Chinese Literature in Translation
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Metre Maids' Sarah Stanton on Xi Chuan & Lucas Klein at Beijing Bookworm
The reading began with “This Minute”, an early work with a haunting refrain: the line “we live together on this planet of deserts and seas” is repeated, with a growing momentum, throughout the piece. Xi Chuan kicked things off with the Chinese, and then Lucas read the English translation. Most people in the room were bilingual, and could appreciate the poem both ways; my listening skills are still not at the stage where I can understand a poem delivered aloud, but nevertheless I caught enough tantalising glimpses of meaning to make the English reading, when it came, even more fulfilling. It was rather like looking at the sky through a thin headscarf, or a thick cloud of Beijing pollution, understanding just enough of what I saw out there to know that it was a sky and that when the moment came for me to see it clearly, it would be beautiful.
French Rendition of Fan Wen’s “Harmonious Land” to Launch by early 2013
The trilogy spans most of the 20th century, hopping back and forth between the decades and capturing the non-linear Tibetan sense of time. Fan's imagination almost seems to get the better of him as Living Buddhas levitate and Shamans summon spirits to do battle, but the stories are firmly rooted in the locale's colorful history. Historical fiction with dabs of highly entertaining "supernatural realism" thrown in, if you like.
The opening novel, Harmonious Land, (水乳大地) recounts the tale of a multi-ethnic settlement in Lancangjiang Canyon (gateway to Tibet), beset by battles between arrogant French Catholic missionaries, incompetent officials and their marauding troops, Naxi Dongba Shamanists, and the dominant Tibetans, not all of whom lead pacific, vegetarian lives in the local lamasery.
Endless August, by Anni Baobei
An extract from 'Endless August', in The Road of Others, published in Make-Do Publishing's Modern Chinese Masters series, April 2012.
Translated by Keiko Wong.
Among the writers in China (London Review of Books)
The LRB 10 May 2012 has an article by Joanna Biggs (LRB editor) on the pre-Bookfair British Council trip that took journalists to China to meet writers. The journalists spoke to 14 fiction writers in Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing. She mentions Yu Shi, Bi Feiyu, Han Han, Liu Xiaobo, Yan Lianke, Murong Xuecun, Qi Jiazhen (but obviously didn't meet all of them).
Her article follows a piece by Wang Hui entitled 'The Rumour Machine - Wang Hui on the dismissal of Bo Xilai'.
Wanted: an outstanding scholar in the field of 19th and 20th century Chinese Literature
(via MCLC) : The Comparative Literature Programme at King's wishes to appoint an outstanding scholar in the field of 19th and 20th century Chinese Literature. This new position is the third new appointment in Comparative Literaturein the current academic year. These posts represent the growth andinternationalisation of Comparative Literature at King's, combining itshistorical strengths in modern European literatures and their classicaltraditions with its more recent expertise in Asian, Middle Eastern and/orAfrican literatures and cultures....
For further information about Comparative Literature at King's see: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/complit/index.aspx . For informal enquiries, contact Professor Javed Majeed, Director of theProgramme for Comparative Literature at javed.majeed@kcl.ac.uk or
Professor David Ricks, Deputy Director of the Programme, at david.ricks@kcl.ac.uk.
The Transparent Translator: Cindy Carter on "Dream of Ding Village"
. . ."I also had about 8 meetings, 30 hours in all, with Yan Lianke to discuss questions of authorial intent and so on. . .things only he could answer. He was very generous with his time, infinitely patient with my questions, and his wife makes the best noodles on the planet. My neighborhood tailor, who grew up in rural Henan, even contributed some useful sketches of the clothes worn by characters in the novel. I didn’t have a native Chinese speaker proofread my text, and actually never considered doing that: I think that with literary translation, it is important to cast one’s net wide, and not rely too heavily on the opinion of a single individual. In the end, I bear responsibility for the accuracy, fluidity and readability of the translation, and the best way to live up to that responsibility is to consult with as many people as possible, keep an open mind, and craft a translation that transcends subjectivity (my own subjectivity, and that of others)."
