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Flash fiction—lightning-fast stories of 100–800 words—is a favorite genre of contemporary Chinese authors. Shouhua Qi has collected the best of these pocket-size adventures, presenting one hundred twenty as-long-as-it-takes-to-smoke-a-cigarette stories that humanize life in modern China and bring a sense of humor, romance, and passion to a shifting reality.

The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories features voices from all walks of life. Some stories originally appeared in major Chinese literary magazines, while some originated on blogs and other digital media.

Shouhua Qi is an associate professor of English at Western Connecticut State University. The author of Red Guard Fantasies and other Stories and When the Purple Mountain Burns, Qi (pronounced “Chi”) is also an expert on Thomas Hardy, whose novels he has translated into Chinese.

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