Kunming, China
Bruce's web site -- Ethnic ChinaLit -- targets global publishers, agents and purchasing editors looking for writing by and about non-Han peoples in China for publication outside the PRC.
Take a look:
King Gesar: Tibetan Epic in Modern Chinese Prose
Right Bank of the Argun: Twilight of the Reindeer Evenki
A Chinese Muslim's Pilgrimage to Andalus
Interview with China Novelist Fan Wen: A Century of Cultural Collisions in Shangri-la
Book Review: A New Chinese-Turkish Dictionary
The Kite Runner in Chinese: An Afghan Childhood Re-packaged for the Middle Kingdom
English by Wang Gang: Book Review + Interview with the Translators
Interview with French translator of Fan Wen's Harmonious Land
Highlights of forthcoming August China Publishing Industry Newsletter:
The Netherlands: What to Expect from the Guest of Honor at the 2011 Beijing Int’l Book Fair
African Literature in China: Anything New Since Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart?
Jul-Aug Best Sellers in China
2011 Mao Dun Literary Prize: Shortlist & Problematic Voting Practices
Want your own copy? Sign up for free for here.
By Bruce Humes, August 9, 10:20p.m.
Highlights of July China Publishing Industry Newsletter:
--- Netherlands: Guest of Honor at 2011 Beijing Int’l Book Fair
--- Book review: Mongolian Shamans, Aobao Rites and Throat Singing
--- Piracy: Chinese Authors Found Fund to Bring Violators to Court
--- Han Han Speaks Out—in English
Want your own copy? Only registered subscribers get one. Sign up for free here.
By Bruce Humes, July 14, 9:01p.m.
Li Jihong (李继宏), English-to-Chinese translator of best sellers The Kite Runner (追风筝的人) and Conversations with God (与神对话), has just interviewed Penguin CEO John Makinson for Shanghai's Oriental Daily. See the full interview -- in Chinese -- here: http://www.dfdaily.com/html/1170/2011/6/19/619291.shtml
At the end of the interview, Li Jihong poses a question about how Penguin chooses the novels it sources in China and publishes in English. He points out that several of Penguin's recent purchases such as English (英格力士) by Wang Gang, A Civil Servant's Notes (公务员笔记) by Wang Xiaofang, and He Jiahong's Blood Crimes (血之罪) are hardly excellent works -- in the China context -- either in terms of market performance or content. This particular question is answered by Jo Lusby, Managing Director of Penguin China.
Her answer is quite interesting:
我们选书，主要是从西方读者的品位出发，而不是以中国读者的喜好为标准。在中国卖得好的书，未必适合西方读者，也未必能在英美卖得好。所以我们的考虑是，要选一些让西方读者感兴趣的东西。比如在西方读者眼里，中国政府是很神秘的，所以我们选择了王晓方的《公务员笔记》。我们觉得它是一本只有中国人才能写出来的好书，提供了一个局内人的视角，让读者可以深入地了解中国。这类书哪怕在中国很不被看好，不受欢迎，我们也认为有意思，值得翻译成英文。
"When we choose a book, our starting point is principally the tastes of the Western reader; our standard is not the preferences of the Chinese reader. A good-selling book in China is not necessarily appropriate for the Western reader, and will not necessarily sell well in the UK or the US. Our consideration is that we want to select things that will pique the interest of the Western reader. For example, in the eyes of the Western reader, the Chinese government is quite mysterious, so we chose Wang Xiaofang's A Civil Servant's Notes. We believe it is a good book that could only have been written by a Chinese. It provides an insider's perspective, and allows the reader to understand China in depth. Even if this type of book is not well viewed and is not popular [in China], we still believe it is of interest and is worthy of translation into English."
我不介意人家说我们选的书不是第一流的。我们不追求出版在中国最畅销的书，我们想出的是那些能够改变西方读者对中国看法的书。
"I don't mind if people say the books we choose aren't first class. We do not seek to [translate and] publish books that were best sellers in China. We want to publish those books capable of changing Western readers' views of China."
By Bruce Humes, June 19, 1a.m.
Liu Binjie, head of the much-beloved General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP)—the organ responsible for overseeing media censorship—has revealed several interesting facts and opinions during the ongoing National People’s Congress, according to a report by Zhao Huanxin in China Daily. To wit:
* The ratio of imported books/publications to those exported should hit 1:1 by 2015, the end of the next Five-Year Plan
* The ratio of imports to exports in 2001 was 17:1, and 3.3:1 currently
* Liu “is hoping to see more imported books portraying China as it really is”
* Liu “noted that Chinese books being exported will describe the country in an objective way”
By Bruce Humes, March 12, 6:25a.m.
The 25 books listed at the Three Percent web site feature authors from 19 countries writing in 12 languages: Czech, Dutch, Hebrew, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Arabic, Afrikaans, and Croatian, with books written in French, Spanish and German being the most numerous.
Number of books on the list that were translated from the Chinese: Zero.
By Bruce Humes, January 28, 6:44p.m.
Today's Publishing Perspectives notes that Joel's excerpt is attracting a lot of hits:
. . .Words Without Borders has published 1100 pieces from 110 countries and 80 languages — all of which can be accessed on their website — raising the profile of global literature in translation for English readers. Pieces on translation always receive a lot of hits, something [site founder] Mason suspects is due to their being used in classes. . . A surprising favorite genre among their readers is poetry. . .while 'much of our recent China traffic goes to our excerpt from Ball Lightning by Liu Cixin.'
