Books, Movies, and TV Shows

Denison Avenue （ECW Press， May 2）

Evolved from an Instagram account documenting the changes of Torontos Chinatown run by scriptwriter Christina Wong and illustrator Daniel Innes， this innovative novel follows the story of an elderly widow. Wong Cho Sum collects bottles and cans as a means to combat loneliness in the neighborhood of Kensington Market， a rapidly gentrifying community that used to be home to many first-generation Chinese immigrants. Toisanese， the endangered Chinese dialect and mother tongue of the local residents， is generously used with English translations in dialogues and narration. Illustrations of street scenes and stores form separate sections from the text， providing a beautiful visual history of a changing community. – Liu Jue （劉玨）

Where Waters Meet （Amazon Crossing， March 1）

A woman embarks on a journey from Toronto to Shanghai and Wenzhou， Zhejiang province， to learn about her late mothers secret early life. Instead， she discovers a remarkable family history of survival and resilience through war and famine. This is Chinese Canadian writer Zhang Lings tenth novel， and her first written in English. Trauma and healing are the major themes of Zhangs work， drawing from Chinas tumultuous modern history， as well as her experience working as a clinical audiologist in Toronto， with war veterans and refugees among her patients. Zhang regards the book as the sister novel of her previous work， A Single Swallow， translated and published in English in 2020. Both stories are partially set in Wenzhou， Zhangs hometown and constant source of inspiration. – L.J.

Mystery Train （Sublunary Edition， October 18， 2022）

One of bookies favorite bets to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in recent years， Chinese experimental fiction writer Can Xue diverges from the realist tradition of her Chinese contemporaries born in the 1950s. In this mystery novella， a worker on a chicken farm is sent via train to buy feed， but soon suspects he is at the center of a conspiracy： The farm manager forgot to give him the business contract; the train is bound for the wrong destination; darkness and cold suddenly invade the sleeper carriage as the train makes an emergency stop. But neither the conductor nor the police offers any explanation. Instead， the protagonist is told to lie down and relax about whatever is coming. As he crosses paths with more odd characters， a deeper darkness awaits. – L.J.

The Long Season （TV Series， April 22）

This second TV series by musician-turned-director Xin Shuang， following his 2020 hit drama The Bad Kids， is set in an old industrial city in northeastern China， or Dongbei. In 2016， taxi driver Wang Xiang （Fan Wei） and his brother-in-law Gong Biao （Qin Hao） try to get a refund on a secondhand car Gong just bought， only to find the car is associated with an unsolved murder and the drowning of Wangs son 18 years ago. They restart their efforts to crack those cases with former police officer Ma Desheng （Chen Minghao）. Rather than crime solving， however， this suspense drama， which takes place over three time periods （1997， 1998， and 2016）， focuses more on the destiny of its characters， especially with a major development in 1998 when many people， including Wang and Gong， were laid off by the local state-owned steel factory. Though rated at 9.4 out of 10 on review platform Douban， The Long Season has been criticized for its male leads toxic masculinity and its one-dimensional portrayal of female characters. – Tan Yunfei （譚云飛）

Journey to the West （Film， April 1）

Though it shares the title of the classic Chinese novel， this film directed by Kong Dashan is not about the Monkey King and a pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures， but about an ordinary mans pursuit of UFOs and the meaning of human existence. Protagonist Tang Zhijun （Yang Haoyu）， editor-in-chief of Space Exploration magazine， takes a group of colleagues to investigate the mass sighting of a UFO in a village called Burning Nest in southwestern China， where a stone ball has disappeared from the mouth of a stone lion. While fans of this sci-fi comedy find it amusing， romantic， and philosophically inspiring， dubbing Tang Chinas Don Quixote or Sisyphus， others are bored by the mockumentary style， which features shaky handheld footage， frequent jump cuts， interview-like scenes， and what they call “neurotic acting.” – T.Y.

Youth （Spring） （Film， May 18）

Debuted at this years Cannes Film Festival， Youth （Spring） documents the life of young migrant workers in Zhili， Zhejiang province， a childrens clothing manufacturing hub with an immigrant population of 350，000. Shot between 2014 and 2019， the documentary records how youths， some as young as 17 and from as far as Yunnan province， 2，500 kilometers away， work for over 10 hours a day in factories， and spend the rest of their time in dormitories or even still at their workstations， chatting with friends and strangers via the instant messaging app QQ. Director Wang Bing and his team also followed some workers to their hometown in Yunnan to find out more about their families. This 212-minute film is the first of a three-part documentary that runs for 9 hours and 40 minutes in total， the other two parts of which are yet to be released. – T.Y.