Sexuality as rebellious gesture in Wang Xiaobo’s The Golden Age trilogy
by Jin Wenhao
Abstract: Wang Xiaobo is a Post-Mao novelist whose works have prompted tremendous attention from the intellectuals and the public after his death. The straightforward representation of sex in his fiction is often considered as one of the sources that contribute to his “liberal spirit”. This is because many of Wang Xiaobo’s stories full of sexual depictions are set during the Cultural Revolution. But Wang Xiaobo’s ambiguous manipulation of the relationship between sex and the power makes his resistance to authoritarianism a tricky issue. On the one hand, his nonchalant attitude to both sex and politics can be interpreted as a mocking of the Maoist ideology. On the other hand, the author’s detachment from the political background and the protagonist’s sexual carnival in the rural areas can be considered as indifferent to the Cultural Revolution. The engagement with Maoist ideology in the theoretical framework of suppression/revolt cannot give a satisfactory answer to the role of sex in his fiction. This thesis amends this framework by taking other elements than Maoist discourse into consideration.
Beijing Guomi Digital Technology publishing Liu Cixin
Interview with Verbena C.W., who publishes Liu Cixin in English, 10 May 2012:
Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Verbena C.W., editor-in-chief of Beijing Guomi Digital Technology, a company that is translating into English and publishing works by Liu Cixin and other Chinese authors. We talk at length about fiction in China and the company plans for the future....
Andrew F. Jones - lecture in London on 30 May 2012
Quotations Songs: Portable Media and Pop Song Form in the Chinese 1960s
by Professor Andrew Jones on Wed 30 May 2012, at 4pm
in Room 4421, SOAS, University of London
Free, All Welcome
Five top works of Chinese dissident literature
Ma Jian talks to Alec Ash, of The Browser about:
Li Sao (The Lament), by Qu Yuan
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong
The Real Story of Ah-Q, by Lu Xun
One Man's Bible, by Gao Xingjian
Tombstone, by Yang Jisheng
Peter Mayer on Publishing and Promoting Russian Works
How about sales of Russian works?
Translations from any language as a general rule do not perform well in any English-language market. I do not think the Russian situation is particularly different from, say, the Italian situation. Of course, there are always exceptions. At Overlook/Ardis, our Russian titles are relatively modest sellers, but some of them are steady and growing.
What are your thoughts about Russian translators and translation quality?
There are probably no more than 10 really good translators out there that serious publishers can use. When it comes to translation quality, it's not a question of accuracy but of nuance, especially in fiction. The prose has to read fluidly in fiction, and this is a completely different issue from literal accuracy.
James Cameron on China's Film Censorship: "Can't be judgmental about another Culture's Progress"
NYT: You must have had people talk to you to give you a briefing on the censorship process, about how it works or how it’s affected certain films here [in China]. Do you have any general thoughts on that?
Director James Cameron: As an artist, I’m always against censorship. But censorship’s a reality, even in the U.S. We have a form of it there. We used to have the Hays commission. We now have the M.P.A.A. ratings system, which is basically a self-censorship process that prevents government from doing it. But the economic imperatives are that if you get an R rating, the studio won’t make a film that looks like it’s headed toward an R rating, and if you get a R you’ve got to cut it yourself to comply with PG-13. So it’s really just a form of censorship indirectly.”
NYT: Do you consider that the same as Chinese censorship?
Director James Cameron: You’ve got a little more choice in it. It’s not as draconian. But I can’t be judgmental about another culture’s process. I don’t think that’s healthy.
NYT: Did you talk to other filmmakers – your peers – about Chinese censorship?
Director James Cameron: No. I’m not interested in their reality. My reality is that I’ve made two films in the last 15 years that both have been resounding successes here, and this is an important market for me. And so I’m going to do what’s necessary to continue having this be an important market for my films. And I’m going to play by the rules that are internal to this market. Because you have to. You know, I can stomp my feet and hold my breath but I’m not going to change people’s minds that way. Now I do feel that everything is trending in the right direction right now, as I mentioned earlier.
Coming to terms with the past: China
By Steve Smith, History Today, vol. 53, no. 12
... the construction of popular memory is a political matter in which differentially empowered forces seek to determine whose experience is preserved for posterity...
Steve Smith is Professor of History at Essex University. His most recent book is Like Cattle and Horses: Nationalism and Labor in Shanghai 1895-1927 (2002).
Translation and feminization in Yu Dafu's 'Moving South', by Luying Chen
From Christopher Lupke, via MCLC List):
The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, Vol. 66,No. 1, pp. 45-63.
Abstract: Yu Dafu's novella "Moving South" forms a dialogic relationship with Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship in the male protagonist's translation of the song "Kennst du das Land?" Wilhelm Meister's translation of Mignon's Italian singing into this German song emblematizes the formation of a masculine rational German subject through cofiguring an Italian other as too feminine and emotional to be "domesticated. Yi Ren's translation of the central line in the song into Chinese emblematizes the formation of a transnational as a sentimental and feminine figure through cofiguring a Japanese woman as an other that cannot be domesticated. "Moving South" critiques European Romanticism and Christianity.
