A 27-YEAR-OLD high school teacher has won the inaugural Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize with a collection of short stories centered around an old community.

Wang Zhanhei, a high school Chinese teacher from Shanghai, recently won the first Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize for her debut book “Air Cannon.”

Co-founded by Swiss luxury watch brand Blancpain and Chinese publisher Imaginist in March 2018, the annual prize was created to uncover the literary stars of the future, selecting excellent Chinese writers under the age of 45 who show such potential. Winners will receive prize money of 300,000 yuan (US$43,464).

In a nod to The Man Booker Prize in Britain, five judges with different literary tastes were invited to choose from 100 books, eventually shortlisting five: “Air Cannon” by Wang Zhanhei; “The Pilot” by Shuang Xuetao; “Wake Me Up at Nine in the Morning” by A Yi; “I Walk Up Along the Firelight” by Zhang Yueran, and “The People Who Frequent My Mind” by Shen Dacheng.

Singer-songwriter and popular online talk show host, Gao Xiaosong, one of the judges, says that the opinions of the panel were so divided that there were several rounds of voting required to determine the winner.

Wang, the youngest of the five shortlisted authors, eventually emerged victorious with the panel commenting on her book: “The young writer, who was born in 1991, tries to continue the tradition of realism established by the likes of Russian writer Anton Chekhov and Chinese writer Shen Congwen. Plain and natural, her writing is detailed and constructed based on her dialect. She observes the life of common urban residents with cool, objective eyes without displaying either sympathy or disappointment.”

“Air Cannon” comprises eight short stories, in which Wang shines a spotlight on marginalized people living in old communities similar to where she grew up. The so-called “Street Hero Series,” which she has spent the past four years creating, are narrated from the perspective of a child.

The community that provides the centerpiece of the story was typical of those in small and middle-tier cities in the 1980s and 1990s. After decades of high-speed development, however, like its real-life counterparts, it has become an old community, mostly populated by retired, laid-off or migrant workers, aging people and people with low incomes.

By depicting their daily life — the trivial incidents and gossip which are deeply connected with their living, aging, health and death — Wang allows the reader a taste of the mixed flavors in the life of the “little people.”

Wang first posted these short stories on her blog on douban.com without expecting to attract many readers. At first there were indeed few, but when she posted “The Story of A Jing,” readers of her work increased, which added to her confidence in a writing style that she decided to continue with. After being recommended to more readers by online platforms, Wang published several of her stories in periodicals, and then books.

(China Daily)