Xiaolu Guo

Infobox Writer
name = Xiaolu Guo


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birthdate = 1973
birthplace = China
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occupation = Novelist and filmmaker
nationality = Chinese
period = 1987 to present
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website = http://www.guoxiaolu.com

Xiaolu Guo (born 1973 [ [http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2184593.ece Xiaolu Guo: Far East to East End - Features, Books - Independent.co.uk ] ] ) is a Chinese novelist and filmmaker, who uses film and literary language to explore themes of alienation, memory, personal journeys, daily tragedies and develops her own vision of China's past and its future in a global environment.

Her novel "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers" was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2007. She was also the 2005 Pearl Award (UK) winner for Creative Excellence. [ [http://www.thepearlawards.org.uk/html/2005_awards.htm The 2005 Pearl Awards] ] Her previous novel "Village of Stone" was nominated for the Independent best Foreign Fiction Prize as well as the International Dublin IMPAC Awards. Her feature film "How Is Your Fish Today?" was in Official Selection at Sundance Film Festival 2007 and received the Grand Jury Prize at the Créteil International Women Film Festival, Paris 2007. Her documentary "We Went to Wonderland" (2008) was selected for the New Directors/New Films series at the MoMA/Lincoln Center in New York in 2008.

List of books

* "20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth" (2008)
* "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers" (2007)
* "Village of Stone (Wo xin zhong de shi tou zhen)" (2004)
* "Movie Map (Dian ying di tu)" (2001)
* "Film Notes (Dian ying li lun bi ji)" (2001)
* "Fenfang's 37.2 Degrees (Fen Fang de 37.2)" (2000)
* "Who is my mother's boyfriend? (Wo ma ma de nan peng you shi shui?)" (1999)

List of films

as Director/Producer

* "We Went to Wonderland" (2008)
* "Address Unknown" (2007)
* "How is Your Fish today ? (Jin tian de yu zenme yang)" (2006)
* "The Concrete Revolution" (2004)
* "Far and Near" (2003)

as Scriptwriter

* "Love in the Internet age (Wang luo shi dai de ai qing)" (1998)
* "House (Meng huan tian yuan)" (1999)

Books

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers

The novel tells the story of a Chinese woman who is sent by her parents to study in London. She soon renames herself "Z" because she finds that no one can pronounce her name, and then meets an English man without a name. Through the encounter, they both get to discover their own identity as well as the impossibility of two lovers to communicate.

The novel is deliberately written in the heroine's broken English, to begin with, in a post modern, near experimental dictionary form. With each chapter this broken English gradually improves, reflecting the improvement of the heroines's own English over the year in which the novel is set.

Nominations

On April 17, 2007, this book was nominated for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. [ [http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/show/feature/Orange-past-winners 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction - nominees] ]

Films

We Went to Wonderland (2008)

Two elderly Chinese communists arrive in the rundown East End of London and comment the Western Wonderland from their astonished Chinese perspective.The film which premiered at the Rotterdam IFFR was immediately picked for the prestigious New Directors/New Films series of the MoMa / Lincoln Film Society in New York.

How is your Fish today? (2006)

A writer's dreamed trip between city and village, reality and fiction, in a chaotic contemporary China."How is your Fish today?" explores the way we imagine reality, the way a writer plays with his subject and his story telling, and suggests how one's life gains meaning and weight through imagination.

The Concrete Revolution (2004)

A meditation on the price paid for the building of the new China. This film essay starts with unemployed peasants rushing into Beijing to work on the demolition and construction of the city. New China uses these people's desperation to realize its huge ambitions. But the workers don't belong in Beijing, and Beijing has no place for them either. They long to return home.
As China sends rockets into space and prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, this poetic film essay shows a crucial turning point in China's history, and captures a rapidly disappearing past and erosion of its roots.

Film Awards

*How is your Fish today?Grand Prix, Créteil International Women Film Festival 2007; nominated at Sundance Film Festival 2007; special mentions at the Rotterdam Film Festival's Tiger Award 2007, the Pesaro Film Festival 2007 and the Fribourg Film Festival 2007.

*The Concrete RevolutionGrand Prix, International Human Rights Film Festival, Paris 2005;Special Jury Prize at EBS International Documetary Festival, Seoul 2005

*Far and NearBeck's Future Prize 2003, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

Notes

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/howisyourfishtoday/ HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY?] site for Independent Lens on PBS