Analysis of vintage taste in sinophone cinema. The author synthesizes the major works that have studied this movement, more complex than just mere nostalgia, and seeks to identify what Taiwanese, Hong Kong or Chinese people try to express based on detailed analyzes of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Edward Yang or Tsai Ming-Liang's movies.

Taking an eco-critical approach, Gwennaël Gaffric discusses the literary treatment of ecological issues in Taiwan. He focuses his study on the works of Wu Ming-yi, a major figure in Taiwanese literary, artistic and militant scenes, but he seeks to expand his presentation by putting in perspective and dialogue texts from other contemporary Taiwanese authors, as well as that reflections proposed by thinkers from several disciplines and all geographical horizons, Asia, Europe and elsewhere. He achieves an impressive synthesis, where ecology becomes an ontology of the relationship between humans and non-humans and an epistemological path to think the Anthropocene. Preface by Stéphane Corcuff. —- Gwennaël Gaffric (born in 1987) is a lecturer in Chinese language and literature at Jean-Moulin Lyon 3 University. He is the author of several articles in French, English and Chinese on Chinese-language literature (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). A literary translator, he directs the "Taiwan Fiction" collection at l'Asiathèque. Among his translations published at l'Asiathèque : the City of Pains (Wu Nien-jen and Chu Tien-wen), Membrane (Chi Ta-wei) and the Magician on the bridge (Wu Ming-yi). His recent research focuses on contemporary sinophic science fiction. As such, he is also the translator of the trilogy of Liu Cixin (Actes Sud edition) initiated with the Problem with three bodies, and the War of the bubbles, Kao Yi-feng, Mirobole editions. Wu Ming-yi (born in 1971) is a professor of literature at Dong Hwa National University. Known for his environmental commitment, he is a major author of the contemporary Taiwanese literary scene. Sometimes compared to Haruki Murakami and David Mitchell, he has become a singular voice in world literature. Several of his literary works have been published in French: the Sleeping Navigation Lines (You Feng, 2013), the Man with the Faceted Eyes (Stock, 2014, 2014 Fiction Prize at the Ouessant International Book of Island Books), the Magician on the bridge (L'Asiathèque, 2017) and a short story from the Taipei anthology, Histoires at the corner of the street (L'Asiathèque, 2017).

"The Bride of Amman" (taken from the original Arabic title: Arous Amman), by Fadi Zaghmout, is the translation of a bestseller in Jordan, subject of heated controversy without having been censored. The original Arabic edition, published in 2012 by Jabal Amman Publishing in Amman, Jordan, continues to rank among the bestsellers. An English edition was subsequently published in 2012 by Signal 8 Press (Hong Kong).
In this book humor and sadness are mixed in an explosive cocktail which leads the reader into a reflection on the condition of women and homosexuals in the Arab world. Four young women and a young man speak out one after the other, their voices alternating to tell of the tragedies they have gone through. The different episodes of their lives are recounted in a direct and vivid way, with numerous dialogues, the trials to which young people are subjected in a traditional society where sclerotic rules of good behavior and the fear of what people will say are governing romantic relationships. For women, it's marriage, as fast as possible, a successful engagement counting far more than success in exams. It is also submission to paternal power, with the risks of abuse of any kind that this entails. And that is, of course, the value of virginity, jealously guarded because it is one of the conditions of the social order as it is conceived and observed in a family that wants to maintain its rank. For men, it is the obligation to behave in a manly manner, with all that this represents of hypocrisy regarding those whose sexual orientation takes them away from the socially required way of life. The result of all this: a lot of suffering, exile sometimes when family imperatives have been seriously violated, and even death when the situation seems hopeless.

Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature 2020.

The novel Funérailles molles tackles the sensitive and disturbing subject of the Agrarian Reform. Having preceded the Cultural Revolution by ten years, it is one of the most deadly episodes in recent history of the country, little covered in Chinese literature because of the taboos attached to it. Inspired by a true story, the story starts with hintsveiled from the painful events that a young woman experienced and which she kept hidden throughout her life because the memory was unbearable. Having become old, she suddenly sees the past resurface violently and, the shock having caused in her a state of apparent prostration, internally relives, step by step, the tragedies that have disappeared from her memory while her son struggles to reconstitute them - until the moment he gives it up, forgetting seeming preferable to him.This novel appears both as an exceptional document and as a major literary work. As interesting in substance as in form, it goes beyond the framework of the Chinese Agrarian Reform to deliver a universal and still current reflection on the temptation to forget and the duty to remember in a context where historical truth is elusive.

Since its first publication in Korea in 1991, Je veux aller dans cette île (The Island) has attracted widespread public attention, thanks to its unique style. Through a series of dramatic, authentic, and frankly comic episodes, Lim Chul-woo brings the reader with him in his home island. Remembrance, tenderness, traditions: these are a few of the subjects that The Island approaches, along with the beauty of human relations in the rural communities, isolated from the modern world. Lim Chul-woo, born in 1954, is the author of powerful works that have earned prestigious literary awards and international recognition. Je veux aller dans cette île (The Island), directly inspired from the world of his childhood, was the subject of a film (Kŭ sŏm'e kago sipta / To the Starry Island) which he has co-written with Lee Chang-dong (who also wrote the postface of Je veux aller dans cette île) and which was directed by Park Kwang-su. Je veux aller dans cette île : French version published by L'Asiathèque on September 4th 2013. You can now read an extract from Je veux aller dans cette île here or a review (in French) by the Corée Magazine here. The Island : English version available in English bookstores.

On the bridge between the "Ai" (Love) building and the "Hsin" (Trust) building of the Chunghua Grand Market in Taipei, a magician exercises his art. Around him, a whole world is activated in small trades. The narrator, who is about ten years old at the time, holds a soles stand in front of the illusionist. Like his comrades, he is fascinated by his tricks, some of which go beyond the skillful mystification of the conjurer and seem to lead to mysterious parallel worlds. Having become an adult and still haunted by this troubling character, he questions those of his generation who may have had contact with him earlier. The evocation of the memory of the magician gives rise to a mosaic of stories, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, where the market becomes the kingdom of adventure and fantasy and where the dreams and the existential anxieties of young Taiwanese of the capital .

Referring to Tibetan and Chinese literatures, relations from travelers and works of many researchers, Rolf Alfred Stein (1911-1999) presents here the abundant richness of Tibetan culture in its various aspects: habitat and population, history, social organization, religion and custom, arts and letters. His purpose is to provide, through a range of topics, documents and facts, a general and significant view that enables the reader to understand a world where sacred and profane mingle in every gesture, every sound, every trip. The book, first published in 1962, then revised by the author in 1987, is a reference book particularly valuable at a time when Tibetans see their traditional lifestyle and their specific cultural aspects severely threatened. Rolf A. Stein, professor at the College de France, Chair of Chinese Studies, institutions and concepts, from 1966 to 1981, is the author of numerous books, including Épopée tibétaine de Gesar dans sa version lamaïque de Ling (1956) and Le Monde en petit, jardins en miniatures et habitations dans la pensée religieuse d’Extrême-Orient (1987). In tribute to Rolf A. Stein at the time of the centenary of his birth - June 13, 1911 - this new edition ends with an In Memoriam by Ms. Liying Kuo, director of studies at the EFEO, dedicated to this great scholar, published in Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie II (1999-2000).