Wolfgang Kubin's views on Chinese writing and writers
From Shanghai Daily, 11 May 2012
Mentions the following novelists and poets: Lu Xun, Han Han, Guo Jingming, Eleen Chang, Lin Yu-tang, Hu Shi, Yu Hua, Mo Yan, Bei Dao, Yu Qiuyu, Ouyang Jianghe, Xi Chuan, Zhai Yongming, Yang Lian.
He particularly likes Ouyang Jianghe.
Chinese novelists Qiong Yao and Jin Yong
Chinese Dreams: Chinese Literature, by Jake Burrell, 9 May 2012
Setting the clock back to the early 1980’s, the restrictions of Chinese society provided the perfect backdrop for imaginations to become ensnared in literature as a way of escaping economic and social hardships. For the children who grew up at the dawn of modern China, the hearts of young girls were captured by the romantic fiction of Qiong Yao, and the boys lost themselves in Jin Yong’s fantastical tales of martial arts heroes...
Voices: a sampling of contemporary Chinese fiction
Voices: a sampling of contemporary Chinese fiction, by James Weir, 9 May 2012
Includes a writing competition in Chengdu, and the five short stories published by The Guardian in April.
Reading Chinese novels in the West
by Bertrand Mialaret, Chinese Cross Currrents, 9.2
See also Bertrand Mialeret's bilingual (French/English) website www.mychinesebooks.com
Comparing Richard III and The First Emperor
Podcast of lecture by Frances Wood (British Library) sandwiched in between the matinee and evening performances by the National Theatre of China's production of Richard III at Shakespeare's Globe, London, on 29 April 2012.
Lucas Klein reviews Chan Koonchung's The Fat Years, translated by Michael Duke
The cover screams “The Book No One in China Dares to Publish,” the Financial Times and The Observer have offered ad-like reviews, and copies have spilled off bookstore displays in Hong Kong and London for months; The Fat Years is the new must-have for the politically righteous book consumer in the English-speaking world. Consumer, that is, not reader, since most reports mention little about the story other than its premise. Probably better this way, since aesthetics too often fail when put up against political righteousness.
Alas, the book is as heavy-handed as the state propaganda it criticizes, and there is more intrigue behind the no one in “no one in China” than within the book’s pages.
The Ming StoryTellers, by Laura Rahme
The Ming Storytellers is a historical tale of 15th century China that sweeps across the palaces of Nanjing and Beijing into the moutainous villages of Yunnan, where a mysterious shaman holds the key to a woman's destiny. Across the oceans, from the bustling bazaars of Southern India to the lush shores of Zanzibar, nothing is quite what it seems...
For more info, go to http://www.themingstorytellers.com/story.htm
Tiananmen Fictions Outside the Square, by Belinda Kong
by Amalie MacGowan, The Bowdouin Orient, 4 May 2012.
Kong unknowingly began her book while writing her graduate dissertation at the University of Michigan 12 years ago. Starting with Gao Xingjian's play Fugitives—one of the works for which the author won the Nobel Prize in 2000—Kong went on to explore more Chinese diasporic literature...
Also incorporates three novels: Ha Jin's The Crazed, Annie Wang's Lili and Ma Jian's Beijing Coma...
Lucas Klein will be reading selections from Notes on the Mosquito, a collection of the poetry of Xi Chuan in Lucas's English translation, recently published by the tweedy untouchables at New Directions. Xi Chuan will be there, too. In case "time" and "place" are concepts that matter to you, the schedule says May 10th, 7:30 at the Beijing Bookworm.
By Canaan Morse, May 3, 9:19p.m.
Li Jingze: Faint Praise for Novelist Feng Tang
冯唐的世界无故事，冯唐的世界甚至无人物，没有人会想象自己是冯唐小说中人，想进去也找不到门，冯唐的世界在人的自我想象自我意识之外封闭自足，他的小说永远拍不成电影电视剧，因为他的世界没有权力和意志甚至竟然没有爱欲。
Censorship in Iran: Pointers for China
Iran's ministry of culture and Islamic guidance vets all books before publication. Three censors read each book to make sure it conforms to Islamic values. Censorship might apply to only a word, a sentence, a paragraph or sometimes a text as long as a dozen pages and the result would be given to the publisher after a long procedure that might last a year or two. Censors, who sometime use computer software to look up "unIslamic words", go as far as advising writers to substitute certain words with other "appropriate" phrases, should they wish their book to be approved. Publishing houses will be given negative points if they persist in sending too many books to the ministry which they deem to be unsuitable, encouraging self-censorship.
