Happy Dreams

Born in 1952 in Dihua Village, Danfeng County, Shaanxi Province, Jia Pingwa went on to graduate from Northwestern University’s Chinese department in 1975. He is deputy chair of the China Writers’ Association Presidium and chair of Writers’ Association Shaanxi branch. Among his best-known works are the novels Shaanxi Opera (QinQiang), Ruined City, Turbulence, Old Kiln Village, The Lantern Bearer, Master of Songs, The Pole Flower, White Nights, Earth Gate, Gao Lao Village, and In Memory of Wolves. He is also the author of several short story collections and novellas. Passionate about spreading Chinese literature to English readers, Nicky Harman has translated the works of many renowned Chinese authors into English. They include Anni Baobei’s The Road of Others, Chan Koon-Chung’s The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver, Chen Xiwo’s Book of Sins, Han Dong’s A Phone Call from Dalian: Collected Poems, Jia Pingwa’s Happy Dreams, Dorothy Tse’s Snow and Shadow, Xinran’s Letter from an Unknown Chinese Mother, Xu Xiaobin’s Crystal Wedding, Xu Zhiyuan’s Paper Tiger, and Yan Ge’s The Chili Bean Paste Clan. Harman has won several awards, including the Mao Tai Cup People’s Literature Chinese-English translation prize 2015 and the 2013 China International Translation Contest, Chinese-to-English section. When not translating, she promotes contemporary Chinese fiction to the general English-language reader through literary events, blogs, talks, a short story project on Paper-Republic.org, and with the Writing Chinese project 2014–2016 at Leeds University. She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools, and judges translation competitions. Harman resides in the United Kingdom and tweets as the China Fiction Bookclub @cfbcuk.