Our mission at Paper Republic is to promote Chinese literature in English translation. We focus on new writing from contemporary Chinese writers.
We are a registered Charity in the UK, registration number 1182259.
Some projects that previously were part of Paper Republic are run now by the for-profit company Coal Hill Books.
Who we serve
- Readers: we want readers to know what’s good, what’s available to read in English already, and what isn’t – but is crying out for a translation.
- Translators: we want to encourage the highest standards of literary translation. We provide or highlight educational opportunities, information and resources, as well as mentoring support, because translations need excellent translators.
What we do
- We identify the very best new Chinese writing – and promote it to English-language readers
- We commission, edit and publish short fiction and essays online – and, if we publish a translation online ourselves, we promise it will be completely free to read
- We host an extensive database that provides bibliographic information on Chinese writers and their English translators
- We get people talking about Chinese literature – online, and in events
- We help translators produce higher-quality translations – by providing education, information and resources. We also plan to develop mentoring schemes and translation competitions in the future
Our achievements
We launched the Read Paper Republic campaign in 2015, and in our first year published a new piece of short writing by a contemporary Chinese writer every week. Since then, we have continued the campaign with two mini series, Afterlives and Bare Branches. Last year we secured funding and support from OWMagazine and the LA Review of Book’s China Channel to build on the success of Read Paper Republic by venturing into literary non-fiction. So far, we have run three series of Read Paper Republic – Dispatches, and hope to publish more in 2019-2020. Read some of the stories published.
We are proud of the wealth of information on Chinese authors, their works and their English translators that we have built up. With thousands of entries, we believe we provide one of the most valuable and up-to-date resources available online – and all for free. Browse the database.
This is a hub of information, opinion, links to interesting articles, new tools – anything and everything to do with Chinese literature in translation. We hope that our readers will share information and links about Chinese literature through the Our News, Your News section of our homepage. If you see something interesting, please share it with us by emailing info@paper-republic.org.
Looking back – and looking forward
Paper Republic was founded in 2007 by a group of translators in Beijing as an online forum for translators of Chinese literature to share information about Chinese books and authors, and discuss how to get them translated and published abroad. We continue to work, largely as volunteers, to get more people translating, publishing and reading Chinese books.
We are always looking for people to help – here are some ways you can support us now.
Thanks to Sun Xiaoxi for help with the site design.