Our News, Your News
By Eric Abrahamsen, November 14, '14
Check out the Amazon.com page for the hardback edition of volume one of Liu Cixin's epic sci-fi trilogy, The Three Body Problem. Volume one, translated by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books, has only been out for a few days, and as of today is ranked #683 among all books on Amazon, and #1 among Chinese literature. Holy crap.
Congratulations to Liu Cixin, Ken Liu, and in advance to Joel Martinsen, the translator of the forthcoming second volume.
And to the rest of you Chinese authors… Reach for the stars.
"England’s Yellow Peril: Sinophobia and the Great War" - new book by Anne Witchard, author of "Lao She in London". Review in Wall Street Journal.
The AFCC 2015 (Asian Festival of Children's Content) will take place in Singapore, 29 May - 7 June. Country focus: China.
The competition is organised by the Writing Chinese project at the University of Leeds. To enter, download the very short story by Dorothy Tse, translate it and submit your entry before the deadline of 28 February 2015. The competition is free to enter, and open to anyone, in any country.
At a symposium last week, President Xi Jinping met with a group of artists, including the Nobel Laureate Mo Yan, and talked about the value of art in China. According to the official China Youth Online, he said, “For art workers to be successful, they must breathe together with the people, share their fate and feel their feelings, rejoice at their joy, grieve at their grief, and serve the people like a willing ox.”
But only the pursuit of true art, unencumbered by anyone, can help us find the delicate light, beauty, warmth and love that are hidden in the darkness.
The Chinese writer Yu Hua, well known abroad with international hits such as To Live or Brothers is back in Paris for the launch of his latest novel The Seventh Day.
- latest post by Bertrand Mialaret
The Galaxy Award Ceremony took place on September 20, 2014 at the Shanghai Children Art Theatre.
The award ceremony is held every year by Science Fiction World and it has always been in Chengdu, the foundation of Chinese science fiction, where Science Fiction World is located. This year it came to Shanghai for the first time.
By Helen Wang, October 18, '14
Please address inquiries or submissions to the editors at chineseartsletters@gmail.com or chineseartsletters@163.com (The deadline for inquiries for issue No. 3 is December 31, 2014; the deadline for submissions is January 31, 2015.)
CAL, vol. 1, no. 2 - Contents - see below
More…
'Writing Chinese: Authors, Authority and Authorship' is a new project based at the White Rose East Asia Centre in the University of Leeds, UK. Bringing together writers, translators, publishers, literary agents and academics working in the field of contemporary Chinese literature, we aim to foster closer links and dialogue, and to help promote contemporary Chinese writers in the UK.
Now a prominent novelist and a denizen of Beijing literary circles, Ms. Sheng eventually fashioned that turning point in contemporary Chinese history into a stomach-churning, exuberantly written allegory, “Death Fugue,” which recalls Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”
By Bruce Humes, October 13, '14
In Books in the Turkish Stand in Frankfurt Book Fair, Turkish columnist Doğan Hızlan reports on Finland's neat marketing ploy at the just-finished 2014 Frankfurt Int'l Book Fair:
I also learned that in Finland there are 2.2 million saunas. They have carried this widespread sauna culture to the book fair. Reading sessions are being held in public saunas in Frankfurt. A Finnish author could bust into any sauna . . .
More…
Explicit sex in storytelling has often been mistaken for pornography – and not just in China. We have only to think of the Marquis de Sade’s imprisonment, or the Penguin trial of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. In the foreword of my tattered copy of Lady Chatterley, Doris Lessing reminds us that writing about sex is never just about the act but about “all the power-play between the genders”. Arifa Akbar
The top 30 titles were by 8 authors, 6 of whom were Chinese, 5 of whom were in the richest Chinese authors list 2013, and 4 of whom have at least 1 book translated into English (either in print or at press).
By Eric Abrahamsen, October 6, '14
So it’s been a while since we made any sort of public announcements
about Pathlight magazine, though in fact production has continued
apace. In fact, we’ve got two rather large bits of news.
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Two issues have gone online more or less at once! How’s that for efficiency. The first is themed around minority/ethnic writers, and features writing by and about China’s ethnic groups. The theme of the second is gender – we started out thinking of it as a women’s issue, but it got a little bit bigger than that. Take a look, and tell us what you think!
Both issues are available as digital downloads on both Amazon and iTunes – we’re experimenting with a lower price, so if you were previously balking at $6.99, see how $3.99 strikes you.
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The other bit of news is that we’ve had a changing of the guard: after two years and nine issues of Pathlight, Alice Xin Liu is stepping down as managing editor, to be replaced by Dave Haysom, of Spitting Dog fame, and Karmia Olutade, a superlative translator of poetry, and now poetry editor. Thanks and best wishes to Alice, and welcome to the new crew! As usual, you can reach us with suggestions or submissions at info@paper-republic.org.
Look for the next issue, themed around the re-writing of myth and
history, early next month.
By Eric Abrahamsen, September 28, '14
There will be more to say about the Chinese-English Literary Translation Training Course over the next few days, but for now I leave you with an image of Jonathan Rechtman and Austin Woerner hard at work.
It's a brutal, thankless job.
NORMAN, OK – An international jury has selected the Taiwanese novelist and screenwriter Chu T’ien-wen (朱天文) as the winner of the fourth Newman Prize for Chinese Literature. She is the first female Newman laureate. Sponsored by the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for U.S.-China Issues, the Newman Prize is awarded biennially in recognition of outstanding achievement in prose or poetry that best captures the human condition, and is conferred solely on the basis of literary merit. Any living author writing in Chinese is eligible. A jury of five distinguished literary experts nominated the five candidates last spring and selected the winner in a transparent voting process on September 17, 2014.
