Sun Wei is a Chinese novelist, short-story writer and essayist. She was born in 1973 in Shanghai and grew up in a family of intellectuals.
She is among the Chinese generation known as "the last idealists"; in her two early novels, To Where the Flowers Blossom (2006) and The Good Old Days with Democracy, Science and Law (2008) she created an intimate portrayal of the pursuit, efforts and loss, dreams and dignity of her generation. Her sentimental and poetic style greatly moved readers.
Since becoming a full-time writer, she spent several months each year living in remote areas in China studying the local rituals, customs, religion, and collecting folk legends and myths of different ethnicities. In her search for deliverance from the "malaise" in modern Chinese society, she has discovered that real wisdom and elegance can be found in the cultures of ancient times, when people were at peace with their souls and content with the generosity of mother nature instead of being tormented by wealth creation. Her anthropological interest formed the basis of her following two novels Death of the Last Arcadian Village and The Confession of a Bear (2010).
Her literary awards include First Prize at the second New Literary Writers of Shanghai Contest in 2005. She participated in the Shanghai/Cork literature residency in Cork, Ireland in 2011 and Life of Discovery 2012 of the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa in the United States.
