1. ASIAN LITERATURE
Group 4

2. • Literature in the Eastern
hemisphere chronicles the
history of civilizations
spanning thousands of years.
• As religion, war, and politics
shaped Asian societies,
literature prospered to
mirror these developements.
• As children of this contenent,
we need to appreciate the
literary outputs of our Asian
neighbors.

4. •In modern times, Chinese writers have
remained prolific. Though the social impact of
literature may be as monumental as it was in
the past, the chinese literary tradition is
nevertheless prosperous. Notable names
include Mo Yan, a fictionist who won the 2012
Nobel Prize for literature. Remarkable too were
the novels of Yu Hua, Wang Shuo and Shi
Tiesheng; and the stories of Gao Xiaosheng,
Wang Zengqi, and Zhang Chenzhi.

5. CHINA
ONE OF THE WORLD’S CRADLES OF CIVILIZATION, HAS HAD AN UNBROKEN
LITERARY TRADITION THAT STARTED BACK IN THE 14TH CENTURY BCE.
• It has retained its reputation of keeping the fundamentals of its identity
intact.
• The finest era Chinese literature was the Tang dynasty (618-907), when
poets like Tu Fu, Li Po, and Wang Wei created landmark works unrivalled
elsewhere in the world.

6. •Ever since the Meiji Restoration in 19th
century, Western influences have permeated
Japanese literature. Manifestations of this
include the pioneering of modern Japanese
novels, translation of poetry from the west,
and reinventions of traditional Japanese poetic
forms like the tanka and the haiku. In the genre
of drama, playwrights like Abe Kobo and
Mishima Yukio became notable for creating
world-renowed works.

7. JAPAN
A CLOSE NEIGHBOR OF CHINA, ALSO HAS A RICH LITERARY HISTORY.
• It influenced by Chinese language and Chinese literature.
• This includes the world- renowned poetic genre known as the Haiku and
the diverse forms of theater such as the Noh and the Kabuki.
• Japanese literture reflects the traditional Japanese cultural identity.

9. •The Korean War, which led to the
creation of North Korea and South
Korea, has created an indelible mark on
Korean literature. Themes of alienation,
conscience, and disintegration have
been present in Korean works since the
1950s. Self-identity has also become a
strong theme in Korean literature, such
as poems, novels, and plays, well into
the 20th century.

10. KOREA
• China’s cultural dominance in
the region became even more
evident when Korean poets
wrote poetry in Classical
Chinese as early as 4th
century CE.
• 15th century that the Koreans
developed Hangul, their
distinct writing system that
gave birth to a new wave of
Korean literature.

11. •India gained independence in the 20th
century, but the impact of colonial rule
countinued to manifest through the
endurance of the English language, and the
emergence of postcolonial text. Several
Indian writers became highly accomplished,
internationally acclaimed names. These
include Rabindranath Tagore ( a Nobel Prize
Winner ), Prem Chand, Raja Rao, and R.K.
Narayan.

13. • It is the clear cultural giant.
• Roots of indian literature may be traced to the hall mark Hindu writings,
such as the Veda, the Brahmanas, and the Upanishads.
• The Veda was written in the Sanskrit language, which first gave birth to
literary works as early as 1500 BCE.
• The oral tradition of India had its origins in antiquity, written literature
appeared in India much, much later – around the 16th century, in fact.
• British colonization of subsequent centuries meant that English
literature would emerge as a key Influence that pervades up to the
present day.
INDIA

22. CENTRAL ASIA
• Has different literary flavor.
• This time political in culture, were the tsarist
and Soviet regimes that emanated from
what is now Russia.
• Parts of the region include Afghanistan,
kazakshtan, Turkmenista, Uzbekistan,
Mongolia, Tibet, and Nepal.

23. •Russian influence continued to have a
stronghold on literature from Central Asia.
•During the era of the Soviet Union, Abdullah
Qadirly produced pioneering novels in the
Uzbek language and Mukhtar Auez-uli became
a noteworthy writer in Kazakh.
•In the 20th century, Chingiz Aytmatov became
a successful writer in the Russian language

24. ARABIC TRADITION
• Islam, a foundation of culture in the area, was an
essential component.
• Literature in the Arabic language, it began to influence
cultures that Arabian people came into contatc with.
• These include the persian, Byzantine, and Andalusian
traditions.
• The European civilizations came to emulate Arabic
literature, in the Middle Ages

25. •The issue of freedom of expression has
become problematic for Arabic writers in
the 21st century.
•Another pressing concern is the tension
between religious and secular movements,
a conflict that also impacts the way that
Arabic writers prouduce their texts.

