Deng Xiaohua (, ; born May 30, 1953), better known by her pen name Can Xue (, ; lit: 'lingering snow'), is a Chinese avant-garde fiction writer and literary critic. Her family was severely persecuted following her father being labeled a rightist in the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957. Her writing, which consists mostly of short fiction, breaks with the realism of earlier modern Chinese writers. She has also written novels, novellas, and literary criticism of Dante, Jorge Luis Borges, and Franz Kafka. Can Xue has been described as "China's most prominent author of experimental fiction," "Critics focusing on Can Xue are often scholars or translators of Chinese literature; they assure us that she is "peerless" as a writer of experimental literature in China" and most of her fiction has been translated and published in English. She is frequently mentioned as a favourite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Life Deng Xiaohua was born in 1953, in Changsha, Hunan, China. Her early life was marked by a series of tragic hardships which influenced the direction of her work. She was one of six children born to a man who was once the editor-in-chief of the New Hunan Daily (). Her parents, like many intellectuals at the time, were denounced as rightists in the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957, despite being Communist Party members themselves. Her father was sent to the countryside for two years in retribution for allegedly leading an anti-Communist Party group at the paper. Two years later, the entire family was evicted from the company housing at the newspaper and moved to a tiny hut below the Yuelu Mountain, on the rural outskirts of Changsha. In the years that followed, the family suffered greatly under further persecution. Her father was jailed, and her mother was sent along with her two brothers to the countryside for re-education through labor. Deng was allowed to remain in the city because of her poor health. After being forced to leave the small hut, she lived alone in a small, dark room under a staircase. By the time of the Cultural Revolution, Deng was thirteen years old. Her formal education was permanently disrupted after completing primary school.
Can Xue describes the horrors of her youth in detail in her memoirs titled "A Summer Day in the Beautiful South" which is included as the foreword to her short story collection Dialogues in Paradise. Throughout this period, her entire family "struggled along on the verge of death". Her grandmother, who raised her while her parents were gone, soon succumbed to hunger and fatigue, dying with severe edema, a grotesque swelling condition. While the family was forced to scavenge food, eventually eating all of the wool clothes in the house, Can Xue contracted a severe case of tuberculosis. Later, she was able to find work as a metalworker. Ten years later, in 1980, after giving birth to her first son, she quit work at the factory. She and her husband then started a small tailoring business at home after teaching themselves to sew.
She began writing in 1983, and published her first short story "Soap Bubbles in Dirty Water" (污水上的肥皂泡) in January 1985. Two other short stories followed that year, "The Bull" (公牛) and "The Hut on the Hill", at which point she chose the pen name Can Xue. This name can be interpreted either as the stubborn, dirty snow left at the end of winter or the remaining snow at the peak of a mountain after the rest has melted. Publishing under a pen name allowed Can Xue to write without revealing her gender. According to Tonglin Lu, a professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Montreal, once critics found out she was a woman, her "subversive voice within the supposedly subversive order [of avant-garde fiction]" made them uncomfortable. Tonglin Lu called this "double subversion".) Not only was she writing avant-garde fiction, but she was also a woman; male writers and critics attempted to analyze her works by psychoanalysis of the author, and some even suggested she was certifiably insane. In 2002, she said, "Lots of [the critics] hate me, or at least they just keep silent, hoping I'll disappear. No one discusses my works, either because they disagree or don't understand."
More recently, however, many critics have paid tribute to her work, drawn to the careful precision she uses to create such a strange, unsettling effect on the reader.
Work Can Xue's abstract style and unconventional narrative form attracted much attention from critics in the 1990s. A variety of interpretations of her work have been published, but political allegory has been the most popular way of understanding her early short stories. Many of the images in her stories have been linked to the Cultural Revolution, the Anti-Rightist Movement and other turbulent political movements of the early People's Republic of China. However, direct references to these events are uncommon. The author herself explicitly denies most forms of political commentary others claim to have found in her work, stating once in an interview, "There is no political cause in my work."
On the contrary, Can Xue says she treats each story as a kind of life experiment in which she is the subject. "In very deep layers," she says, "all of my works are autobiographical." As for those who struggle to find meaning in her stories, Can Xue says, "If a reader feels that this book is unreadable, then it's quite clear that he's not one of my readers."
Can Xue has also written part of the libretto for at least one opera. In 2010, Can Xue and Lin Wang ( web) co-wrote the libretto for a contemporary chamber opera Die Quelle (The Source) commissioned to Lin Wang by Münchener Biennale. The opera is based on Can Xue's published short story "The Double Life". In this opera, a young artist named Jian Yi is deconstructed into different aspects played by different roles. They crosstalk to each other on stage; drying and bubbling-up of the spring symbolize loss and regain of one's own identity. Lin Wang composed the music for Die Quelle (85 minutes in length). Chinese instruments such as the sheng, guzheng and sanxian were used. An unusual feature of the opera is its combination of English pronunciation and Chinese intonation. Die Quelle was premiered on May 9, 2010, at the Munich Biennale and broadcast live.
Reception Amanda DeMarco stated that the extent to which Can Xue's work is radical is overstated. DeMarco also claims the animals in her novel Frontier "appear in such wild profusion that it would be impossible to assign them a symbology. Can Xue's writing is not metaphorical in this sense. There is no organized system of correspondence or meaning within it that would allow individual elements to be explained back into the realm of the logical. Often her works are compared to performances, to dance, or to visual art." However, the reviewer still described the experience of reading the author's books as rewarding, explaining that the tools of literature used in experimental writing to chart the human being extend beyond the capacities of language as logic. DeMarco said that at "the sentence level, [Frontier] is a wonderful, carefully hewn thing, lucid and pure".
