In the spring before the pandemic, Jia Pingwa invited me to Xi’an to talk about a translation of his novel, The Shaanxi Opera, which I was close to completing. For me, it was a chance to creep (under supervision) around the studio of a master. In the small amount of space not taken up by ancient curios and books—among them, a few collections of Eileen Chang—I discovered a few sheets of loose-leaf manuscript. Later, I found out it was an urban novel—about women.

Jia Pingwa, born 1952, is one of the biggest names in contemporary Chinese literature, widely considered a peer of Mo Yan, the first and only Chinese writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. Sitting on top of many domestic and international literary awards, he writes observantly and prolifically, often depicting the lives of common people and, through them, insights on humanity as well as a changing Chinese society.

The book resulting from the manuscript I saw, The Sojourn Teashop, is inspired by the women that often gathered in the tea shop that once operated in the same building as Jia’s studio. I wondered if perhaps this was a response to the accusations of misogyny that had plagued Jia his entire career.

Sojourn, originally published in 2020 and now with a new English translation from Sinoist Books by Nicky Harman and Jun Liu released this February, begins with a young Russian woman arriving in the city of Xijing (Jia’s usual pseudonym for Xi’an) from St. Petersburg. Her point-of-view defines the novel, along with that of Yi Guang, a male celebrity writer that could be read as a stand-in for Jia himself. But the book is less about them than it is a group of 11 women nicknamed at various times “the Sisterhood” and the “Eleven Pieces of Jade.”