By Bruce Humes, January 11, 5:25a.m.
Just saw this in a Publisher's Lunch e-mail:
Pauline Chen's THE RED CHAMBER, based on the Chinese novel DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER, in which the lives of three very different women in 18th-century Beijing intertwine in a sweeping story about romantic love and female friendships, [has been sold] to Jordan Pavlin at Knopf, in a pre-empt, by Elyse Cheney of Elyse Cheney Agency (NA).
Sounds, well, interesting.
By Bruce Humes, December 8, 10:49p.m.
Chinese novelist Murong Xuecun (慕容 雪村) was recently awarded the 2010 People’s Literature Prize for The Missing Ingredient (中国少了一味药), a reportage describing how he went undercover to bust a pyramid sales scheme in Jiangxi.
Ironically, at the ceremony he was barred from delivering his acceptance speech, according to Harvey Thomlinson, publisher of Murong’s Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu (成都，今晚请将我遗忘).
And just what had he prepared to say?
By Bruce Humes, December 6, 8:51p.m.
From the June 1 New York Times:
BEIJING — A security guard apparently angered by a court-imposed divorce settlement shot and killed three people and wounded three others at a courthouse in Hunan Province before turning the weapon on himself, the state media reported.
...the assailant, Zhu Jun, 46, was the head of security at a local Postal Savings Bank branch and had access to a small arsenal.
Thus my question: How does one say, "He went postal" in Chinese?
By Bruce Humes, June 1, 8:17p.m.
The Global Times reports that Thinkingdom Media Group has acquired the rights to publish Murakami Haruki's best seller, 1Q84, in simplified Chinese. Release for the first volume is set for end May.
Three very interesting developments in this deal:
---The group reportedly (no source cited) paid US$1m for the rights, which would make it the highest figure ever paid to publish a foreign book in Chinese for distribution in mainland China;
---It will first appear in hardback;
---Lin Shaohua (林少华), the translator of all but one of Murakami's novels, did not get the nod for this one. 1Q84 will be translated by Shi Xiaowei (施小炜), who translated Murakami's most recent work, What I Talk about when I Talk about Running.
Given that the first two volumes are already out in languages such as English, French, Spanish and German, one can't help wondering at the publisher's decision to launch just the first volume now, and to do so in hardback. Surely both volumes are already up in Chinese on-line where they can be accessed and perhaps even downloaded for free?
On a personal note, am pleased to see that the "Lin Shaohua Era" has come to an end. I don't read Japanese well enough to comment on the accuracy of his translations of Murakami. But I have read Lin Shaohua's as well as English and French versions, and his style leaves one feeling as if the books were penned in Chinese by a pretentious Chinese intellectual, and that really turns me off. I just don't believe that Murakami thinks or writes like a Chinese intellectual.
Bruce Humes
Chinese Books, English Reviews
By Bruce Humes, May 13, 9:11p.m.
Date: 19 Apr 2010
Time: 11:30-12:30
Location: Marlborough Room, Earls Court 1
Topic: From bestselling author to renowned publisher: The superstar of China’s ever-evolving publishing scene.
Speakers: Guo Jingming (郭敬明), author and publisher. And authors: Ye Chan, Xiao Kaiyin, Lu Lili, Chen Long.
If you go, please let us know how the session went.
By Bruce Humes, April 18, 9:40p.m.
This best-selling Chinese novel (额尔古纳河右岸) has now found buyers in the Netherlands and Italy. Visit here for the details.
By Bruce Humes, March 26, 8:14p.m.
From a report on tainted peas in China published by the New York Times (March 2):
"The outrage over the Hainan cowpeas, the latest in a series of Chinese food safety scandals in recent years, erupted on Feb. 21, when the agriculture bureau of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, announced that it had destroyed 3.5 tons of toxic cowpeas from Hainan. An urgent nationwide warning was issued by the central government’s Ministry of Agriculture, and within days, cowpeas tainted with the banned pesticide were discovered in the three other provinces.
Officials here in Sanya have criticized the Wuhan officials for breaking an “unspoken rule” that officials in different cities and provinces report problems to each other rather than telling the public, China Daily reported.
The release of the information by Wuhan officials “did not save face for Sanya, nor did it save face for the Ministry of Agriculture,” Zhou Qingchong, an official in the Sanya agriculture bureau, told China National Radio, an official news organization, according to the China Daily report.
Mr. Zhou said Wuhan officials could have told Sanya officials about the cowpeas privately, and Sanya would have sent out investigators.
'Wuhan is really not enough of a friend,' he said."
Chinese speakers will recognize this last sentence as a translation of a popular phrase (tho' not always about Wuhan): 武汉真是不够朋友!
Assuming I am right about the original Chinese, two questions: Does this quote read like "normal" English to you? How would you translate it?
Bruce Humes
Chinese Books, English Reviews
By Bruce Humes, March 2, 6:42p.m.
A gutsy young Hui from Xinjiang has reportedly just arrived in Oslo to take part in the Worldwide Mr. Gay. One can only surmise that, as much of a hassle as he may have been given, he couldn't have left China with a valid passport unless somebody upstairs gave the nod. Read the details here.
And so, my questions: What is the current status of gay and lesbian writing in China today, both by homosexual authors, and by others writing about the topic? Translation-wise, which works have been translated into or from Chinese? What kind of censorship do such works face?
Chinese Books, English Reviews
By Bruce Humes, February 12, 6:54p.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?
By Bruce Humes, January 22, 8:42p.m.