Chen-Fu Hsu’s debut novel begins with a young Taiwanese naturalist on an arduous quest for the elusive snow leopard, weaving in excerpts from translated entries from a left behind diary of a fictional Japanese monk, which bears witness to the seismic transformations of Tibet across the decades under Chinese rule.

Following his deeply spiritual connection to Tibet, the protagonist sets off on multiple journeys to the region, describing in brilliant detail the vast beauty of the Tibetan plateau and the wildlife that has existed since time immemorial. However, on his third visit to the region, he is harassed at every turn by the Chinese police who confiscate his belongings, including his books, eventually forcing him to leave for Taiwan. One book overlooked by the Chinese police is the long-lost diary of Udagawa Ekai, a Zen monk who traveled to Lhasa in the postwar years. The diary tells the monk's story up until his death as a recluse, and paints a picture of a Tibet that has a diverse and deeply religious culture that has fought against invaders on multiple fronts.

Hsu laces excerpts from Ekai’s diary within his narrative, tracing the changes sparked from the horrors of the Chinese military annexation in the 1950s through the Cultural Revolution and into the contemporary age of forced economic development. Through encounters with the people of Tibet and their stories, What's a Snow Leopard to You? spans the divide between an intimate portrait of a land in flux and a philosophical inquiry into humanity’s fraught yet enduring bond with nature. This richly layered work braids history with myth, environmentalism with art, and creates a single story of change in one of the world’s most sparsely inhabited regions.

About the Author

Chen-Fu Hsu ( 徐振輔) was born in Taipei in 1994. He holds a BS in Entomology and an MA in Geography from National Taiwan University. His works have been selected four times in the Chiu Ko Publishing Annual Prose Selection and won several awards such as Taipei Literature Annuity. While having no ambitions in photography, he dreams of photographing snow leopards, narwhals, birds of paradise, and other creatures that some believe are myths. Serving as a Canon lecturer, he has held a solo exhibition of Wildlife Photography titled “Wings over and over, and light covers light. ” What’s a Snow Leopard to You? is his debut novel that has already won many literary awards in Taiwan.

Howard Goldblatt translates fiction from China and Taiwan, including novels by Nobel laureate Mo Yan, five of whose works are published by Arcade (The Garlic Ballads; The Republic of Wine; Big Breasts and Wide Hips; Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out; Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh). He has also translated works by Chiang-Sheng Kuo (The Piano Tuner) and Liu Zhenyun (I Did Not Kill My Husband; The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon; Remembering 1942, all with Sylvia Li-chun Lin and published by Arcade).

Sylvia Li-chun Lin, a former teacher and scholar of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture, is a full-time translator and seasonal gardener. She and Howard Goldblatt live in Lafayette, Colorado, with their sometimes surprising cat, Domino.

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