Our News, Your News
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 18, '08
Wang Danhua
Wang Danhua is a freelance translator and writer in her late twenties. She has worked at local media outlets, and briefly at a medium-sized publishing house, and often writes articles on publishing and literature for local media outlets. We talked January 14.
“I started going online my sophomore year, in 1999, right when the internet was getting popular. It was mostly just Rongshuxia (榕树下) then, everyone was posting there. It wasn’t a complete free-for-all, there were moderators, and some competition. Of maybe 20 or 30 articles I sent them, mostly essays but some fiction, I think they rejected a few.
“I also spent a lot of time on Xici Hutong (西祠胡同), more for literary news and information than actually reading fiction or writing.
“Later on, some newspaper and magazine editors contacted me about reprinting my articles. I don’t know if they did or not – I wasn’t thinking much about those things then. I said ‘go ahead’, and never asked them to tell me when the articles came or, or to pay me for them.
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By Eric Abrahamsen, January 18, '08
Part one of a two-part overview piece on the current state of Chinese literature has gone up at the Guardian's website. It's a good piece, as introductory articles go (I'm not just saying that because I'm quoted in it).
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 16, '08
The first internet literature piece is an interview with Shen Haobo (Shěn Hàobō, 沈浩波), who has dual identities as an avant-garde poet and the head of a publishing company. Most of his poetry can be found online via the venerable Shijianghu website, and his company is Xiron (dǎtiě wénhuà, 打铁文化), which specializes in publishing internet literature. The following is based on a conversation that took place November 12.
The Secret Life of Publisher Shen
Shen Haobo has been working in the publishing industry since graduating from college, though he did not start his own company until 2001. Xiron is one of the businesses that operate in the wide gray band at the edge of the formal publishing industry, by buying publishing numbers (kānhào, 刊号) from publishing houses and putting out their own books. Xiron came to prominence by publishing (zhūxiān, 诛仙), a martial arts fantasy which first appeared online, and has since put out several other major hits, including That Ming Dynasty Stuff (míngcháo nàxiē shì’r, 明朝那些事儿) and the first version of Chun Shu’s Beijing Doll. Xiron publishes upwards of 200 books a year, over 70% of which started out life on the internet.
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By Eric Abrahamsen, January 16, '08
The Arts Council England has asked me to do some poking around into the state of internet literature in China, and graciously allowed me to concurrently post the results here. Expect more posts on this topic over the next week or so.
First a simple introduction to online literature in China, which will apply to this whole series. Though the internet has played a role in China’s literary scene since the mid-90s, it didn’t come of age as a phenomenon until 2003 or so, when the massive literary sites began to gain momentum. The largest of these sites now host thousands of works of original fiction, posted there by regular users around the country. The line between writers and readers has blurred as users read and critique each others’ writing, and the works with the highest ‘click counts’ climb the charts. Paper-and-ink publishers have taken notice, and many cherry-pick the most popular works from the top of the charts for publication as regular books. The vast majority of online writing is genre-based: romance, sword-and-sorcery, urban noir, etc, and the more high-brow stuff is very rare. The commercial model of these sites is still up in the air, as well. Some charge readers for access to the most popular works, others make money serializing literature to cellphone readers, and many charge agent fees to publishers who cherry-pick their writers. As the sites mature, larger media groups are starting to consider investing or purchasing, though this is still a new trend.
Something to read first: a Danwei translation of an interview with some internet publishers.
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 13, '08
That’s what you get for an extended vacation: all the fun goes on while you’re gone. I more or less missed a Book Fair (北京图书订货会), being asleep for most of it. The panel discussion by American booksellers sounded particularly interesting. All I’ve been able to find is this series of posts and blog entries by participant Karl Pohrt (of the Shaman Drum Bookshop); while it’s interesting to read his perspective on independent bookselling, I wish there’d been more about what went on in China.
[Edit: I spoke too soon, more posts from Pohrt are going up, take a look.]
The January-Feburary issue of World Literature Today appears to feature a story called ‘Old Stories and New Voices in Beijing’; it’s locked in the land of paper, but if anyone knows what that’s about, please drop us a line.
