Historical material and historical awareness are important to both Ha Jin's (哈金) and Zhang Ling's (張翎) novels. The latter entered the public eye when her novella “Aftershock” (餘震) — which connects the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake (唐山大地震) and the 2008 Sichuan

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Award-winning author Ha Jin will deliver the Steloff Lecture at Skidmore College at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9. Titled “Personal Story, Historical Event,” the talk will be preceded by the awarding of an honorary Doctor of Letters degree t

Reading recommendations from a writer of infinite curiosity. Journalist and author Richard Rhodes has written on subjects that range from the life of painter and naturalist John James Audobon to the threat of mad cow disease. His majestic history of the

Ha Jin's novel Nanjing Requiem begins with the words of a Chinese servant boy, Ban, forced to witness an orgy of pillage and murder as the victorious Japanese army rampage through China's fallen former capital. Ban's shell-shocked voice serves as a memor

Over the past few years, however, there has been an outpouring of dramatizations of Nanjing in literature and film, as a new generation of Chinese auteurs attempt to grapple with the tragedy, and juggle the demands of their audience, their censors, and t

In the winter of 1937, the Japanese army stormed Nanjing, then China’s capital, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people in what is now known as the Nanjing Massacre. The incident remains the most emotionally wrenching chapter in the history of Sino-