Excerpt from the Preface:

Introduction
In China, the short-short story, or mini-story, is no longer a dwarf, but an equal member in the family of fiction (see Ling, Zhou, Tao, and Xu in "Supplement I" in Volume 2). According to Liu Haitao, ancient Chinese short-short story writing reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911); however, it did not gain official recognition until the 1990s, as stated by Yang Xiaomin (see Liu and Tao in "Supplement I" in Volume 2). In recent
years tens of thousands of Chinese short-short stories have been published annually. More significantly, short-short stories have been included in university and college textbooks. Nonetheless, the Chinese short-short story is hardly known in the English-speaking world.
With the intention of promoting cultural exchange by introducing the Chinese short-short story to the English reader, from a pool of more than 20,000 1 have collected, I have selected and translated 126 such literary pieces, of which two are Gao Weixi's lyric prose fiction and ten are ancient stories. What should be pointed out is that the ten ancient stories are not intended to represent the different periods or writers of various dynasties, but merely as a
glimpse at this form of narrative literature in ancient China. More than two years ago, the English edition comprising 121 stories was published by Foreign Languages Press and has been distributed in North America, Europe, and Asia. …
To meet the needs of Chinese and English readers, especially the numerous university, college and high school students, readers interested in translating as well as young translators in service, the anthology is now published in a bilingual format. "Adding flowers to the brocade," Hung J. Lee, Senior Translator, Senior Reviser and Translator Training Officer of the United Nations, Zinan Ye, a translation scholar teaching in the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in America, and I each have written a short essay sharing our experience in translating with the reader, which are included in "Supplement II" in Volume 2. ….

Submissions and Selections
Every effort was made to produce the best possible anthology of Chinese short-short stories. My call for submission was published in the New Star Chinese Weekly and on its website, and was spread among their members by the delegation of the Chinese Writers' Association that visited Canada five years ago, the Short-Short Story Writers' Society of China, and several provincial writers' associations in China. In addition, I selected authors directly from selections of award-winning stories. Authors were residents of China,
including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, at the time their stories were published or written.
The average length of the short-short stories is about 1,100 Chinese characters (approximately translated into 900 English words). "Coming to Life," the shortest, consists of 91 Chinese characters. A few pieces, such as "My Wife's Hands," exceed 2,000 Chinese characters.
I attempted to find fine stories with artistic merit that demonstrate Chinese culture and that readers of different countries, nationalities, religions and political backgrounds can enjoy. A great majority of the writers included have won literary awards and prizes at the municipal, provincial and national levels. Some have had their works turned into television shows and films that have won various awards, including the Gold Bear Award won by a film based on Zhou Daxin's story at the 43rd International Film Festival in Berlin. Some authors have won more than ten literary awards each. The stories by authors who have not won awards and prizes are equally first rate.
Regarding professions, the authors of this anthology are full-time writers, lifelong literary editors, university and college professors, engineers, high-ranking government officials, and blue-collar workers. This composition truly demonstrates that the short-short story is "people's literature,”, that is, created by "the people."
Of the contemporary stories, about seventy deal with issues related to love, marriage, and parent-child relationships. The anthology is divided into sections by theme for easy reference. Also included are seven short essays on the Chinese short-short story. ….



Media Opinion:

„A carefully translated anthology, ….very well received by the readers, has received great critical acclaim“ – Chinawriter.com

“As a professor and writer, by translating these short-short stories into English, Harry J. Huang not only introduces the development of the Chinese short-short story to Western readers, but also creates a textbook of Chinese-English translation for English learners.” – World Journal

“The well-known translator Professor Harry J. Huang’s outstanding achievements in translation and English creative writing have won high praise from his colleagues.” – North America Weekly Times


About the Translator:

Harry J. Huang Ph. D. (comparative language studies), also known by his pen name Freeman J. Wong, a Chinese Canadian, professor of English, and a Chinese and English writer. The doctoral dissertation he completed for Macquarie University in Sydney (2007) was a groundbreaking quantitative approach to standardized translation quality assessment (TQA), which turned into reality the dream of standardized quantitative TQA. He taught translation and English writing at Sun Yat-sen University in the 1980s, and has been and English professor at Seneca College since 1989. A talented Chinese-English translator and English short-short story writer, he is widely respected by scholars, writers and readers in China’s mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other places. He has published in Canada and China four collections of short-short stories written in English. In 1986 he translated into English a selection of beautiful Chinese songs, including the national anthem of China. In total, he has translated into English more than 130 stories, essays and books by over 100 authors, such as Chung Ling, Tao Ran, Jiang Zilong, Feng Jicai, Zhou Daxin, Ouyang Shan, Qin Mu, and Gao Weixi. He has published more than ten books including a translated monograph, college textbooks on English writing skills, as well as research essays. He won the Sun Yat-sen Book Award in 2005.