"Huang is previously the author of a witty and stylish book about Charlie Chan which drew on a variety of artforms – from doggerel verses to B-movies – to reflect on the representation of China in the West. The Big Red Book, which benefits from translations by a Who’s Who of talent, is similarly wide-ranging. And while Huang’s prose choices are relatively conventional, his selections of poems and sketches of their authors are engagingly idiosyncratic."
The Times Literary Supplement "[A] worthwhile anthology... that manages to combine the established canon with less-well-known selections... [Its] breadth and variety…will, one hopes, encourage new readers to explore more Chinese literature in full translations."
Julia Lovell - The New York Times Book Review "...a magisterial new volume..."
The Herald