Some Representative texts and authors from Asia

For 21st Century Literature Subject

1. Representative Texts and Authors from Asia 2 nd Quarter – Lesson 1

2. Award winning 21 st Century Asian Literature Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer by Cyrus Misty Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng Goat Days by Benyamin 1Q84 by Haruki Murukami Please Look After Mother by Shin Kyung-sook The Boat to Redemption by Su Tong Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong

3. Illustrado 2008 experimental novel It’s about a protagonist named after the author, investigating the suspicious death of his mentor, Crispin Salvador, who exposed a political corruption in the Philippines.

4. Miguel Syjuco (Philippines) a Filipino writer from Manila and the grand prize winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his first novel “ Illustrado ”. Through a lens of half autobiography and half-cultural criticism, Miguel Syjuco’s award-winning novel makes a genuine attempt to appreciate the diversity and eccentricities of modern Manila and the fabric of the contemporary Philippines.

5. Please Look After Mother Novel of 2009 in South Korea Sold a million copies within 10 months of release in 2009 The novel explores on several large motifs like country living vs. city living; illiteracy vs. education; arranged marriage vs. modern dating; traditions vs. new freedoms.

6. Shin Kyung-sook (South Korea) became the first Korean writer to win the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012 for her novel Please Look After Mother. In Korea, Shin is amongst the most highly regarded contemporary writers, and she has won major literary prizes including the Manhae Literature Prize, the Dong-In Literary Award and the Yi Sang 8 Literary Prize.

7. The White Tiger Debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga First published in 2008 and won the 40 th Man Booker Prize It examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India

8. Aravind Adiga (India) An Indian writer and journalist. He began his journalism career as an intern at the Financial Times. His debut novel won the “Booker Prize”, which made him the fourth Indian-born author to win the prize after Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, and Kiran Desai.

9. Yosuke Tanaka (Japan) born in Tokyo in 1969 and made his debut as a poet in the prestigious literary magazine Eureka at the age of 19. So far, he has published two poetry books, A Day When the Mountains are Visible in 1999, and Sweet Ultramarine Dreams in 2008. Though he is certainly not prolific, the poems he has written over the past twenty years are rich in stylistic diversity and unique in his sense of humor, sensitivity to nature and awareness of the legacy of the Japanese literary tradition. Tanaka has emerged as the new poetic sensitivity in Japan and is sure to remain one of the most important figures in 21st – century Japanese poetry.

10. A Day When the Mountains are Visible Being nice to people—what was that again? People who aren’t used to being nice just act worn out. People who aren’t used to being treated kindly just keep on living their cold lives. In any case, it doesn’t do any good to complain about that. The fact that the sky is clear doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to see the mountains out there in Okutama , but it’s impossible to see them if it isn’t. When was it I realized you can see the Okutama Mountains on the horizon from the hills of Suginami?

11. A Day When the Mountains are Visible Thinking the small outlines of those lovely mountains are probably visible right now, I lean out the window and find I can see the khaki-colored mountains clearly. They’re even bigger than I had remembered. On days when your heart is clear, it’s fun to be nice to people. When you can’t be nice, you probably won’t have much fun either. Most likely, you’ll spend the day alone, gloomy and cheerless. Just look at all that frustration offered under the guise of high literature. Still, there must be something on the other side of that mountain.

12. A Day When the Mountains are Visible It’s hard to always be gentle, and that’s why, for instance, the temples in those mountains have been so important for so long. That’s why. It’s hard to be nice to people you work with. Selflessness isn’t a virtue to them, and if you run off to paradise, you’d be distancing yourself from your work. Even so, one can’t indulge the serpent of the ego when it slithers out from the boundaries of charisma. There’s something wrong with it—that serpent of the ego, which lives by consuming distorted, dark energy . . .

13. A Day When the Mountains are Visible I needed the proper grandness of nature so as not to get tangled up in the twisted, unreasonable serpent. I needed the quiet, gentle power of nature so that I not bow my head as the cruel, double-headed serpent stuck its head from under the invisible table and flicked its tongue. How wonderful it must be to live without feeling animosity toward people. The bus is driving down the tree-lined street toward me, while the mountains are visible in the distance.

14. Activity 1: On a crosswise paper, write a 2 paragraphs in-depth comment about the line: “How wonderful it must be to live without feeling animosity toward people. The bus is driving down the tree-lined street toward me, while the mountains are visible in the distance.” Rubrics: Content – 10 points Grammar and Language – 5 points Organization – 5 points TOTAL : 20 points