(I know, I know, but someone had to post this at some point. Figure it might as well be me.)
Author Eveline Chao and illustrator Chris Murphy serve up some naughty, naughty Mandarin in Niubi: The Real Chinese You Were Never Taught in School. 160 pages of handy up-to-date profanity and text that includes Chinese characters, pinyin, tonal marks, pronunciation guides and dubious etymologies. Fun for all ages.
ChinaSmack has good scans of text and illustrations from the book, and spirited Chinese and English commentary from readers.
Here's the Amazon link, and a link to an old Paper Republic discussion thread in which we hashed and mashed "The Unspeakable Bi".
By Cindy M. Carter, January 30, 10:32a.m.
The Grayhawk Agency in Taiwan is calling for translation sample submissions for Mai Jia's book Decoded. Any translators interested in submitting a sample for this book, please email a query to submissions@paper-republic.org, and we'll send you two novel extracts to choose from, as well as more background information on the book and author. Please send your inquiries within the next two weeks.
The Grayhawk Agency will be accepting samples through the first week of March, following which two translations will be chosen (one for each of the two extracts) to be used with the promotional package, and recommended to publishers. Translators whose samples are chosen will be paid $300.
The Grayhawk Agency's most recent sale is Zhang Ling's Gold Mountain Blues.
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 28, 9:52a.m.
From March 5-19, 2010, the Beijing Bookworm will be holding its annual literary festival. During the same period, Bookworm locations in Chengdu and Suzhou will also be hosting authors, readings and events. Here's a tentative schedule for some Chinese authors who will be doing readings/Q&A sessions at the Beijing location (PLEASE NOTE that this is a TENTATIVE schedule - check Bookworm site for updates and ticket prices.)
Sunday, March 7, 3 pm - Li Er - 李洱
Sunday, March 14, 6 pm - Yan Lianke - 阎连科
Monday, March 15, 7:30 pm - Bi Feiyu - 毕飞宇
Tuesday, March 16, 12:30 pm - Hong Ying - 虹影
Tuesday, March 16, 8:30 pm - Miao Wu and Xu Zechen - 徐则臣: Chinese Urban Fiction
By Cindy M. Carter, January 24, 3:45p.m.
The latest entry in Canongate’s Myth Series, King Gesar, has been launched in China, and the firm has confirmed to me that it hopes to publish it in English within 2011. When it makes its appearance, it will join other creatively re-told tales commissioned by the UK publisher, including The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood’s take on Penelope of The Odyssey), Baba Yaga Laid an Egg (Baba Yaga as per Dubravka Ugresic), and Binu and the Great Wall (by China’s Su Tong).
I recently began reading King Gesar in Chinese (格萨尔王), and I wonder: Who is the author, Alai (阿来), and why was he commissioned to write the novel? Having grown up in Tibet under Chinese rule, has he had access to traditional Tibetan literature and the minstrels who transmitted the epic ballad down through the ages? How well does the book capture the spirit of this epic that is still deeply revered among Tibetans, Mongolians and various peoples of Central Asia?
More…
By Bruce Humes, January 22, 8:42p.m.
Alerted by the Literary Saloon that "Asia's leading literary festival" is on in Jaipur Jan 21-25, I checked out the list of speakers.
Wow! Around 175 speakers, including many authors and some journalists, academics and even translators. Granted, the overwhelming majority are Indian or live there, but even so, their countries of origin make an interesting read: Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Burma, as one might expect, and the US and the UK are well represented too; but also France, Spain, Italy, Antigua, Congo, Nigeria and South Africa.
And---unless I missed it---not one speaker from anywhere in China.
Chinese Books, English Reviews
By Bruce Humes, January 20, 5:26a.m.
The Journal of Specialised Translation (JoSTrans) issue 13 is online now. Of particular interest for Paper Republickers, as it focusses this time on Chinese to English translation. All papers are free to view.
By Nicky Harman, January 19, 5:52p.m.
From Financial Times (1/16/10):
Just as cicadas thrum more urgently at the start of autumn, sensing that the
end is nigh, internet users in China have been seizing in animated fashion
on what one called "the last crazy days of Google.cn".
With the US technology giant allowing uncensored searches in Chinese for the
first time, citizens of the People's Republic are this week indulging their
curiosity ahead of a widely expected crackdown.
