Geling Yan
Geling Yan is a Chinese-American author and screenwriter.
Early life
Yan was born in Shanghai, China in 1958. She is the second child of Yan Dunxun and Jia Lin. She has an elder brother Yan Geping. Her father is an alumnus of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University.Yan began performing as a dancer at age 12. She served in the People's Liberation Army in Chengdu, during the Cultural Revolution in Tibet and later as a journalist in the Sino-Vietnamese War, achieving a rank equivalent to lieutenant colonel.
Yan holds a bachelor's degree in literature from Wuhan University, and a Master's in Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago.
Career
Works
Her first novel was published in 1985. She is the author of such novels as The Banquet Bug and The Lost Daughter of Happiness, as well as a story collection entitled White Snake and Other Stories. Several of Yan's works have been adapted for film, including Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl, which was directed by Joan Chen, and Siao Yu, directed by Sylvia Chang and screenplay co-written by Ang Lee. Zhang Yimou, the Chinese director of To Live and Raise the Red Lantern adapted her novella 13 Flowers of Nanjing to the screen as The Flowers of War, and his movie Coming Home was based on Yan's novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi. She has worked on other scripts including a biography of Mei Lanfang, the Peking opera star, for Chinese director Chen Kaige.Novels in English
- The Banquet Bug
- The Lost Daughter of Happiness
- The Flowers of War
- Little Aunt Crane
- The Criminal Lu Yanshi 《陆犯焉识》
- ''The Secret Talker''
Novels in Chinese （Chronological order of publication）
- 绿血
- 一个女兵的悄悄话 ''
- 雌性的草地
- 草鞋权贵
- 扶桑
- 人寰
- 666号
- 小站
- 蜃楼
Short stories in English
- The Landlady
- Disappointing Returns
- ''White Snake and Other Stories''
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