The Night of the North Star

ポラリスが下注ぐ夜

This is the third novel by Akutagawa Prize-winning Japanese author Li Qinfeng. The Japanese edition has received rave reviews since its publication, and in 2021, he was awarded the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Newcomer Award at the 71st Arts Awards. The Traditional Chinese version was translated by Li Qinfeng.

Shinjuku 2-chome, Asia's largest gay district, boasts over 400 gay bars within its narrow, less than 0.1 square kilometer area. Every night, it ignites with vibrant lights and a bustling atmosphere. Polaris, a lesbian bar with seating for just seven, is one such spot. Every night, a diverse mix of nationalities, cultures, languages, and sexual preferences mingle here, creating a moment of brilliance.

Yu, who seeks solace in a one-night stand after a breakup; Yijun, who experienced the Sunflower Student Movement; Su Xue, who is asexual but suffers from the pursuit of the opposite sex; Xia Zi, who experienced the collapse of the bubble economy in the 1990s... The whole book is set in Polaris and is divided into seven short stories, which are connected like the Big Dipper, writing about seven different lives.

Good reviews and recommendations
Writers and media recommend: "Unnameable emotions and identities, embracing the beauty and loneliness of one's true self. Wavering between nostalgia and the future, in search of a momentary salvation, they gradually merge into the sanctuary of Shinjuku 2-chome." -- Akiyoshi Higashiyama (writer)

"Li Qinfeng's novels draw on Taiwan's unique LGBTQ+ culture and social movements, combined with Japan's distinctive bar culture and interpersonal interactions across borders, to create a novel that is both unique and relatable. Her novels make the Shinjuku 2-chome bar scene no longer solely Japanese, not just belonging to the present, but transcending time and space, enduring forever." - Chen Xue (author)

The award-winning commentary for the "Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Newcomer Award" at the Arts Selection was: "Li Qinfeng uses the people who gather at Polaris, a bar in Shinjuku 2-chome, to depict a powerful and profound form of love in a pluralistic form. Today, we still often categorize so-called sexual minorities as "normal" or "abnormal." "The Night the North Star Falls" tells the story of young people struggling with this division, a story that is both tragic and filled with hope for solidarity and change. The author, originally from Taiwan, uses her powerful writing to bring a fresh perspective to contemporary Japanese fiction, which often tends to be introverted. This work is a gem and deserves this award."

【Japanese Edition Book Review】
"This book, written by a Taiwanese author who sailed across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, has the potential to become a representative series of short stories from the first half of the 21st century... His debut work, "A Solo Dance," and his Akutagawa Prize-nominated work, "The Crescent Moon," also fully demonstrated his ability to accurately depict political realities and his excellent descriptive ability to vividly convey the flavor and atmosphere of a scene. These skills finally reach a mature state in this book." - Danjiro Osano (author), "Subaru"

"What a voracious novel. The fact that such a vast amount of information has been successfully transformed into an engaging and captivating work is enough to demonstrate Li Qinfeng's growth as a novelist... Readers can explore Shinjuku 2-chome under the guidance of Polaris, resonate with the many sad and arduous "pure love" stories full of obstacles, analyze it as a work depicting modern minorities, and use it as material for discussing the gradual multi-ethnicization of Japanese society and the literary world. I am deeply delighted by the birth of such a novel with so many reading possibilities." - Hibika Takashi (Japanese modern literature scholar, Associate Professor at Nagoya University), "Literary World"

"The intertwining impacts of Taiwan's 2014 Sunflower Student Movement and China's 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre are striking. Young women from Japan, Taiwan, and China, facing traumatic experiences related to sexual minorities, emerge strikingly against the backdrop of a world steeped in reality." — Kazuo Tanaka, arts critic, Mainichi Shimbun

"When you begin reading a work with great expectations, and it far exceeds them, you're left speechless... This work delicately tells the very personal stories of the people who gather in the small community of Shinjuku 2-chome, while fully describing the differences in gender and sexual orientation, as well as the race, nationality, political realities and history that these people have no choice about, and yet achieves a universal height. This kind of novel is unprecedented in contemporary Japanese literature." - Tomoyuki Hoshino (author), "nippon.com"

"All the characters in this novel face their own desires and identities, living in a state of unanswered questions. The author depicts these people not only from an existential perspective but also from a social perspective, which gives the novel an overwhelming sense of scale." - Fushimi Kenmei (author), "Kyodo News"

"What they all share is a refusal to be labeled a minority. They seek to escape the frameworks forced upon them by the world, clinging to their own identities and freedoms as individuals with their own unique bodies and histories. This work, with its rigorous yet delicate prose, depicts the tension and pain within." —Ami Konan (book critic, lecturer at Kyoto University of Arts), Tokyo Shimbun

"Readers are bound to sigh and exclaim in awe. This romance novel is enough to overshadow memories of the Korean drama "Winter Sonata," and it might even change your perspective on the world." — Minako Saito (art critic), éclat

"This book, set in the lesbian bar 'Polaris' in Shinjuku 2-chome, chronicles the interpersonal relationships unfolding through seven short stories in a slow and unexpected manner... Transgender, homosexuality, bisexuality, and even the older term 'onabe' make an appearance; the depictions of sex and gender are truly diverse." — Honchao Yukiko (translator and essayist), Weekly Shincho

"This book depicts the stories of people collectively known as 'sexual minorities,' but the impression most readers have of the term 'sexual minority' is tragically betrayed in the first chapter, 'Twilight.' ... The language is filled with a stunningly precise and delicate beauty. This is an irreplaceable novel that perfectly captures the pain and joy of 'naming the world.'" —Kuramoto Sayori (book critic), Novel Tripper

"I want to go to Polaris, too—that's what I honestly thought after reading it. ...If one of the missions of literature is to amplify the voices of the voiceless, then Li Qinfeng's novels have indeed successfully picked up the subtle echoes of the city of Japanese literature. ...Just as the stars are loosely connected to form constellations, women are also connected, sharing the joy and sorrow of love, or the difficulties of continuing to be themselves." - Miyuki Ozawa (Editor, Writer), "Chikuma"

2022-02-14

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