Speaking to the Guardian, Mehdi Navid, who has translated Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar into Persian, called some changes ridiculous. When publishing a book by Charles Darwin on evolution, he said, the ministry asked the publisher to add an introduction to the book explaining that Darwin's views were unIslamic and untrue and the book was to be published to expose the wrongdoings and the decadence of the west.
While I was Translator-in-Residence at the Free Word Centre at the end of 2011, I was asked to incorporate some translation activities for children. Easier said than done. I’d never taught children and I had none of those indispensible contacts in local schools. To cut a very long story short (and six months must surely be the world’s longest lesson preparation time), I ended up in a secondary school on the southern outskirts of London at some ungodly hour of a January morning this year, clutching a DVD of a version of Monkey aka Journey to the West and (at the teacher’s request) the whole text of my chosen 7-minute clip written out in pinyin.
By Nicky Harman, May 2, 3p.m.
June Fourth Elegies, by Liu Xiaobo
Poetry is not dead: It’s eternal, by Richard Abowitz (JH Weekly) 2 May 2012
“June Fourth Elegies” published earlier this year is the first English translation available of the poetry of Liu Xiaobo. It is an unusual book in a few ways. For one thing, there probably are not many poetry volumes that will appear this year with an introduction by the Dali Lama...
A balance of fact and fiction, by Mei Jia (China Daily), 2 May 2012
China Daily reporter Mei Jia interviewed Ha Jin on Nanjing Requiem, his latest book, which has been released in both Chinese and English...
Story of a God, by Sun Shixiang
Rural revelation, by Liu Jun (China Daily), 2 May 2012
Passengers on the subway during Beijing's rush hour might have wondered why I was on the brink of tears. I was simply engrossed in Story of a God (Shen Shi, yet untranslated), a down-to-earth narration by little-known author Sun Shixiang, who died in 2001 at just 32. It's daunting take - three bulky volumes involving hundreds of characters plus crude editing, the book is a worthy choice for anyone wishing to gain a deeper insight into present-day China. Published in 2004 and reprinted by Language & Culture Press in 2011, the book reveals the harsh realities of the countryside as the farmers' son Sun Fugui fights tooth and nail for a better life outside his hometown in mountain-locked Yunnan province....
"Old Dog": Pema Tseden's Latest Film Shot in Tibetan to Premier in LA
The first director ever to film a movie entirely in Tibetan on the ground in China, Pema Tseden, now has another award-winning flick to his name: Old Dog. It captured the Grand Prize at the Tokyo Filmex in late 2011, and will premier on the West Coast of the US in Los Angeles on May 11, 2012. The director will be on hand for a post-screening Q & A.
“Old Dog,” writes Nicola Davidson in Tibet New Wave for the South China Morning Post, “is a story centred on an aged Tibetan Mastiff. The creature has caused a rift between a father who dresses in Tibetan Garb and rides a horse to town, and a son, an alcoholic who rides a motorbike.”
Rectified: Peking Opera Masks and the London Book Fair
There is no way to have a fair or reasonable conversation about the literary merits of dissident or exile authors — some of whom, like Yang Lian and Liao Yiwu, are very good indeed — compared to authors who are read in China. We can probably all agree that in a better world, or at least a world in which the British Council had more backbone and the Chinese government had more maturity, the list of Chinese authors at the London Book Fair would have been a different one. Here on Earth One, though, things were never realistically going to go any other way, and so we may as well look at the authors who were on offer. Fortunately, many of them are much better and more interesting than the prevailing tone of the English-language coverage might lead you to believe.
The Defining Fiction of Modern Chinese Society
Commentators have borrowed Ma Jian in writing vigorous — sometimes caustic — attacks on the Chinese government. And even those inclined to feel sympathy toward Chinese authors seem disappointed that they’re not pushing harder. Everyone seems to be waiting for the writers to speak with the kind of courage and moral clarity displayed by political dissidents like Liu Xiaobo and Chen Guangcheng. What’s holding them back? Asked directly, most will say that they have perfect freedom to write but imperfect freedom to publish — namely, that self-censorship is not an issue.
I don’t believe this for an instant.
