Fruit Bats

AbstractIn early 2020, when COVID-19 was ravaging China, there were suggestions that bats might have transmitted the virus to humans. In western Guangdong Province, people were contemplating the eradication of the thousands of wild bats that inhabited Pineapple Sinkhole Cave on Yusun Mountain in S County. In an effort to save the bats and the local ecosystem, a team consisting of a life sciences professor, a young Chinese literature instructor, and a fruit farmer embarked on an adventure into Sinkhole Cave. Along the way, they discovered many significant contributions that bats make to agriculture, ecology, and culture. At the end of the story, the government ultimately decided to move forward with the extermination of the bats, but the team found the bats had already mysteriously vanished from the cave. AcknowledgmentsOriginally published in Beijing Literature (Beijing wenxue), no. 8 (2020), and reprinted in Short Stories Monthly (Xiaoshuo yuebao) no. 9, Selected Chinese Literature (Zhonghua wenxue xuankan) no. 9, Yangtze Literature and Art: Good Novels (Changjiang wenyi: hao xiaoshuo) no. 10, and New China Digest (Xinhua wenzhai) no. 20. Included in the 2020 Classics of Contemporary Chinese Literature (Zhongguo dangdai wenxue jingdian bidu) short story volume edited by Wu Yiqin.Notes1 An explanation of the poem and list of the herbs can be found here: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/149301780.Additional informationNotes on contributorsNan XiangNan Xiang, the pen name of Xiang Nanxiang, is a professor at the Shenzhen University School of Humanities. He has published over one hundred works in more than ten genres including novels, essays, and criticism. His works include Southern Love (Nanfang de ai), Anecdotes from College (Daxue yishi), Affairs of the Past: The Republican Legacy (Qianchen: minguo yishi), The Woman’s Sunflower (Nüren de kuihua), Revolt and Flight (Panni yu feixiang), New Theories on Contemporary Works of Literature (Dangdai wenxue chuangzuo xinlun), The Green Train (Lüpi che), and Ransack (Chaojia). His novels have been nominated for the short story category of the Lu Xun Prize in Literature, and have been awarded more than twenty prizes, including the Shanghai Literature Prize, Beijing Literature Prize, and Lu Xun Literature and Arts Prize.Jeffrey KellerJeffrey Keller has worked as a professional translator since 2006, after graduating from the University of Chicago with a master’s degree in Chinese literature. He has translated works in fields of memoir, biography, academic papers, art, and other non-fiction writing. He currently resides in northern Virginia with his two sons.