Nine of the Flash Fried Fiction finalists take a bow. Photos: Wang Zi/GT
Who says literature has to be long? Ernest Hemingway's best work is only six words long (For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn). But can those words evoke the same emotion stirred by verbosity? We set about finding out. Twelve flash fiction finalists from the Global Times Metro Beijing's first Flash Fried Fiction Competition proved you don't need chapters to tell a story; all you need, as Hemingway attested, are the right words.
Since the competition was launched in November 2010, participants started pouring in. The 12 finalists were published one a week in the Metro section. Then our judges - renowned literary agent Toby Eady publisher and translator, Harvey Thomlinson and Chutzpah editor Ou Ning - whittled them down to a top three.
On June 28, the finalists, our judges and more than 50 guests and literature lovers gathered at the Opposite House to sip Hemingway daiquiris and wait for the final result. The desperately cool venue, Punk, was festooned in dramatic posters of the illustrations from Raffles Design Institute that accompanied each of the stories when they appeared in the paper. After the event, the authors got to take their posters home as souvenirs.
After a gripping set of live readings, Peter Lyon and his story "The Visitor" finally scooped the first prize of 5,000 yuan ($769) and frankly admitted his initial desire to be involved in the contest was "just for fun." "The first prize is unexpected, and I'm surprised," a stunned-looking Lyon said in a brief speech.
The whole award ceremony was stolen by Peter Lyon's dramatic reading. "It was not only the short story itself, but also his reading that grabbed me from the first sentence," said Murongxuncun, a renowned Chinese online writer. "I liked the reading session, which is uncommon in most Chinese literature award ceremonies. Reading is important to the way you approach a story. You can reject or accept, like or dislike the literary work, depending on the effect it has on you."
Unlike Peter Lyon, while reading her awarded story "Trapped," Rui Leow didn't try out different voices or sound effects to heighten the tension, but audiences were still trapped in the gripping plot and the picture of real China she created.
"When I was working on the story, I felt rather like I was living the character's life, as cliché as it sounds, it was an emotional ride. But I did greatly enjoy taking advantage of this or that image and scene to flesh out a certain picture of the society," explained Leow. Leow and fellow runner-up Stephen George, who wrote "One Above Three," received books from the Bookworm as their prizes.
It took a panel of three to judge the winner. "At times we almost came to blows," said author and judge James Palmer. "The difficulty of flash fiction is to tell a complete story in which every word is absolutely essential. Thus, the beauty of language and format of experimentation are necessary."
Harvey Thomlinson, founder of Make Do Publishing and advocate of Chinese fiction, said he was proud to be a judge. "Beijing is a global city and I think an English fiction contest is a brilliant way for one of China's leading English newspapers to bring people together and celebrate that. I was impressed with the standard of the finalists and it was exciting to see that some of the best entries were by non-native English speakers."
There were also entries that, while they didn't get the most votes, were impossible to ignore. Dipika Mukherjee's "More Than What They Bargained For" was one of them. The professor of linguistics prefers to call herself a "half-professional" writer, admitting that she took part in the competition totally by accident. "At the time I was in Shanghai, and got the advert of the event from a writers' group. 'Why not try?' I asked myself." To her, the flash attempt means recognition rather than cheers, applause and even prizes. "Asian writers are really gaining confidence by exhibiting their works in various literature festivals. They are able to share world literature stage. The confidence has already been there," said Mukherjee, who has already grabbed her pen again and can't wait to the next year Flash Fried Fiction Competition.
"FFF will be back," said Gareth George, the competition founder, revealing they plan to release the 12 FFF finalists as a Kindle book on Amazon.com.
For all those flash fans who missed this year's competition, the Global Times Metro Beijing still wants them make a splash with flash next year.
"We are actually in the middle of preparing the next year's competition. As this year, we will attach world-class judges to the competition, so writers will not only have the incentive of a cash prize, they will also know the Global Times will put their work forward to be read by top literary agents and publishers," explained George. "Additionally, we will also cooperate with the Global Times Metro Shanghai to extend the competition to southern China."
"It's my first time to hear flash fiction, but I feel it's time to go flex my flash muscles to write something," said Du Xiaoming, a literature lover, after attending the FFF's awards party. If you are thinking like Du and hope to have your work published - which is a prize money can't buy, then get writing. Don't ever stop putting your pen to paper, or fingers to keys, and loose your ideas into the world. We'd like to read yours.
For more information for the F.F.F, please log into: http://www.globaltimes.cn/specialcoverage/fictioncompetition.aspx