[News Figures] Nobel Literature Prize Contender Chinese Author 'Chanxue'

'Chan Xue (殘雪)' is a Chinese writer who is highly likely to receive this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. Susan Sontag, an American writer who passed away in 2004, praised him during her lifetime, saying, "If a Nobel Prize in Literature winner comes from China, it will be Chan Xue," recognizing his literary talent early on.

His real name is Deng Xiaohua (鄧小華), born in 1953 in Changsha City, Hunan Province, and he is 70 years old this year. The pen name Chan Xue, read as 'Janseol' in Korean, means "snow that has not yet melted."

Chan Xue, who was a frail child, spent his childhood under his grandmother's care after his parents, who worked at a local newspaper, were taken to a labor camp for leading an anti-communist group in 1957. Chan Xue's grandmother is remembered as a "hysterical yet good storyteller who chased away ghosts in the middle of the night." These childhood experiences are known to have greatly influenced Chan Xue's literary world.

Due to the impact of the Cultural Revolution, Chan Xue only graduated from elementary school but began writing while self-studying literature and philosophy. In 1985, he published the short story "Soap Bubbles on Dirty Water," and in 1987, he released the novel "Huangniga," embarking on his path as a writer.

He built a unique literary world influenced by works of Dante, Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, and traditional Chinese shamanistic beliefs, earning him the nickname "China's Kafka." He portrays the lives of ordinary people in a bizarre and dreamlike manner, candidly depicting the tragedy and inherent ugliness of human existence. He is regarded as one of the most innovative and important writers in contemporary literature.

His representative works include "Ohyang Street (Munhakdongne)" and "The Last Lover (Eunhaengnamu)." In August, the novel "Huangniga," published in 1987, was translated and released domestically by Open Books.

On the 28th of last month (local time), the famous British online betting site "Nicer Odds" named Chan Xue as the most likely candidate to win this year's Nobel Prize in Literature.

If Chan Xue wins the Nobel Prize in Literature, which the Swedish Academy is scheduled to announce at 8 p.m. (Korean time) on the 5th, he will be the first Asian female writer to receive the award, and China will have its second Nobel laureate in Literature following Mo Yan (莫言) in 2012.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.