10 CHINESE WOMEN WHOSE WRITING SHOULD BE TRANSLATED

By Nicky Harman, published

Paper Republic collective and friends put together this list for LitHub.com:

"Most readers nowadays, asked to name a contemporary Chinese writer, could manage at least one. But the odds are that it will be a man. Yet the near-invisibility of Chinese women writers internationally is entirely undeserved. They flourish on the literary scene at home and have done so since the beginning of the New Culture Movement in the early twentieth century. We are quite proud that this list (drawn up by the Paper-Republic.org collective and friends) ranges so widely. There’s something here for everyone, from travel literature to novels and short story collections, from fantasy and sci-fi to meditations on love and loneliness, with plenty of dark humor along the way. We have included works from all over the Chinese-writing world–mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (and one from USA too)."

http://lithub.com/10-chinese-women-whose-writing-should-be-translated/

Comments

# 1.   

thanks. your link has been propagated unto WeChat my circles. And here's a tiny ripple of my translation done this morning. translating Landor's Epitagh

Susan, May 25, 2016, 8:35p.m.

# 2.   

According to this link
"The reasonable man" has already been translated by Emily Jones

Susan, May 25, 2016, 8:48p.m.

# 3.   

But not published, which I think was the main criteria. Yan Ge is also represented by Gray Tan. I don't know if Emily Jones translated the whole thing or not – I did hear that Gray Tan was doing full translations of the books he agents now…

Eric Abrahamsen, May 26, 2016, 11:28a.m.

# 4.   

couldn't agree more ! would add Fan Xiaoqing 范小青 and Xu Yigua 须一瓜 to make it 12.

Brigitte Duzan, May 26, 2016, 8:48p.m.

# 5.   

To abide by the rules of the game, actually, I must give a title for each of both writers above. For Xu Yigua I'm torn between my dedication to short stories, which also represent the bulk of her publications, and a novel, her first actually, published in 2010. Let's say that latter work, "Sunspots" 《太阳黑子》; it is a kind of crime thriller, but as a pretext for a portrayal of the three "criminals" ; it has been adapted for the screen by Cao Baoping 曹保平, and the film, Dead End 《烈日灼心》, is quite good too. Now for Fan Xiaoqing, her recent zhongpian are a must, really. Actually the three stories translated and published in Chinese Arts and Letters, vol 2 n°2 in Oct. 2015 are quite representative of her recent production : it generally starts as the depiction of an ordinary life, which suddenly goes awry when a tiny detail gets out of proportion. Now, she also published quite an interesting novel in 2011 : "Incense" 《香火》, a kind of buddhist story whish is in fact a reflexion on the social changes of the last fifty or so years, and the need to preserve traditions and beliefs.

Brigitte Duzan, May 27, 2016, 7:04p.m.

# 6.   

May I add another remarkable Chinese woman poet and also cosmologist, Prof. 王云 ... her new poetry book 'The Book of Totality' is published in 2015. I am particularly fond of her translations of Su Dong Po's poems. And here's an online interview on Connotation Press

susan, June 4, 2016, 1:29a.m.

# 7.   

Simon & Schuster are publishing quite a few translated Chinese novels now, by Ye Zhaoyan and Lu Min, for instance. I've found no mention of a translator http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Ye-Zhaoyan/450676038

Anna Gustafsson Chen, June 8, 2016, 9:46a.m.

# 8.   

Thanks for the link, Anna!

Knowing that the Nanjing Writers Association is dumping huge amounts of money into promoting Nanjing writers, and seeing how the S&S titles all have the same cover, and all lack translator information, and Ye Zhaoyan is the Chair of the Nanjing Writers Association, and Lu Min very active in it...

My mostly baseless conjecture, which I'm nevertheless confident in, is that Nanjing funded those publications, and probably provided the translated manuscripts directly. It would be interesting to get a look at the inside covers!

Eric Abrahamsen, June 8, 2016, 9:57a.m.

# 9.   

Here's the entire S&S description for Other People's Love:

This story of elusive love set in the TV industry has all the sex, plot twists, and family drama as a soap opera.

Sic!

Eric Abrahamsen, June 8, 2016, 9:59a.m.

# 10.   

You can download one! The Kindle edition is only $14.99! :-)

Anna Gustafsson Chen, June 8, 2016, 10:02a.m.

# 11.   

I rather think not!

Eric Abrahamsen, June 8, 2016, 10:03a.m.

# 12.   

Not to keep on about this, but there appears to only be a digital edition, no print. Ie, Simon & Schuster put about the minimum effort possible into this project!

Eric Abrahamsen, June 8, 2016, 10:07a.m.

# 13.   

A few months ago I contacted Simon & Schuster via the Contact form on their website to ask for more info, but they never replied...

Helen Wang, June 8, 2016, 6:31p.m.

# 14.   

Also, I think someone should translate something by Ch'eng Ying-shu 成英姝 from Taiwan, maybe her early collection of connected short stories, 《公主彻夜未眠》 (The Princess can't sleep or The Princess and the Pea) or one of her novels, perhaps 《男妲》。

Anna Gustafsson Chen, June 8, 2016, 7:17p.m.

# 15.   

I am reading 张爱玲的《十八春》又名《半生缘》子通点评 (published in 2003). Can't get used to in-line commentaries, awfully annoying.

Is it possible that stories one writes may become reality in one's life more true than she'd bargained for? This novel is her first fiction. Her own life, after trying to escaping what she wrote, turns out to be even more tragic than her own characters. How sad is that?

susan, June 12, 2016, 5:11p.m.

# 16.   

didn't expect somewhat happy ending of all couplings at the end. also there is English translation published in 2016. Here's a review

from lareviewofbooks

susan, June 12, 2016, 10:08p.m.

# 17.   

Simon & Schuster are publishing three books by Qin Wenjun as well, but amazon.com says they're published by Shanghai Press.

Anna Gustafsson Chen, June 17, 2016, 11:30a.m.

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