This highly amusing article about guerilla translation groups in China sports the excellent opener: “The Chinese are by far the best in the world at being numerous.” So true.
I may be late to this party, but I’ve just discovered the elvita威 events listing site for Beijing, and am in hog’s heaven. You always knew there was this much going on in Beijing, you just didn’t know how to get invited to the party. Special recommendation: the Google calendar for literary talks and cultural seminars in Beijing. Oh yes.
It was a long day out but we’re back in the saddle. Expect things.
By Eric Abrahamsen, December 11, '07
The first of Yu Hua's new book, Cries in the Drizzle. I haven't read the original, but this is one of Yu Hua's earlier books, and it sounds as if it might not be his strongest.
The other is of Wang in Love and Bondage, published on the MCLC website. The review is first of all an excellent background on Wang Xiaobo, which is nice, though it's very positive about a translation I just can't understand anyone liking. I hope this book marks the last of the Chinese/foreign translation team efforts – it's just not the right way to go. Still, the review is quite worth reading.
By Eric Abrahamsen, December 10, '07
One of the great mysteries of Chinese to English translation. Mark today on the calendar.
By Eric Abrahamsen, December 8, '07
It appears that John Updike has been officially nominated to tackle Chinese literature for The New Yorker. First there was a dual review of Su Tong's My Life as Emperor and Mo Yan's Big Breasts and Wide Hips in 2005, now an examination of Ha Jin's latest novel, A Free Life. We couldn't ask for a better reviewer (though I suppose we could ask for someone more familiar with Chinese literature).
Apart from Updike's general judgment of the book (neither as focused nor compelling as his other works) a good portion of the review is dedicated to language. Ha Jin is compared to Nabokov and Conrad as a writer who came late to English and achieved, if not mastery of it, at least fluency, and although a charitable reader might prefer to overlook language in favor of the story, Updike doesn't. There's a good reason for that – the book is about immigrants, and in particular the immigrant's struggle to learn the language, but judging from Updike's examples, Ha Jin's own English is slipping as well. Nan Wu, the protagonist, is tripped up by verb modifiers and prepositions (how many Chinese students of English have I heard bitterly cursing prepositions!), while Ha Jin himself is tripped up by awkward usages, inflated metaphors, and turns of phrase that sound to Updike as though they were translations from the Mandarin. I was curious about this last – the example given is "If his wife had been of two hearts with him, this family would have fallen apart long ago", but I can't tell whether this might really have been born as a Chinese phrase in Ha Jin's head.
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By Cindy M. Carter, November 24, '07
Literature matters; music matters, too.
Here are some of the best Chinese videos and concert performances I've seen.
Artist: PK 14
Song: Tamen
hysterical video that knows how to take the piss and employ stock footage
Artist: Second Hand Rose
Song: New Tricks
amazing performance by China's best drag band - Beijing CD Cafe Club 2003
Artist: Second Hand Rose
Song: Survival
in the mean streets (hutongs?) of Beijing, sometimes you just can't win
Artist: SUBS / Brain Failure
SUBS and Brain Failure at MIDI
MIDI music festival interview with SUBS,
live concert performances by SUBS and Brain Failure
Artist: Su Yang
Song: The Phoenix
live performance of gorgeous song
(there's an animated video too, but it lacks the appropriate pathos)
Artist: XTX and Cold Blooded Animal
Song: Who was it who brought me here?
Yunnan Snow Mountain Music Festival performance with gu zheng and ginormous kick-ass fog machines (in those misty mountain climes, fog machines seem a bit redundant, don't they?)
Artist: XTX
Songs: Living Underground and Circling Sun
live concert footage from Xiao Suo's memorial
By Eric Abrahamsen, November 21, '07
I'm reading a book by 张翎 (Zhang Ling), a Chinese writer living in Canada, called Mail Order Bride, and have found two good terms so far. One is 思凡 (sīfán), meaning the longing that an immortal, monk or nun feels for the mortal world, and for the company of the opposite sex. The other is 信达雅 (xìndáyă), which represent the three proper principles of translation as laid out by 严复 (Yán Fù), a famous Chinese translator of the late Qing dynasty. 信 indicates 'fidelity', 达 'fluency', and 雅 'grace'. I was pleased to find this.
