Drama runs in her writing

The Swan is the most painful novel Xu Xiaobin has ever written. But like her other books, it is filled with magical romanticism. Mei Jia finds out what inspires the first Lu Xun Literature Prize winner.

Xu Xiaobin is a unique Chinese writer. She's different not because she writes from a female perspective, not because she considers herself an outcast of her family, tradition and her time, and not because of the inerasable memory of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) often repeated in her works.

She is special because she represents an oft-neglected strength in contemporary Chinese writing: romanticism and even magical romanticism.