I have been asked to flag up the Stephen Spender poetry in translation prize, which welcomes translations from Chinese, particularly of contemporary poetry. Deadline for entries is a month today on 1 June.
By Nicky Harman, May 1, 6:13a.m.
Graphic novel for children: La Balade de Yaya
'La Balade de Yaya' Feature Animation News - April 30th, 2012 11:21 AM by Aaron H. Bynum
According to Editions Fei, La Balade de Yaya has sold more than 40,000 copies since its debut last year. The series' first volume, "La Fugue," debuted in January 2011, and introduced readers to the exuberant daughter of a wealthy Chinese merchant. War is on the horizon, however, and through the second ("La Prisonniere," July 2011) and third ("Le Cirque," December 2011) volumes, Yaya comes to rely on Tuduo, a ragamuffin whose courage in the face of adversity is well appreciated. The little girl's fondness for the finer things in life are suddenly confronted by the grim reality that her country is being slowly torn apart.
New issue of Chutzaph out soon - contents page here
Includes the following translations:
Excerpt from Mail-Order Bride, by Zhang Ling, tr. Nicky Harman
Butterfly by Sheng Hui, tr. by Diana Shi and George O'Connell
Lucas Klein on Xi Chuan and translating "Written at Thirty"
"Written at Thirty" comes from right after Xi Chuan's switch from lyric to expansive prose poem. While it's not prose, obviously, it nevertheless contains the multitudes that any open look at one's biography requires. Other translators have published their versions—both online and in print—but my translation takes advantage of Xi Chuan's explanation to me of what he meant by the line I had earlier translated as "I grew up with the whole world's crickets": he said his teenage years coincided with the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976), which also entailed a change in Chinese people's relationship with Maoist rhetoric. Much of his poem, he said, was an attempt to "write through" his upbringing and the language around him. English-speakers being, for obvious reasons, much less attuned to Marxist diction, I rewrote my translation through the final appeal of The Communist Manifesto, to translate the line as "with working crickets of all countries I grew up."
Liu Cixin, eight time winner of the Galaxy award
By Damien Walter, The Guardian, 27 April 2012.
Is science fiction literature's first international language? From China to Russia and beyond, SF is emerging as the genre best able to articulate the relentless pace of global change... The work of Liu Cixin, eight-time winner of the Galaxy award and arguably the most popular SF author in China, is now available in English translation. Liu Cixin's writing will remind SF fans of the genre's golden age, with its positive focus on scientific development, combined with a consistently constructive vision of China's future role as a global superpower. It's characteristic of an SF genre which has been embraced by Chinese culture because it is seen as representing the values of technological innovation and creativity so highly prized in a country developing more quickly than any other in the world today.
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/04/27/a-publishers-year-at-the-london-book-fair/
Later, on Tuesday afternoon, MacLachlan and Fizet head towards the Chinese pavilion, where MacLachlan will talk about a book she knows little about. The Chinese have scheduled a press conference to announce the English-language edition of Black Flame, a children’s book to be released by Anansi’s sister publisher, Groundwood Books, in 2013.... The emcee, a young woman in a black cocktail dresses, describes Heihe, the book’s author, as “one of the most popular authors of animal stories in China.” The book is about a puppy orphaned after its mother is killed by a snow leopard. After a short speech from Huang Jian, president and publisher of Jieli Publishing House, the book’s Chinese publisher, MacLachlan takes the podium. Normally an assured public speaker, she seems out of her element.This book is translated by Anna Holmwood
Under the Hawthorn Tree, by Ai Mi
Lennie Goodings, publisher of Virago Press and one of Margaret Atwood’s editors, stops by the table. A couple of years ago, Anansi bought the Canadian rights to Ai Mi’s novel Under the Hawthorne Tree from Virago; it is now a Heather’s Pick at Indigo, and has sold 15,000 copies in Canada. “Do you have another Chinese novel that I need to buy?” MacLachlan asks.
This books was translated by Anna Holmwood.
During my challenge on Paper Republic, I wanted to find out more about Chinese literature in France: who is translating it, and who is publishing it. After hours of surfing, I had produced a list, but I didn't really have a feel for what I was doing. So I asked Bertrand Mialaret (editor of the website www.mychinesebooks.com) if he could help. He has produced two really helpful lists for us, which are now posted on this website under Resources for Translators.
Thank you, Bertrand!
By Helen Wang, April 28, 7:49a.m.
Dream of Ding Village, by Yan Lianke, reviewed by Yiyun Li
Reviewed in The Guardian, 23 April 2012
Translated by Cindy Carter.