26. SOUTHEAST AISA
• The literary tradition of the Philippines has been explored
extensively in other parts of this book.
• In Burma, literature has been heavily influenced by the
Buddhist, Thai, and English cultures.
• Thailand itself experienced two golden eras of literature:
1. During the era of King Narai (657-1688)
2. During the rule of King Rama II (1809-1824)
• Malaysia and Indonesia, their literary traditions in large part to
the Sanskrit language and the Islam culture

27. •Colonial and postcolonial experiences were
evident in Burmese works in the 20th century,
these themes are still dominant. In thailand,
the influenced of Western Literature became
truly pronounced after the country came into
contact with the West during World War II.
Writers in Malaysia and Indonesia developed
very distinct voices when the new Malay and
Indonesian languages were born.

28. CHINESE WRITERS

29. MO YAN
• Modern Chinese author, in the western world
most known for his novel Red Sorghum (which
was turned into a movie by the same title). Often
described as the Chinese Franz Kafka or Joseph
Heller.
• Mo Yan (莫言) is a pen name and means don't
speak. His real name is Guan Moye (simplified
Chinese: 管谟业; traditional Chinese: 管謨業;
pinyin: Guǎn Móyè).
• He has been awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature 2012 for his work which "with
hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history
and the contemporary". Among the works
highlighted by the Nobel judges were Red
Sorghum (1987) and Big Breasts & Wide
Hips (2004), as well as The Garlic Ballads.

30. YU HUA
• is a Chinese author, born April 3, 1960
in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Shortly after
his debut as a fiction writer in 1983.
• Yu Hua was regarded as a promising avant-
garde or post-New Wave writer.[2] Many critics
also regard him as a champion for Chinese
meta-fictional or postmodernist writing.
• When his writing style changed towards a
more “psychologized” narrative in the 1990s
and experimented with more chaotic themes
like in Brothers, Yu Hua received strong
criticism from critics and readers.

31. WANG SHUO
• is a Chinese author, director, actor, and cultural
icon. He has written over 20 novels, television
series and movies.
• His work has been translated into Japanese,
Spanish, French, English, Italian, and many other
languages.
• He has enormous cultural status in China and has
become a nationally celebrated author.

32. SHI TIESHENG
• was a Chinese novelist, known for his
story which was the basis of the film Life
on a String.
• The China Daily stated regarding his
essay about the park near where he
lived, "Many critics have considered I
and the Temple of Earth (zh:我与地坛)
as one of the best Chinese prose essays
of the 20th century."

33. JAPANESE WRITERS

34. ABE KOBO
• pen name of Kimifusa Abe (安部 公
房 Abe Kimifusa, March 7, 1924 –
January 22, 1993), was a Japanese
writer, playwright, photographer and
inventor.
• Abe has been often compared to Franz
Kafka and Alberto Moraviafor
his modernist sensibilities and his
surreal, often nightmarish explorations
of individuals in contemporary society.

35. MISHIMA YUKIO
• a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model,
film director, nationalist, and founder of
the Tatenokai.
• Mishima is considered one of the most important
Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was
considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968,
but the award went to his countryman Yasunari
Kawabata
• His works include the novels Confessions of a
Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and
the autobiographical essay Sun and Steel.
• His avant-garde work displayed a blending of
modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural
boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death, and
political change.[2]

36. INDIAN WRITERS

38. PREM CHAND
• was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He
is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian
subcontinent,[3] and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindi writers
of the early twentieth century.

39. RAJA RAO
• was an Indian writer of English-language novels and short stories,
whose works are deeply rooted in Metaphysics.

40. R.K. NARAYAN
• was an Indian writer known for his works set in the fictional South
Indian town of Malgudi.
• He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along
with Mulk Raj Anandand Raja Rao.

42. CENTRAL ASIA WRITERS

43. CHINGIZ AYTMATOV
• was a Soviet and Kyrgyz author who wrote in
both Russian and Kyrgyz. He is one of the best known
figures in Kyrgyzstan's literature.