Chen Ran

Background

Chen Ran was born in Beijing in April, 1962. Her parents divorced when she was in high school and she since then lived with her mother.

Education

As a child she studied music, but when she was 18 her interests turned to literature. Chen Ran studied Chinese language and literature in Beijing Normal University from 1982 to 1986 and graduated when she was 23.

Career

She remained with the university as a teacher after graduation for the next four and a half years. She also lectured as an exchange scholar at various foreign universities including Melbourne University in Australia, the University of Berlin in Germany, and London, Oxford, and Edinburgh universities in the United Kingdom. Between 1987 and 1989, she published a series of surrealistic short stories with strong philosophical undertones. She now lives and writes in Beijing.

Chen Ran is the most-discussed figure in the recent critical debate in China over "female writing" and "individual writing".

Even though the government has never banned her books, a thinly veiled moralism pervades the literary critical approach to her work. Critics writing in academic journals have accused her of zilian (narcissism) and zibi (solipism).

Foreign example, some critics write off her book, Private Life, as mere exhibitionism (ie, the willing exposure of privacy) because Chen openly admits to writing from experience.

Achievements

• She has won number of prizes, such as the first Contemporary China Female Writer"s Award.

Membership

She has published several short story collections and is a member of the Chinese Writers Association.