Circulated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain via MCLC (denton.2@osu.edu) Subject: Lan Lan and Yi Lu
A chapbook (translations + bilingual) of contemporary Chinese poets Lan Lan and Yi Lu has just been published by The Offending Adam: http://theoffendingadam.com/2012/03/15/a-chapvelope-three-sighting/
China in Ten Words by Yu Hua, Duckworth £16.99 (4/5 stars), reviewed by Siobhan Murphy in The Metro (free newspaper, London), 25 April 2012, p. 39. The translator, not named in the review, is Allan H. Barr.
I'm posting this because it is the second review of a Chinese novel that I’ve spotted this year in The Metro (free London newspaper). The first was Geling Yan’s The Flowers of War, translated by Nicky Harman. Maybe coincidence, or maybe the Arts Editor is taking an interest in Chinese fiction?
By Helen Wang, April 25, 6:56a.m.
The second issue of Pathlight: New Chinese Writing, themed “The London Book Fair,” is now downloadable as Epub (most devices including Apple) and Mobi (Kindle devices) by following this link!
The kind of writing that is coming out of China right now include chick-lit, family-orientated dramas, tales of escape from the rural to the urban, of grievous policies in the countryside, science fiction, and historical epics. It’s possible that we cover all of those topics in the new issue.
By Alice Xin Liu, April 25, 4:15a.m.
http://cadensa.bl.uk/cgi-bin/webcat
While looking for podcasts and recordings, I asked at the British Library. The curator/librarian provided the following info:
To browse the British Library Sound and Moving Image Catalogue, got the website, select advanced search, and check out the language and type menus.
By Helen Wang, April 24, 5:26p.m.
Lucas Klein reviews Zhai Yongming's The Changing Room, translated by Andrea Lingenfelter
Some poets write about the problems of language and indeterminacy; some write about society and culture; some write about gender. Zhai Yongming, China’s pre-eminent contemporary woman poet whose work has finally been published in book form in English, is unique in her ability to combine all three dimensions—the interpretive function, social change, and being a woman—into one relentlessly strong poetic expression.
‘A visually stunning spectacle.’ Boston Metro on the show
China at the heart of the 20th century. A nation transformed beyond recognition. Through the eyes of one fiercely courageous family, Wild Swans takes us on a journey from the early days of Communist hope and struggle, through the chaos and confusion of Mao's Cultural Revolution to the birth of a superpower. An astonishing human story, Wild Swans has sold 13 million copies in 36 languages, making it the best-selling non-fiction book in British publishing history. This first ever stage version brings together Jung Chang with playwright Alexandra Wood, director Sacha Wares, designer Miriam Buether and Beijing video artist Wang GongXin.
A million dollar deal struck at London Book Fair
"Big Deals, ‘Seismic’ Change at LBF 2012 - It’s a Wrap", by Andrew Albanese and Rachel Deahl, Publishers' Weekly, Apr 23, 2012:
Legendary literary agent Camen Balcells, meanwhile, struck A MILLION-DOLLAR DEAL with publisher Thinkingdom for Chinese rights to Gabriel García Márquez’s 100 Years of Solitude.... For complete coverage, including copies of our three Show Daily editions, visit PW’s London Book Fair landing page at www.publishersweekly.com/lbf
Chinese Fiction at Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford, 18 April 2012
“Billed as a rare event offering insights into the literary landscape of modern China, Wednesday’s panel discussion with Ma Jian, Li Er, and Geling Yan provided a packed cafe with a chance to see three great figures discuss their writings in a relaxed environment. In listening to Ma Jian’s personal tale of visiting his comatose brother and missing the Tiananmen Square protests, or Geling Yan’s depiction of what she termed a “beautiful suicide,” we the audience were entertained by accomplished storytellers....
The Music of Ink at the British Museum
Articles, interviews and full colour illustrations - in a new book featuring Yang Lian (poet), Romesh Gunesekera (author), Denis Brown (calligrapher), Qu Lei Lei (visual artist), Rohan de Saram (musician), Zeng Laide (calligrapher) and Wang Tao (writing on calligraphy). Edited by Helen Wang.