"I've been doing all sorts of crazy searches, really distracting myself from
my work," says one. "I've done Tiananmen Square, the love affairs of
national leaders, the corruption of leaders' children. Everything."
Another internet user says the buzz of illicit abandon is reminiscent of the
mood in Tiananmen Square itself, shortly before the People's Liberation Army
crushed the protests there in 1989. "There is no way that Google will get
away with this. They will have to leave China for sure," he adds.
More…
By Cindy M. Carter, January 17, 3:27p.m.
Another good bit from Han Han's blog (we should just start a Han Han channel here). Minutes after I read this blog post I got a dirty message from Wang Xiaoshan, "in support of Han Han".
Lastly, I saw a news report that said that any cell phones used to send dirty messages or pornographic content will have their SMS capabilities turned off, and you'll have to go to the police station and give them a written pledge before they'll turn it back on again. The government's just like this: it always gives you a verb and a noun, and then it never explains the noun. For instance, you can't be counter-revolutionary, but they never tell you what counter-revolutionary means. You can't commit hooliganism, but what is hooliganism? Now you can't send dirty messages, but they won't tell you what a dirty message is. I used to go along with the government and accept their standards, but friends kept straying unwittingly into mine fields – even some fifty-cent Party members who mean to kiss ass end up not passing inspection, and look stupid. My recommendation is that these mine fields be written out clearly: "over here is a mine field, enter at your own risk". But not only do they make no clear statements, they keeping piling mines on the sidewalk – who's fault is that if we step on them? So it's nearly the New Year, everyone will be sending text messages around: in order to avoid the tragedy of friends getting their phones shut off and having to go to the police station to give a written pledge on the first of the new year, I've decided to sacrifice myself. For the next few days I will continually send dirty messages from my phone until it is shut off. Then I'll come back here to tell everyone exactly what constitutes a dirty message or pornographic content. So if you get a dirty or pornographic message from me, please don't get me wrong: I'm not in heat and I'm not flirting with you, I'm just exploring.
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 14, 10:42p.m.
Following up on the announcement a few weeks ago of the re-opening of the Banyan Tree, China's first influential literary website, this is a short Q&A with Wang Xiaoshan and Yang Yong, Editor in Chief and Managing Editor, respectively, of the new Banyan Tree, the most recent acquisition of Shanda Literature Limited, which is in turn a part of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited, an online gaming, literature and music empire that has an eye on most of the prime digital real estate in China. The Banyan Tree, which first opened in 1997, has languished over the past four or five years, but Shanda is intent on breathing new life into the old brand.
Why did Shanda buy the Banyan Tree, instead of just starting a new literary website?
Wang Xiaoshan: I think they were looking at the Banyan Tree's brand. That site started 12… 13 years ago now, Christmas of 1997. Back then it was a personal website, but as it grew it fostered a lot of great authors and scriptwriters. So even though it's traded hands several times in the past few years, it's brand and its image is still there. This way, it's big news from the very beginning.
Yang Yong: A lot of literary youth still have an emotional attachment to the site, as well.
More…
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 13, 11:42p.m.
In response to Google's threat to exit China, people have started leaving bouquets of flowers at the entrance to Google headquarters in Beijing's Haidian District/Silicon Alley. Some supporters were told by security guards that they were not allowed to leave flowers at the entrance without a permit, which has given rise to a new Chinese internet meme: 非法献花, or "illegal presentation of flowers".
New York Times: Google, Citing Attack, Threatens to Exit China
Wired: Google to Stop Censoring Search Results in China After Hack Attack
By Cindy M. Carter, January 13, 6:32a.m.
So obviously, between Google agreeing to settle with Chinese writers on the book scanning issue, and Google announcing that it will no longer censor its google.cn search results, these are big days for Google and China.
There's been some press about the Google books issue inside of China, though as you might imagine it is carefully-edited, carefully-angled press, aimed at obscuring the censorship issue while making Google out to be a copyright-stealing, China-bullying corporate pirate. This widely-reposted article, in Chinese, represents the main thrust of reporting in China. In the interest of expediency and irony, we've run that article through the Google translator (editing only the title for clarity), and now leave you to puzzle through the (surprisingly comprehensible) results:
More…
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 12, 11:59p.m.
