image of person or book cover 5535446424942568779.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Bapo selected work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 Bapo
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The title of Nicholas Jose’s new collection of stories refers to a form of Chinese painting that tricks the eye into thinking what it sees is a collage of fragments. Bapo literally means ‘eight broken’, where eight is a Chinese lucky number and ‘broken’ implies that luck has run out – though the term also suggests that there’s another kind of luck, in simply surviving, and being able to hold the pieces of one’s life together in some sort of order.

'Jose’s stories feature a cast of characters affected by time or chance in different ways, artists, diplomats, entrepreneurs, immigrants, families at the crossroads. Many explore Australia’s relationship to China or have echoes of China in them; others dwell on the qualities of memory, resilience, play and adventure – qualities which are implicit in the form of bapo, and characteristic of Jose’s writing as a whole. (Publication summary)

Exhibitions

17484770
17457169
17461630
17457182
17459906
17457142

Notes

  • Launched at Gleebooks, Sydney, Thursday 27 November 2014, with Nicholas Jose in conversation with Beth Yahp.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Artarmon, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Giramondo Publishing , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 5535446424942568779.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 231p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 September 2014
      ISBN: 9781922146632

Works about this Work

Beyond the Cosmopolitan : Small Dangerous Fragments Michelle Cahill , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel 2023; (p. 243-257)

'Whereas much scholarship still associates migrant fiction in Australia with social or documentary realism, this chapter emphasizes its playful, iconoclastic, and experimental qualities. It questions the conventional long form as a closed, stable narration that relies on summation and style. Instead it turns to short fiction, examining writers such as Tom Cho, Nicholas Jose, and Melanie Cheng who operate as transnational, experimental, and decolonial forces in Australian writing.' (Publication abstract)

Nicholas Jose, Bapo Kay Hart , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 8 no. 1 2015;

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
Eight Broken and the Unspoken : A Peephole into a Love Affair with China Jennifer Popa , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 29 no. 1 2015; (p. 233-235)

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
Book Review: Bapo by Nicholas Jose Robert Fairhead , 2015 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The NSW Writers' Centre Blog

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
Gay Lynch Reviews Bapo by Nicholas Jose Gay Lynch , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , April no. 17 2015;

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
A Fragmentary Collection That Fails to Maintain Focus A Fragmentary Collection Echoes Chinese Whispers A. P. Riemer , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 22 November 2014; (p. 29) The Sydney Morning Herald , 22-23 November 2014; (p. 37)

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
Nicholas Jose : Bapo Michael Richardson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , December 2014;

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
Well Read Katharine England , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 1 November 2014; (p. 27)

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
Bapo by Nicholas Jose Felicity Plunkett , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 367 2014; (p. 27)

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
Gay Lynch Reviews Bapo by Nicholas Jose Gay Lynch , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , April no. 17 2015;

— Review of Bapo Nicholas Jose , 2014 selected work short story
Beyond the Cosmopolitan : Small Dangerous Fragments Michelle Cahill , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel 2023; (p. 243-257)

'Whereas much scholarship still associates migrant fiction in Australia with social or documentary realism, this chapter emphasizes its playful, iconoclastic, and experimental qualities. It questions the conventional long form as a closed, stable narration that relies on summation and style. Instead it turns to short fiction, examining writers such as Tom Cho, Nicholas Jose, and Melanie Cheng who operate as transnational, experimental, and decolonial forces in Australian writing.' (Publication abstract)

Last amended 27 Feb 2020 14:25:03
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