闫红

Yan Hong is a Chinese author about whom limited public information is available. Her work centers on literary appreciation and prose essays. Seven of her books are included in the collection, showing a sustained and careful interest in the Book of Songs (Shijing) and in Tang and Song poetry. She contributed to Xu Yuanchong: The Breathtaking Tang and Song Poetry and Book of Songs (eight volumes) and wrote English-Chinese appreciation books such as Youyou Luming, There Are Fusu Trees, and Swallows Fly, which use the idea of “breathtaking beauty” to bring the imagery and feeling of classical verse to contemporary readers. She is also the author of A Misreading of Dream of the Red Chamber, a personal rereading of the classic, and of prose collections such as My Portable Life and My Home, written in a plain, warm style that draws on everyday details and personal reflection. Her writing combines popularization of classical literature with the temperament of the personal essay, and is suited to general readers interested in traditional poetry and literary reading.