Our News, Your News
By Cindy M. Carter, December 3, '14
There's an interesting article by Sebastian Veg in China Perspectives that unpacks Yan Lianke's novel Four Books and examines the role of contemporary Chinese fiction in promoting a broader political and historical dialogue. Well worth a read.
Abstract:
Since the scar literature of the early 1980s, fiction and fictionalised autobiography have played an important role in bringing to light the mass violence of the Cultural Revolution. However, these texts remained within a well-defined framework in which the political system itself was not questioned. Over the last decade, by contrast, the Chinese literary field has focused more specifically on the 1950s, with works such as Yang Xianhui’s Chronicles of Jiabiangou (Tianjin, 2002), and Yang Jisheng’s Tombstone (Hong Kong, 2008). This paper focuses on Yan Lianke’s Four Books (Hong Kong, 2010), a full-fledged fictionalisation in a fantastic mode of the famine of the Great Leap Forward in a village on the Yellow River. Considering literature in the context of theories of the public sphere, it suggests that Yan’s book aims to broaden decisively the discussion on certain previously out-of-bounds aspects of the Mao era, an aim only partially thwarted by its failure to be published within mainland China. Four Books, like Yang Jisheng and Yang Xianhui’s works, thus represents an attempt to call into question the original legitimacy of the PRC polity and to create debate within the Chinese-speaking public sphere on the foundations of the current regime.
But it’s not just this slice of small village life that makes Lan Lan’s poetry so compelling. Her elusiveness and uncertainty also thrill. Lines are in constant contradiction, her images the stuff of dreams: “My loosened hand holds you tight / The door is shut for you to pass.” There is both recognition and something that escapes our grasp here.
This fragility ends up being a strength. Lan Lan does not shy from self-criticism or doubt. In the beautiful, fragmentary “A Few Grains of Sand” she tells us:
Sometimes I just can’t understand my steamed bun
my rice and the dust on these bookshelves.
I kneel. My ego bends.
Liu offers a variety of adventure along the way, from the virtual reality game that he repeatedly immerses readers in (and which at least moves mercifully quickly), to a rather bizarre plan to get at some information that involves Wang's expertise with nanomaterials, the Panama Canal, and a really hard to believe outcome. The uncertainty -- about the Trisolarians, as well as about science itself ("You really believe that the laws of physics are not invariant across time and space ?" Wang is led to ask) -- is more intriguing, making for a nice air of science fiction mystery to the story. And the clash of those who believe in science and those who seek to undermine technological advancement -- for ideological reasons, above all else, whether during the Cultural Revolution or, for different ones, in the present -- makes for decent tension. The ends to which people are willing to go is not always entirely convincing -- there are a couple of rather casual murders along the way -- but there's a good amount of good-versus-evil ambiguity.
Officials say casual alteration of idioms risks nothing less than ‘cultural and linguistic chaos’, despite their common usage
It has taken a bit of time, but Chinese authors have begun to publicize their reaction to Xi Jinping’s speech at the Beijing Oct 15 Forum on Literature and Art Work. While slavish praise has been appropriately abundant, a handful of Art Workers do not appear to be singing in unison. We’ll skip the former and focus on the latter because they’re more fun.
By Eric Abrahamsen, November 19, '14
Book Expo America, the largest US book fair, is schedule for late May 2015, and a certain ancient civilization is going to be the Guest of Honor. That means BEA is going to get the Frankfurt-2009/London-2012 treatment, with a small army of Chinese writers and publishers and "other" descending on New York for a few weeks.
Right about now is when the list of lucky writers is being compiled, and we'll have some small say in the compilation. They'll take into account which writers have recently published books in English (thanks again to Nicky Harman and Helen Wang for their timely compilation. Now I'm going to the peanut gallery with two additional questions:
- Who among you (translators or publishers) have English-language translations coming out next year, ideally (but not necessarily) in the US, and ideally (but not necessarily) in the first half of the year?
- Publications aside, who do you think should go? Who would make an interesting addition to the delegation?
Please comment here, or email me directly. Thanks!
Here's the website for Chinese Arts and Letters, including free online access to issues 1 and 2.
By Nicky Harman, November 16, '14
Chinese to English translations (books) 2014
For the last two years we have published a list of Chinese to English translations (books only) over the year. Here is our list for 2014.
As always, if we’ve missed one out, please post it below. (Previous lists are here: 2012 and 2013).
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The following three translations are now online!
The Han Children of Kürti, by Li Juan
Two-Bit Lives, by A Yi
The Grave with the Red Flowers, by Li Pingyi
(Group-translations, with the translators named at the end of each piece)
In September, WV’s Director traveled to Beijing to participate in the inaugural Marco Polo Festival of Digital Literature and check out the Chinese literary scene.
There are 1.35 billion people in China. The equivalent of half of Australia’s entire population lives in Beijing alone. In a literary context, that makes for big reading audiences with a big appetite for works for translation.
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
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'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 . . .
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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?
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