Su Tong’s prolific and provocative oeuvre – six novels including “Rice”, “My Life as Emperor”,
a dozen novellas and more than 120 short stories – has earned him a pre-eminent place in
the heart of China’s literary scene. In 2009 he was awarded the “Man Asian Literary Prize”,
turning him into one of that rare breed of writers, whose work wins him both critical acclaim
and popular praise from his millions of readers. His best-known work outside China is the
novella ‘’Wives and Concubines’’, on which the screenplay for the film “Raise the Red Lantern”
was based. Directed by Zhang Yi Mou and starring Gong Li, it won both an Oscar and a Bafta:
the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the British Academy of Film and
Television Arts Award for Best Foreign Language Film.