Hotel Xixia by author from Taiwan Lo Yi-chin wins HKBU’s “The 3rd Dream of the Red Chamber Award”

16 July 2010

Hotel Xixia by author from Taiwan Lo Yi-chin wins

HKBU's "The 3rd Dream of the Red Chamber Award"

Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) today (16 July) announced the result of "The 3rd Dream of the Red Chamber Award: The World's Distinguished Novel in Chinese". The prize was awarded to Hotel Xixia《西夏旅館》 by author Mr. Lo Yi-chin (駱以軍) from Taiwan. Mr. Lo wins HK$300,000 for his work, which was chosen following a rigorous selection process. This is the first time that an author from Taiwan has won this prestigious competition. The previous two winners were from Mainland China.

The chairman of the final judging panel, Professor Chen Sihe (陳思和) of Fudan University, said: "Hotel Xixia tells a story of trauma and redemption, diaspora and root-seeking by yoking together two sets of subjects: the mysterious disappearance of the Xixia Dynasty in the 11th century and a parade of grotesque spectacles in a decaying 'hotel'. Mixing personal confession and national narrative, magic realism and erotic fantasy, black humor and melancholy tonality, Mr. Lo depicts modern Chinese experience at its most complex and intriguing. With its dazzling language, labyrinthine structure, and kaleidoscopic imagery, Hotel Xixia represents a major breakthrough in contemporary Chinese fiction – a triumph in Mr. Lo Yi-chin's writing career."

The prize presentation ceremony will be held in September, when the winner, Mr. Lo Yi-chin, will meet the judges and members of the public in Hong Kong.

Mr. Lo Yi-chin was born in Taipei in 1967. He graduated from the Creative Literary and Art Program under the Department of Chinese of Chinese Culture University and received a Master's degree from the Graduate Institute of Drama of the Taipei National University of Arts. His novels include Scarlet Letter Group《紅字團》, Share a Fairy Tale with a Little Star《降生十二星座》, Wife, Dream, Dog《妻夢狗》, The Third Dance《第三個舞者》, The Surname of the Moon 《月球姓氏》, The Far《遠方》and We《我們》. Mr. Lo has won many awards for his creative writing. These include the First Prize in Fiction of Creative Writing Award from Unitas Circuit Camp of Literature, the Fiction Award of the Taiwan College Youth Literary Award, the Taipei Literary Annual Award, being named one of the Ten Excellent Books of the Year by Asiaweek Chinese Version (2008), and the 2009 Taiwan Literary Award, just to name a few. In addition, he was also selected by Kaijuan as "Influential Figure of 2000", by the 2000 Taiwan Literature Yearbook of the Council of Cultural Affairs as "Influential Figure of 2000" and as the winner of the 2000 Taipei Literary Annual Reward. In 2004, Mr. Lo was invited by the International Writers Workshop of HKBU to be its Visiting Writer. In 2007, he also participated in the International Writing Program of The University of Iowa, USA.

The judges also recommended Sailing Up the Big River《大河盡頭》by Li Yung-ping (李永平) from Malaysia, Chronicle of My Brother Diao Bei《我哥刁北年表》by Diao Dou (刁斗) from Mainland China, and Massagers 《推拿》by Bi Feiyu (畢飛宇) from Mainland China as winners of the "Jury Award".

The final judging panel of "The 3rd Dream of Red Chamber Award" comprises Professor Chen Sihe (陳思和) of Fudan University (chairman), Professor David Wang Der-wei (王德威) of Harvard University; Prof. Chou Ying-hsiung (周英雄), former Vice President of National Chung Cheng University; Prof. Chen I-chih (陳義芝) of National Taiwan Normal University, editor-in-chief of the literary supplement of United Daily News; Professor Huang Ziping (黃子平) of HKBU; and Mr. Mo Yan (莫言), novelist and winner of "The 2nd Dream of the Red Chamber Award" for his novel Life, Death, Exhaustion《生死疲勞》.

Launched by HKBU's Faculty of Arts in 2006, "The Dream of the Red Chamber Award" runs every two years. It aims to encourage the publication of excellent Chinese novels worldwide, and to recognise outstanding Chinese novels by writers from around the world to enhance the standards of Chinese novel-writing. The award recipient receives a cash award of HK$300,000, the highest cash prize for a contest of this kind.

The entries for "The 3rd Dream of the Red Chamber Award" must be original Chinese novels of 80,000 words or more and published in either 2008 or 2009. Every year, over 1,000 long novels in Chinese are published worldwide. In order to make the selection process more effective, a nomination system has been implemented since "The Dream of the Red Chamber Award" was launched. Nomination by members of the Award organising committee or the committee's recognised and invited publishers are required for entry into the competition. The six shortlisted novels are listed in the attachment. For details of the Award, please visit http://arts.hkbu.edu.hk/~Red_Chamber/ .

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