Can Xue’s “Vertical Motion” (2011) — Short Story Discussion

"The traditional expectation of narrative history in China has been to find a central meaning that could effectively master chaos. Can Xue's stories are like a piece of dynamite at the foundation of this elaborate edifice..."

Can Xue (殘雪) is the pen name of contemporary Chinese writer Deng Xiaohua (鄧小華), internationally acclaimed for her unconventional, surreal, philosophical stories. Born in 1953 in Changsha, she grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China which profoundly influenced her outlook. Her parents, like many intellectuals of the time, were persecuted and forced into manual labour in the countryside. Can Xue has said her entire family was on "the verge of death" and she was deprived of a formal education. Can Xue is the author of more than a dozen novels, over a hundred novellas and short stories, many works of literary criticism, and a libretto. In recent years she has been regarded by many as the world's top contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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This is a series of occasional meetups to discuss short stories by various authors. We started in the fall of 2023 and currently meet on Sunday evenings.

This time we will discuss "Vertical Motion" by Can Xue, a story about a community of underground creatures who live deep below the surface and ponder what lies above them. It's the first story in Can Xue's 2011 short story collection of the same title. Note that Can Xue's stories are often considered "experimental".

Please read the story in advance (17 pages) and bring your thoughts, queries, and favourite passages to share with us at the discussion. A pdf of an English translation is available here.

More about Can Xue:

• Global Studies and Languages at MIT (collection of resources but seems quite out of date)
• "The Chinese author who returned to writing at 30"
• Asymptote interview with Can Xue