The following contribution from Lucas Klein is our first post in a blog series we’re calling “The Untranslatables.” Klein was awarded the Lucien Stryk Prize in 2013 for his translation of Xi Chuan’s Notes On the Mosquito: Selected Poems, which he discusses here...
Best-selling author Murakami Haruki, that's who.
In Outcast of the Japanese Literary World, we learn that he is currently translating into Japanese a work by Norwegian novelist Dag Solstad. But in the past he has also translated writing by Raymond Carver and others.
Murakami obviously doesn't do it for the $$. A model for upcoming Chinese writers, more of whom have decent English (compared to older authors)?
A project looking to translate award-winning sci-fi from Chinese writers spearheads this week's look at crowdfunding, but that's not all - there's a short movie about Bears learning to use fire, a card game about the Periodic table and a lot more.
By Eric Abrahamsen, September 15, '14
Chinese Arts and Letters, a literary and academic journal, solicits
English-language contributions for issue No. 3. Texts not exceeding
10,000 words will be considered, consisting of translations of
contemporary Chinese-language literature in any genre, essays on the
Chinese arts and letters of any era, and creative writing in any
genre about China. Translated texts or inquiries for translations
must also submit the original Chinese text, and all translations will
be reviewed for accuracy and style. Payment for contributions is 0.80
RMB per word (contributions) or per Chinese character (translation),
before tax. Texts with a focus on Jiangsu may be given special
consideration.
Please address inquiries or submissions to the editors at
chineseartsletters@gmail.com or chineseartsletters@163.com The
deadline for inquiries for issue No. 3 is December 31, 2014; the
deadline for submissions is January 31, 2015.
By Bruce Humes, September 15, '14
When you have trouble moving product overseas -- and cash in your pocket -- you can always call on a classic strategy: take control of the distribution channels.
There are four traditional ways to do so: set up your own local firm; invest in a local firm; merge your firm with a local firm; or simply acquire an existing player in that market which owns a respected brand name.
Is China getting ready to do so in the publishing field, as part of its soft power push?
More…
Xiaoyan Huang is editorial specialist for children’s books at dangdang.com, China’s leading online shopping service provider, and the country’s top online children’s bookseller. She has worked in the Chinese book market for more than 20 years, for HarperCollins China, Amazon China, Macmillan China, and Hachette China.
The UK government is donating £1.5m for translation of all Shakespeare's works into Mandarin for audiences in China. Plans for cultural co-operation with China also include making 14 important Chinese plays available in English. ... The RSC will undertake the first translation of the Bard's complete works in Mandarin.
By Helen Wang, September 8, '14
Copied from Writing Chinese website:
Saturday November 1st, 2014. Public talk @11am – 1pm. Translation masterclass@ 2pm – 5pm. Venue to be announced (University of Leeds)
For our morning event, which is open to the general public (no registration required), author Yan Ge and her translator Nicky Harman will be talking about their work together. Yan Ge’s novella White Horse, translated by Nicky, will be released in October by Hope Road Publishing. And for a taster of more of Yan Ge’s work and why Nicky recommends it so highly, have a look at this recent article in Words Without Borders.
Our afternoon event is a literary translation masterclass, led by the author and her translator, and is open to anyone interested in the translation of contemporary Chinese fiction into English.
The masterclass is free but registration is required. If you’d like to attend, please email us at writingchinese@leeds.ac.uk. We will then email all attendees in advance with the text that we’ll be translating on the day.
We’re also pleased to announce that the masterclass will be followed by the launch of the Bai Meigui Literary Translation Competition. More details to follow soon!
On August 25, the Paper posted a Chinese translation of London-based magazine the Economist's August 23 cover article, "What China Wants." The Economist feature proffered several recommendations for how the United States can accommodate China's economic and military rise without forfeiting U.S. interests in Asia. But the abridged Chinese translation left out several key passages . . .
By Nicky Harman, September 3, '14
China Fiction Book Club (Twitter @cfbcuk) is now on Goodreads.com. We are on their lists - Listopia - and can be found by typing in any of a number of keywords e.g. Chinese + translated + fiction. The point of it is to get an open-access list of published translations onto Goodreads. So... get posting, people! You can also vote for books already listed (Helen and I put up 20 or so, just to get the list started) if you want.
By Eric Abrahamsen, September 3, '14
If I were a political cartoonist, of the WWII-era ilk where they label
everything in the cartoon so the point gets across better, I would
draw a cartoon to illustrate China’s “Going Out,” the policy which is
meant to bring Chinese culture to the rest of the world, and it would
look something like this:
A patch of land representing China; in the center stands The Leader
(it says that on his chest). He gazes off into the distance, one hand
pointing outwards in the best 指点江山 style, and the words “Going Out
Policy” are written on that sleeve. The other hand is loading
sumptuous food onto crescent tables to either side of him. The food
could be labeled “Government Budget,” but that should be
self-explanatory. Seated around the outside of the tables are a host
of people we could label “Government Functionaries,” until I think of
something better.
The functionaries are shoveling food into their mouths, their gazes
fixed in rapt devotion upon The Leader. They’ve all scootched
backwards until their rear ends hang out over the border of China, and
they’re saying things to The Leader like: “We have ‘Gone Out,’ and it
is wonderful!,” and, “The foreigners are all amazed!”
Meanwhile, a few big-nosed foreigners (in berets and cowboy hats!) are
standing around the outside of the border, looking at this line of
plumber’s cracks, and asking each other, “What on earth are they
trying to tell us?”
If only I could draw…
