THE 2023 Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize has been awarded to 29-year-old author Yang Zhihan, for her collection of short stories “Yituan Jianbing” (literally, “A Block of Solid Ice”).

The award, cofounded by the Swiss luxury watchmaker and the Chinese publisher in 2018, recognizes talented Chinese authors under the age of 45. The winner receives 300,000 yuan (US$41,160) and a Blancpain timepiece.

Consisting of nine short stories and novellas, Yang’s book recounts the sometimes cruel life stories of people in Northeast China, including one about a dropout girl hiding in a temple, a wild animal trainer who sends his tiger to a zoo after it kills another trainer during a performance, and a jobless young woman who is kicked out of the WeChat group of her classmates in primary and middle schools after she tries to sell products to them.

Ma Boyong, one of the five judges this year, read comments from the jury about the winning entry at the award ceremony: “The author ‘freezes’ her hometown as if it were a piece of specimen, then takes a step back, studies and feels it, in shocking pain.”

Born in 1994, Yang said that she started writing when she was asked to keep a diary in primary school.

“I didn’t know what to write, so my solution was to write a martial arts series. ... When our teacher canceled this assignment, I didn’t stop writing, because writing became fun, and my friends who read my stories asked me to add new characters to my story,” Yang said at the award ceremony.

Talking about her book, she said: “Some of the stories in the collection are very unpleasant, but others are rather warm. I have included them in one book to represent my understanding of life, when at moments you feel the joy and sorrow simultaneously.”

“I write about the moments that ordinary people have to face, and try to be their voices.”

Established writer Ye Zhaoyan praised the book for the abundant details it contains.

The other works shortlisted for the award are “Tianzhu Chuanqi” (“A Legend of Dzi Bead”), a novella collection by Fei Ying; “Mi Lianfen,” a novel by Ning Buyuan; “Kongqi Jita” (“Air Guitar”), a short story collection by Shao Dong, and “Kuangre” (“Fanaticism”), a novel by Wang Ruoxu.

Each year, the Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize has a different theme. This year, it was “we must defend complexity.”

“Anyone will agree that the time we are living in is very complex. …I sincerely think that things have never been like today; we have to face such a complicated world, but we expect to learn about it in increasingly simpler ways,” explained Leung Man-tao, chief consultant of Imaginist.

“However, for me what’s most troublesome is that together with the simplified ways, we form the habit of relying on them,” he said.

News stories on social media — their titles, content, or structure — look so similar to each other that they always seem to stir up an emotional response, he said, adding that, “all these simplified stories on social media are urging us to judge and take sides quickly.”

People tend to interpret our complicated world in a simplest way possible, and that is why complexity must be defended, he said.

Jack Liao, vice president of Blancpain China, concluded: “The theme was meant to encourage young people to read, discuss and have valuable thoughts about the world and our life.”

(China Daily)