MA JIAN
Curriculum Vitae

1953 Born in Qingdao, a former German concession port on northern coast of China.
1970 Education disrupted by Cultural Revolution. Leaves school and works as watchmender’s apprentice.
1972 Assigned job as painter of propaganda boards for local electronics factory.
1976 Moves to Yanshan. Works as fitter, then publicity photographer, for Yanshan Petrochemical Plant.
1978 Stages first clandestine exhibition of paintings in Beijing.
1979 Transferred to Beijing to work as photojournalist for propaganda magazine, Workers of China.
1981 Joins ‘No-Name’ art group. Poems published in underground literary journals.
1983 Paintings and lifestyle attacked by work unit during national campaign against ‘Spiritual Pollution’.
1984 Resigns from government job and embarks on three-year journey across China.
1985 Short stories, inspired by travel experiences, subjected to intense government criticism, leading to a general clampdown on modernist literature.
1986 Moves to Hong Kong and started writing first novel.
1989 Edits Hong Kong political and cultural magazine, Da Qushi.
Returns to Beijing to document democracy movement.
1992 Sets up New Century publishing company, specialising in Chinese fiction.
1995 Edits Hong Kong art magazine, Wenyi Bao.
1996 Invited to USA for international literary conference at Brown University.
1997 Moves to Germany to teach Chinese literature at Ruhr University.
1999 Moves to London. Starts work on Red Dust.
2001 Invited to Taiwan to take up three-month post as ‘writer in residence’ in Taibei.
2002 Red Dust wins Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2002.
2003 Invited to Australia to take part in the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
2004 Continues work on fifth novel.

Ma Jian’s works

In translation:
The Noodle Maker UK: Chatto & Windus, 2004.
Red Dust UK: Chatto & Windus, 2001.
USA: Pantheon, 2001.
Also published in Netherlands, France, Japan, Norway, Italy, Spain, South Korea, Israel.
A Dog’s Life France (Actes Sud)1991.
Stick Out Your Tongue Catalonia, 2002; Italy 1991; France, 1988.

In Chinese:
Hong Chen [Red Dust] Taiwan; Hong Kong; China, 2003.
Sihuo [Bardo] Hong Kong, 1989.
Lamianzhe [The Noodle Maker] Hong Kong, Taiwan, 1994; China, 2003.
Jiutiao Chalu [The Nine Crossroads] Hong Kong, 1993; Taiwan, 1995.
Ni La Goushi [A Dog’s Life] Hong Kong, 1987; Taiwan, 1988.
Yuanbei [The Lament] Hong Kong, 1996.
Rensheng Banlu [Companions] Hong Kong, 1996.
Yige xidu nuren de zishu
[Confessions of a Female Drug Addict] Hong Kong, 1996.
Fasheng Guanxi [Intercourse] Hong Kong, 1997.

Last Updated: June 6, 2004