American novelist and editor Bradford Morrow has described her as one of the most "innovative and important" authors in contemporary world literature.
Can Xue won the 2015 Best Translated Book Award for her novel The Last Lover.
Awards and honors 2015 Best Translated Book Award, winner, The Last Lover, translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen 2019: International Booker Prize, longlisted, Love in the New Millennium (新世纪爱情故事), translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (Yale University Press) 2021: International Booker Prize, longlisted, I Live in the Slums, translated from Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping (Yale University Press) 2022: Huaji World Chinese Literature Award 2024: America Award in Literature, for a lifetime contribution to international writing
Selected bibliography Can Xue has published a large number of novels, novellas, short stories, and book-length commentaries, many of which have been translated into English.
Novels +YearOriginal titleEnglish titlePublisher1990突围表演Breakout PerformanceHong Kong Youth Library2002五香街Five Spice StreetStraits Literature and Art Publishing House2004单身女人琐事记实Trivial Records of Single WomenBeijing October Literature and Art Publishing House2005最后的情人The Last LoverHuacheng Publishing House2008邊疆FrontierShanghai Literature and Art Publishing House2011呂芳詩小姐Miss Lu FangshiShanghai Literature and Art Publishing House2013新世纪爱情故事Love in the New MillenniumWriters Publishing House2015黑暗地母的礼物（上）The Gift of the Dark Earth Mother (Part 1)Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House2017黑暗地母的礼物（下）The Gift of the Dark Earth Mother (Part 2)Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House2019赤腳醫生Barefoot DoctorHunan Literature and Art Publishing House2021水乡Water VillageHunan Literature and Art Publishing House2022激情世界The Enchanting Lives of OthersPeople's Literature Publishing House
Novellas +YearOriginal titleEnglish titlePublisher1987黄泥街Huangni StreetTaiwan Yuanshen Publishing House1988天堂里的对话Conversations in Heaven/Dialogues in ParadiseWriters Publishing House1990种在走廊上的苹果树Apple Tree Planted on the CorridorTaiwan Vision Publishing House1994思想汇报Ideological ReportHunan Literature and Art Publishing House1995辉煌的日子Glory DaysHebei Education Press2000奇异的木板房Strange Wooden Board HouseYunnan People's Publishing House美丽南方之夏日Summer in the Beautiful SouthYunnan People's Publishing House2001蚊子与山歌Mosquitoes and Folk SongsChina Literary and Art Circles Publishing Company长发的遭遇The Encounter of Long HairChinese Publishing House2002松明老师Teacher SongmingStraits Literature and Art Publishing House2004爱情魔方Love CubeEthnic Publishing House从未描述过的梦境Dreams Never DescribedWriters Press2005双重的生活Double LifeTaiwan Trojan Culture2006传说中的宝藏The Legendary TreasureChunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House暗夜Dark NightChinese Publishing House末世爱情Love in the End of the WorldShanghai Literature and Art Publishing House2021少年鼓手Young DrummerPeople's Literature Publishing House2022西双版纳的女神The Goddess of XishuangbannaPeople's Literature Publishing House2023烟成City of smokeChunfeng Literature and Art Publishing House
Essays and non-fiction +YearOriginal titleEnglish titlePublisher1999灵魂的城堡：理解卡夫卡The Castle of the Soul: Understanding KafkaShanghai Literature and Art Publishing House2000解读博尔赫斯Interpreting BorgesPeople's Literature Publishing House残雪散文Can Xue's ProseZhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House2003地狱的独行者The Lonely Walker in HellBeijing Sanlian Bookstore艺术复仇Art RevengeGuangxi Normal University Press残雪访谈录Interviews with Can XueHunan Literature and Art Publishing House2004置身绝境的操练Exercise in Desperate SituationsOctober Literature and Art Publishing House2005温柔的编织工：残雪读卡尔维诺与波赫士The Gentle Weaver: Can Xue's Reading of Calvino and BorgesTaiwan Border Town Press2007残雪文学观Can Xue's Literary ViewsGuangxi Normal University Press2008趋光运动：回溯童年的精神图景Phototaxis Movement: Looking Back at the Spiritual Picture of ChildhoodShanghai Literature and Art Publishing House2009黑暗灵魂的舞蹈：残雪美文自选集Dance of Dark Souls: A Selected Collection of Beautiful Essays by Can XueWenhui Publishing House2017残雪文学回忆录Can Xue's Literary MemoirsGuangdong People's Publishing House2023新叶New LeavesHunan Children's Publishing House
Works translated into English
Novels 《突围表演》 (1988); later published as 五香街 (2002). Five Spice Street, trans. Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping (Yale, 2009). 《最后的情人》 (2005). The Last Lover, trans. Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (Yale, 2014). 《边疆》 (2008). Frontier, trans. Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping (Open Letter, 2017). 《新世纪爱情故事》 (2013). Love in the New Millennium, trans. Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (Yale, 2018). 《赤腳醫生》 (2019). Barefoot Doctor, trans. Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping (Yale, 2022). 《激情世界》 (2022). The Enchanting Lives of Others, trans. Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (Yale, 2026).
Novellas