Words without Borders - Dispatches from the London Book Fair
Read about Day 1
Read about Day 2
Read about Day 3
Read Nicky Harman's translation of Throwing out the Baby by Xu Zechen
Qiu Xiaolong's new book: Don't Cry, Lake Tai
Sunday, April 22, 2012, Espionage and mystery in modern-day China, review by Mark Schreiber of Don't Cry, Tai Lake, by Qiu Xiaolong. St. Martin's Minotaur, 2012, 272 pp., $24.99 (hardcover)
"Sons of Heaven, Brothers of Nature: The Naxi of Southwest China""
A new book from Kunming-based Pedro Ceinos Arcones on this Yunnan people renowned for their Dongba pictographs, Baisha mural paintings and Dongjing music.
From MCLC mailing list (MCLC@lists.service.ohio-state.edu) https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/mclc
Chinese highlights: An extensive interview with Hsia Yü and the other editors of Xianzai Shi (Poetry Now)--Yung Man-Han, Ling Yü, Hung Hung and Tseng Shumei on their latest issue, conducted by Dylan Suher and Rachel Hui-Yu Tang--accompanied by an immersive slideshow of erasurist poetry from the journal; an excerpt of Alai's King Gesar via new contributing editors Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Lin; and a new translation of a poem by Li Li, via Eleanor Goodman. There's also Sim Yee Chiang's and Sayuri Okamoto's new translation of a short story by Kou Reishi (黄霊芝), who has the distinction of being the last living Japanese-language writer in Taiwan.
By Helen Wang, April 21, 12:43p.m.
Chinese Under Globalization: Emerging Trends in Language Use in China
Chinese Under Globalization: Emerging Trends in Language Use in China, ed. by Jin Liu and Hongyin Tao, World Scientific (Singapore; London), 2012. ISBN: 978-981-4350-69-3
Contents:
--Synchronic Variation or Diachronic Change: A Sociolinguistic Study of Chinese Internet Language (Liwei Gao)
--The Metaphorical World of Chinese Online Entertainment News (Chong Han)
--The Use of Chinese Dialects on the Internet: Youth Language and Local Youth Identity in Urban China (Jin Liu)
--'My Turf, I Decide;: Linguistic Circulation in the Emergence of a Chinese Youth Culture (Qing Zhang and Chen-Chun E)
--Chinese Via English: A Case Study of 'Lettered-Words' As a Way of Integration into Global Communication (Ksenia Kozha)
--Learning English to Promote Chinese : A Study of Li Yang's Crazy English (Amber R Woodward)
--More than Errors and Embarrassment: New Approaches to Chinglish (Oliver Radtke)
--Writing Cantonese as Everyday Lifestyle in Guangzhou (Canton City) (Jing Yan)
--Negotiating Linguistic Identities Under Globalization: Language Use in Contemporary China (Jin Liu and Hongyin Tao)
Interview with Yan Geling
Interview with Mo Yan
By Helen Wang, April 21, 3:43a.m.
The darkness of 2011 continued. My latest work, “Four Books” — a novel that directly confronts the Chinese people’s traumatic experiences during the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s and the subsequent famine — was rejected by almost 20 publishing houses. The reasons I was given were all along the same lines: Anyone who dares to publish my book in China is certain to be closed down.
The novel took me 20 years to plan and two years to write. It is important to me as a writer, and I know it will be an important contribution to Chinese literature. However, I am fully aware of the realities of publishing in China, so I have no choice but to accept the fate of my book. All I can do is sigh.
http://www.granta.com/New-Writing
16 April - Flying Towards a Country of Rain, poem by Wang Yin (tr. Andrea Lingenfelter)
17 April - Petty Thief, short story by A Yi (tr. by Alice Xin Liu)
18 April - Shen Congwen: A Letter, tr. by Alice Xin Liu
19 April - Podcast of Mo Yan, interviewed by John Freeman
20 April - Solitude, poem by Huang Canran (tr. Judith Roche)
By Helen Wang, April 21, 2:52a.m.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards mentions Liu Cixin and Pathlight download
Hugo Award nominated writer, Ken Liu, is also a keen translator of Chinese fiction. His latest project is “Taking Care of God” by the popular Chinese science fiction writer, Liu Cixin. You can read it in issue #2 of the free ebook magazine, Pathlight.
An informal article by Canaan Morse on the poetry blog Metre Maids. Don't know why the site wouldn't let me newslink it.
By Canaan Morse, April 19, 10:04p.m.
Tibetan Writers in London on Freedom of Religion and Expression
Alai remembered going to the British Museum and seeing Tibetan culture represented by the religious stuff only. "As a Tibetan I felt uneasy," he said. "Our culture is far more than just temples and lamas."
