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The best phrase to describe the writings of Shi Tiesheng perhaps sounds like an oxymoron: "unique and universal." Born in 1951 and wheelchair-bound since the age of twenty-one due to a paralysis that developed after he had been sent down to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, Shi sought answers regarding the universal human condition, meaning, and existence. Shi is widely respected for his character and is critically acclaimed in China, but he remains under-studied and under-translated outside of China.
The selections shared in this special section are from chapter two of Fragments Written at the Hiatus of Illness (Bing xi sui bi ШШШШ), which is comprised of 243 meditative essays that Shi composed between his thrice-weekly visits to the hospital for dialysis, and which was published as a six-chapter book in 2002. The book won Shi the 2002 Lao She Literary Award as well as the 2003 Sinophone Literature and Media Award sponsored by Southern Metropolis Daily. The essays...