Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pu Songling

From the pen of a refined Chinese gentleman scholar, these supernatural short stories written during the early Qing Dynasty range from the bizarre and absurd, to the erotic and surreal. This Penguin collection combines 104 stories from the original 500, each complete with an accompanying illustration printed in 1886 Shanghai. The dominant theme of the book is ghosts and fox spirits, or Huli jing, who usually take the form of beautiful women to copulate with hapless young men. The sexual fantasies of the writer come across vividly in the many instances of seduction but somehow they never become tedious. I was initially apprehensive that the stories would turn out to be too inaccessible or repetitive, although happily this was not the case.

The translator John Minford does a good job of capturing the essence of the language whilst tailoring it sufficiently for a modern readership. What attracted me most about Pu Songling's works was their sheer diversity, so much so that I was reluctant to finish the book. It would be wrong of me to deny that the oriental otherness was not also a strong enticement, for the pages are strewn with a rich cultural mythology entirely new to me. Some stories are extremely brief, a mere half page in length, with others running on for longer. The disparate, bitesize format makes it ideal to read whilst travelling, or to dip in and out of at leisure. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to gain a glimpse into ancient Chinese culture or with an interest in exploring the mythological terrain of the east. I will certainly be seeking more.

Rating: 4/5