinting from a brain box of his deceased wife that had the last five minutes of her brain function saved within. He learned what she really thought of him.
Meh

Coming of the Light - Chen Qiufan (2015/2015)
Some guy had an existential crisis which led to the meaning of life and his existence. That didn't end well for anyone.
Meh

A History of Future Illnesses - Chen Qiufan (2012/2016)
The author began with heavyhanded slaps and hamfisted punches to the head to beat some sense into the reader. Then, all pretense was dropped and a stake was driven into the heart of the matter to exorcise the foolishness of their beliefs. Lastly the enlightened being left, assured that he did all that he could to save those he implored. It's been a long time since I groaned so much while reading. What a waste of imagination.
Blah

There were also essays. They were nice.