The following is a translation of "thing number one" from Han Han's latest blog post, "Three Things". He's talking about the continued non-appearance of his much-ballyhoo'd new literary magazine, called <独唱团> (temporary translation: Band of Soloists, any better suggestions?).
I attended two press conferences in Beijing, not for any promotional purposes – I don't like doing promotion even for books that earn me money directly, and I rarely meet with media or readers face to face. The purpose of these conferences was to lower everyone's expectations for Band of Soloists. I had originally meant this magazine to be a freer, wilder sort of literary magazine, but unfortunately, given present publishing restrictions, it's going to be difficult to realize that plan, and I'm also not willing to compromise to the point where the magazine is no better than traditional literary magazines. The magazine has yet to go to print, and the first issue is far from having a publication date. Actually the contents of the first issue were ready months ago; even the second issue is mostly complete, but various stumbling blocks have kept us from printing. I'm feeling pretty helpless; I'll try harder to work with my partners. Please understand that I personally have no desire for delays, I only meant to improve the lives of writers in China, and if the delays continue they could hold up my own finances too, I might not even get a new set of clothing for New Years. So I'm not delaying on purpose, I'm just trying to get a freer creative space for the writers who believe in me. Maybe my own strength and abilities are limited – I hope readers will forgive me, and forgive my incompetence. And please, everyone, lower your expectations for this literary magazine. Even if and when it finally goes to print, the first few issues will likely be terrible. I will do everything I can to guarantee a basic level of quality, but please don't hold out too much hope for it. Let me say to you once again, the flight will continue to be delayed, not because of technical errors with the plane, but because of inclement weather conditions.
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 11, 2:50a.m.
A couple of days ago (we're slow), the Three Percent translation/literary weblog posted their longlist for their 2010 Best Translated Book Award. They've picked their 25 titles based on an impressive (and possibly unique) breadth of reading and understanding of world literature; the list includes some darlings of the international scene (ie Robert Bolano) as well as a hefty representation of relative unknowns. We've got one dog in the race: Cao Naiqian's There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night, translated by John Balcom, but of course everyone's a winner…
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 6, 9:11p.m.
I went to the second day of the two-day events to celebrate Gao Xingjian’s birthday at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
More…
By Nicky Harman, January 6, 9:46a.m.
A recent review from the NYT Sunday Book Review begins like so:
Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s wonderfully stylized new novel, “Running Away,” begins with a question: “Would it ever end with Marie?” That’s only fitting for a book that leaves so much unanswered — we never learn the narrator’s name or occupation or, indeed, why his relationship with Marie, his Parisian girlfriend, is tanking. Those aren’t the only riddles, either. From the outset, the narrator fails to divulge why Marie has asked him to deliver $25,000 to a Shanghai associate, Zhang Xiangzhi.
Now I may be afflicted with some occupational disease here, but to me the only thing that stands out in that paragraph is the fact that an author with a French name, writing an English-language thriller, has not only chosen to set part of his international storyline in China, but has given a major character a Chinese name containing two "zh"s and the dreaded "x".
More…
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 3, 5:48a.m.
- Five Spice Street
By Can Xue
Translated by Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping
Yale University Press, 2009
- Banished
By Han Dong
Translated by Nicky Harman
University of Hawaii Press, 2009
Reviewed by Aamer Hussein, Pakistani short story writer and critic
More…
By Nicky Harman, January 1, 9:52a.m.
New Comments
on Freedom, with bits missing
There's poetry in that...
目田。
Just freedom,
with bits missing.
posted by Cindy Carter
I guess freedom's not just another word for nothing left to lose.
Lucas
posted by Lucas Klein
on Berlin Fang: Translator's Block
Good comments on the case of Zhang Shaogang Vs. Liu Lili
posted by Sun Huijun
on Here’s a novel way to get your favourite translated short story out there – podcasts
Hi Nicky Beautiful story and reading alive of such quality creates quite an atmosphere. Great idea. Bertrand
posted by bertrand mialaret
on Yan Lianke/Cindy Carter make the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize Shortlist
Congratulations Cindy!
posted by Bruce Humes
Thanks, Bruce! Hopefully this will help Dream of Ding Village find an even wider readership. And what amazing literary company to be in...I just got my first Kindle and can't wait to read the whole Man Asian list ...
posted by Cindy Carter