Shuang Xuetao writes gritty tales about his hometown in China’s rust belt.  Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

China’s ‘Dongbei Renaissance’

Dongbei, a region in northeastern China, was long the country’s industrial heartland: Some even called it China’s Rust Belt. But in the 1990s, waves of mass layoffs left millions there unemployed, as China shifted from a planned economy toward a market-based one.

Decades later, the region is at the center of an artistic wave, sometimes called the “Dongbei Renaissance.” A television drama about a faded factory town was China’s top-rated show last year, and songs by Dongbei musicians have gone viral. Shuang Xuetao, who grew up there, published a new collection last month, and a star-studded film adaptation of one of his novellas is due this year.

“I said, OK, I want to help others better understand this place of ours,” Shuang, 40, said. “I want to leave a record of these people.”