Chinese Fantasy - A Bridge of Birds

[Ocicat]

If you liked Run of the Firey Horse, and want more great stories set in China, I highly recommend A Bridge Of Brids by Barry Hughart.  It's a great fairytale, set in "an Ancient China that never was".  The main characters are a simple village boy named Number Ten Ox, and a Master Kao Li, a scholar with "a slight flaw in his character".  The story is fantastic on several levels, not the least of which is that it's consistently fall-down funny. 

There are two more books featuring the same characters, but I they're very out of print and I haven't been able to read them yet.  According to Amazon, a new collected volume is coming out this fall.  I'm looking forward to it!


Moderator:  EPized links

[birdless]

Until EP, and more recently PC, I'd never really been exposed to that much. I dee see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which I would include in this genre. At any rate, it often seems to be tragic (not my favorite) and beautiful (enough to endure the tragedy). I may have to check these out.

[DKT]

If you want to check out a good short story, I highly recommend Dragonfly Heights. It's a modern-day tale about lost love and regret that has more than a little Hong Kong influence.

Disclaimer: Chris Azure, the author, is a friend of mine, but it was one of my favorite stories that I read last year.