Xiang Biao, Hello Stranger

New on the site this time:

​The introduction to Xiang Biao’s new book, Hello Stranger, appropriately titled “I am a Stranger.”  Like his previous work Self as Method, Hello Stranger primarily addresses Chinese young people, although the themes of loneliness, alienation, and isolation evoked are in fact universal.  Xiang’s introduction explains the project, which consists of conversations with five prominent members of China’s artistic/intellectual world, including Liu Xiaodong – an internationally renowned painter – Li Yifan, whose documentaries on marginal subgroups have received some attention outside of China, and Shen Zhijun, the head of the Nanjing zoo, included here because many Chinese young people have come to prefer pets to human company, and Shen speaks to the larger relationship between humans and animals. 
 
If the themes Xiang wants to address are weighty, the conversations are less philosophical than hands-on.  Xiang is looking for “handles,” life-hacks which might help young people to see, touch, and engage with the offline world.  The book project was put together in collaboration with Sanlian Life Weekly, one of China’s best-known mainstream journals, which is helping the market and mediatize the work, illustrating that Xiang is not an obscure intellectual working in Germany but instead an important figure in China.
 
The English-language version of Hello Stranger is nearing completion, and we will begin looking for a publisher early in 2026.  We will of course approach the usual suspects, but if readers have ideas or contacts, we’re all ears!