Talking about the influence of Tibetan culture by modernization, Alai said "development is good, as a culture couldn't just live in museums."
His view was echoed by Cering Norbu ［Tsering Norbu, 次仁罗布］. "This influence is not solely on Tibetan culture," he said. "It is why writers are important, as they should record the history of a nation."
Alai has a famous historical novel, the Dust Settles [Red Poppies, 尘埃落定], which follows a family of Tibetan chieftains before the democratic reform in 1959. When asked if such topic was sensitive, he laughed and voiced his confidence.
"In fact, I am free to express my innermost thoughts in China and writing itself is a happy experience," he said.
While Cering Norbu is working on a new book, which tells the change of life among Tibetans after 1959.
"Nobody has written down completely the changes Tibet experienced during the past half a century," he said.
"We are enjoying religious freedom. Our lives have been greatly improved, particularly after the reform and opening-up. I want to tell the readers our true feelings," he said.
BBC on London Book Fair - with interviews
Emily Buchanan reports on the London Bookfair -includes interviews with Shen Keyi, Xi Chuan and Ma Jian.
Memoir to rival Wild Swans found in attic
Memoir found in attic could be as big a hit as Wild Swans, by Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent, The London Evening Standard, 19 April 2012:
A Chinese family memoir that languished in an attic for half a century is being hailed as a future hit as big as international bestseller Wild Swans. Agent Susan Mears is in talks with major publishers at this week’s London Book Fair after the manuscript documenting appalling hardship and bravery was discovered by London writer Howard Webster four months ago. It tells the story of Stephen Jin-Nom Lee, who rose from extreme poverty to become a colonel in the Cantonese Air Force, a professor, banker — and grandfather to Mr Webster’s Chinese-American wife, Julianne Lee.
Blue Door acquires The Bathing Women, by Tie Ning
Blue Door has acquired The Bathing Women, an iconic and bestselling novel by Chinese author Tie Ning which has been translated into English more than ten years after its original publication.
Editor Laura Deacon made her first acquisition for the list buying UK and Commonwealth rights through Arabella Stein at Abner Stein on behalf of Sobel Weber.
Huffington Post: Censorship = Castration?
From Beijing the issue is not so clear cut. The official delegation consists of some of the country's most popular authors. Examples include Internet sensation Annie Baobei, whose soulful, sad short stories are bestsellers; Man Asian Literary Prize winner Bi Feiyu; and the audacious, upcoming author A Yi, who writes dark tales about the countryside. All three deserve to be lauded - even if their journey to London is sponsored by the Chinese state.
What is clear is that censorship has a caustic relationship to creativity. China is now commanding the world's attention as an economic superpower. Its literature, however, flags behind its political clout. Censorship, it appears, is keeping the country's best writers in chains.
Just published! Ten stories from urban China, by Ho Sin Tung, Cao Kou, Jie Chen, Yi Sha, Zhang Zhihao, Han Dong, Ding Liying, Xu Zechen, Diao Dou and Zhu Wen.
Published by Comma Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1905583461
www.commapress.co.uk
By Helen Wang, April 19, 2:24a.m.
NY Review of Books: Bringing Censors to the Book Fair
What has caused a bitter public wrangle in London is that Beijing did not only choose—with the full approval of the fair itself and of the British Council—which writers to bring to the fair. In a disturbing repeat of what happened at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2009, it also excluded some of China’s best-known writers. Among these are two Nobel Prize winners: Gao Xingjian, China’s only Literature Prize laureate, who lives in nearby Paris, and Liu Xiaobo, the Peace Prize winner who is now serving out an eleven-year prison sentence. More scandalous still, not one of China’s diaspora poets and novelists was invited, even though most of the country’s most distinguished writers live abroad.
“We must be very powerful and they are frightened of us,” Qi Jiazhen, a fiery, seventy-year-old writer told me, at a meeting of Chinese writers in London to protest the fair’s corrupt invitation list. “That is why they won’t let us into the fair.”
From Michel Hockx: We are pleased to announce the launch of the JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR CHINESE STUDIES (JBACS), the new official journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies (BACS).
By Helen Wang, April 18, 6:03p.m.
Interview: Yan Lianke and his "Walden"
Yan Lianke (阎连科), author of Dream of Ding Village (丁庄之梦), speaks about the demolition of his Beijing garden-home, Thoreau's Walden and his own latest work, <北京，最后的纪念>. The interview is in Chinese.
All details here. Go for it!
By Nicky Harman, April 17, 2:47a.m.
