The word on the street

A 27-year-old high school teacher has won the inaugural Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize with a collection of short stories centered around an old community.

Wang Zhanhei, a 27-year-old high school Chinese teacher from Shanghai, recently won the first Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize for her debut book Air Cannon.

Co-founded by Swiss luxury watch brand, Blancpain, and Chinese publisher brand Imaginist in March 2018, the annual prize was created to uncover the literary stars of the future, selecting excellent Chinese writers, under the age of 45, who show such potential. Winners will receive prize money of 300,000 yuan ($43,464), sponsored by Blancpain as encouragement and financial support for their creation.

Speaking about the prize, Jack Liao, Blancpain China brand manager, says: "There are many similarities between making a watch and creating a literary masterpiece, both requiring a great amount of finesse. With this prize, we want to discover young literary masters in China."

Leung Mantao, cultural ambassador for the watch brand, said at the award ceremony: "Most of the literary prizes in China have been won by older writers, so we thought about discovering the new force of Chinese literary creation."

In a nod to The Man Booker Prize in Britain, five judges with different literary tastes were invited to choose from 100 books, eventually shortlisting five: Air Cannon by Wang Zhanhei; The Pilot by Shuang Xuetao; Wake Me Up at Nine in the Morning by A Yi; I Walk Up Along the Firelight by Zhang Yueran, and The People Who Frequent My Mind by Shen Dacheng

Singer-songwriter and popular online talk show host, Gao Xiaosong, one of the judges, says that the opinions of the panel were so divided that there was several rounds of voting required to determine the winner.

Wang, the youngest of the five shortlisted authors, eventually emerged victorious with the panel commenting on her book: "The young writer, who was born in 1991, tries to continue the tradition of realism established by the likes of Russian writer Anton Chekhov, and Chinese writer Shen Congwen. Plain and natural, her writing is detailed and constructed based on her dialect. She observes the life of common urban residents with cool, objective eyes without displaying either sympathy or disappointment."