★ Copyright Sold: Traditional Chinese and Russian!

★ Kong Kong’s debut novel, sweeping three major literary awards:
/ Winner of the 2023 TSMC Literature Prize (First Place)
/ 48th Hong Kong Youth Literature Award
/ 19th Ye Hong Women’s Poetry Prize

★ Sixteen short stories following the precocious girl Zhou Wei, a metaphorical maze from shoe games to Barbie dolls—every page is an unspoken confession of East Asian daughters.​

★ Captures the moth-like collision between mother and daughter in a concrete box, with accusations like "I could have chosen not to give birth to you" striking at the silent core of modern parent-child relationships.

Does your relationship with your mother define your relationship with the world around you?​

An East Asian daughter’s solitary adventure in the world: Since when did we stop speaking our truths?​

The World Around Mefollows the precocious girl Zhou Wei​ as she seeks selfhood and explores the world, crafting a contemporary women’s story. The absence of her father, her chaotic coexistence with her mother, and the marital lives of other female relatives in the family all shape Zhou Wei’s early character, agitating her sensitive heart and influencing how she interacts with the outside world—
"A pair of moths trapped in a glass jar, no matter how fiercely they collide, the wall remains indifferent and transparent. So, they can only hate the other moth."Chen Xianglan tells Zhou Wei that she ruined the most important opportunity of her life.

"I could have gone to the city."
"I could have had a good job."
"I could have chosen not to give birth to you."
"I could have..."

In elementary school, Zhou Wei’s Chinese homework required her to use the word "originally"(benlai) in a sentence. The nine-year-old wrote: "She originally could have not been my mother."The teacher marked it wrong with a red X and the comment: "Absurd."Zhou Wei didn’t understand the word "absurd."She looked it up in the dictionary—it meant "exaggerated and untrue."Why couldn’t wishes be exaggerated and untrue? Later, she realized that "originally"wasn’t a word for making wishes—Chen Xianglan just loved pairing it with the life she dreamed of, leading to the misunderstanding.

Kong Kong​

Born in 1992, graduated from the Department of Political Science at Renmin University of China. Winner of the TSMC Literature Prize (First Place), Hong Kong Youth Literature Award, and Ye Hong Women’s Poetry Prize. Translator of Hermann Hesse’s Trilogy: Siddhartha, Demian, and Steppenwolf.

The Concrete Box
The Silent Ghost
The Shoe Game
A Brief History of Lies
The Life of Shoe Sizes
The Little Mermaid
Missing Person Notice
The Mysterious Room
The Wasteland Universe
The Barbie Doll
Moonlight Memories
Camera Magic
The Night of the Calamity Star
The Time of Magic Potions
The Land of Light
...

Every mother-daughter relationship is far more complex than imagined: "A pair of moths trapped in a glass jar, no matter how fiercely they collide, the wall remains indifferent and transparent. So, they can only hate the other moth".

"For me, writing is 'another pair of eyes'—not outward-facing, but inward. The light it relies on comes from within, illuminating an inner landscape in a darkened world. A quiet square glows day and night, patiently waiting to be observed and captured."

—Kong Kong