Posts
By Eric Abrahamsen, September 20, '12
A few weeks ago we had a lively argument/discussion on a mailing list about the proper translation of the term 文艺青年 (wényì qīngnián, literally "arts and culture youth", or "arts and letters youth") – a common term for a certain cohort of under-30 Chinese identifiable by their ability to recite Haizi poetry from memory, their starry-eyed idealism, and their ownership of a digital SLR. They've now sort of become the cultural and lexicological heirs of the "educated youth" (知情) of yore.
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By Eric Abrahamsen, August 13, '12
The Man Asian Literary Prize, is now accepting submissions for its 2012 prize round, deadline August 31, 2012. the MALP is awarded to a novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and already published: submission should be done by the publisher, up to three titles per imprint. The author of the winning novel receives a prize of 30,000 USD and the translator, if any, gets 5,000 USD.
The longlist will be announced December 4th, the shortlist January 9th, and the winner March 14th, 2013. See the MALP press release for more information.
By Eric Abrahamsen, August 10, '12
Litro magazine, a UK-based monthly "pocket" literary magazine, is preparing a China-focussed issue, and wants your translated short stories! See their home page via the link above for submission guidelines.
Edit: The deadline, I'm told, has been extended somewhat, so be swift!
By Eric Abrahamsen, August 7, '12
The 2012 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards have just been announced, with Chinese translations winning both the long form and short form prizes. Congratulations to John Balcom, who won for Huang Fan's Zero, and Ken Liu, who translated "The Fish of Lijiang", by Chen Qiufan.
More sci-fi!
By Eric Abrahamsen, July 29, '12
Take a look at David Haysom's new blog featuring translations of… things he likes, I presume! First translation is of Shi Tiesheng's Football.
By Eric Abrahamsen, July 24, '12
The NEA's 2013 Translation Grants have been announced; the only Chinese-language grant has gone to Sylvia Lichun Lin to translate The Lost Garden (迷园) by Taiwanese writer Li Ang (李昂).
Congratulations!
By Eric Abrahamsen, March 29, '12
A bit of good publishing news: the Italian publishing house Sellerio recently announced the purchase of three excellent Chinese novels to publish in Italy:
- Concession (租界) by Xiao Bai (小白)
- Tui Na (推拿) by Bi Feiyu (毕飞宇)
- Running Through Zhongguancun (跑步穿过中关村) by Xu Zechen (徐则臣)
Excellent choices, and Paper Republic is pleased to have played a role, in a sort of back-room, smoke-wreathed, under-the-table kind of way.
By Eric Abrahamsen, March 4, '12
Chutzpah Magazine continues to publish ferociously, each issue with an English insert (titled Peregrine) featuring English translations of selected bits of the Chinese content. Issue six of Chutzpah just came out, and we're making all six Peregrines available for download:
- Issue one
- Issue two
- Issue three
- Issue four
- Issue five
- Issue six
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 19, '12
How to feel like a complete noob at the Chinese internet:
Step One: Browse weibo. Notice heated discussions about something called 目田, which apparently means "eye field". Have the vague feeling that you're not getting the joke.
Step Two: Finally catch on that 目田 (eye field) is just 自由 (freedom), with bits missing.
If only the internet censors were this slow…
By Eric Abrahamsen, January 11, '12
The 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize shortlist was announced yesterday, and we were thrilled to see Cindy Carter's translation of Yan Lianke's novel Dream of Ding Village appear as the only Chinese novel. This year's shortlist is long: an unprecedented seven books. Conventional wisdom might indicate that, since three of the past four prize-winners have been Chinese, Yan Lianke has something of an institutional handicap. Let's hope that's not the case—this is a very worthy book.
By Eric Abrahamsen, December 6, '11
We've had a pleasantly large (read: slightly overwhelming) number of requests for information about Pathlight magazine, and in the interest of keeping things manageable, have created a new page dedicated to Pathlight magazine here on the site: http://paper-republic.org/pubs/pathlight/
The main thing you'll want to do there is sign up for notifications about future issues. That will be an extremely low-volume mailing list, no danger that we'll be filling up your email inbox. The other thing you can do there is gawk at the cover and table of contents. Enjoy!
By Eric Abrahamsen, November 25, '11
Busy days for the Peony Literary Agency, who recently announced the sales of three books from two of their authors: Han Han's Youth and 1988: I Want to Talk to This World have both been bought by Simon & Schuster US, to be translated by Allan Barr and published in the second half of 2012; and Yan Geling's The Flowers of War (金陵十三钗), to Other Press, translated by Nicky Harman, to be published next January.
Congratulations!
For further information please contact Marysia Juszczakiewicz in Hong
Kong at marysia@peonyliteraryagency.com, or Tina Chou in Shanghai at
tina@peonyliteraryagency.com. Full press releases below:
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By Eric Abrahamsen, November 20, '11
So that this shouldn't become a wall of rambling text, I'm going to
arrange the rest of my observations and recollections from the
Chinese Literature Week
in Oslo into easily-digestible bullet points. No actual
logical structure or cohesion is implied!
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Turnout was amazing—around 4,000 attendees at 30-some events. Not
bad for a group of writers few of whom are translated into Norwegian.
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A total of seven Chinese authors are available in Norwegian
translation, two of whom write in English (Li Yiyun and Guo Xiaolu) and
three of whom live outside China (add Ma Jian to the above). The
Norwegian publishers I met, to their credit, seem fairly intent on
changing this situation. Yu Hua's Brothers is in the works, as is Ai
Mi's Under the Hawthorn Tree. Xu Zechen was eyed appraisingly.
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The Norwegians are quite generous. Never have I purchased meals
with a square of plastic that didn't have to be run through a machine:
you gestured with it at the waiters, and they smiled and brought you
free food.
More…
By Eric Abrahamsen, November 16, '11
I'm in Norway for the
House of Literature's
Chinese Literature Week
(see the link for full schedule). Participants include Xi Chuan 西川, Wang Hui 汪晖,
Murong Xuecun 慕容雪村, Ma Jian 马建, Leslie T. Chang, Rebecca Karl,
Michael Dutton, Li Yiyun 李翊雲, Hong Ying 虹影, Mian Mian 棉棉, Xu
Zechen 徐则臣, Han Song 韩松, Lan Lan 蓝蓝, Cheng Yong Xin 程永新, Zou
Zou 走走 and me (thank you Lucas for
typing all that up). Annie Baby was
supposed to come, but she recently received word that her magazine,
Open, was going to be shut, and stayed home instead. The spirit
hovering over all this is Halvor Elfring who, besides having a pretty
decent name, is Norway's principle sinologist and gracious dinner host
of sundry China-related vagabonds [edit: I got Halvor Elfring confused with Harald Bøckman, who has a less exciting name but makes up for it with a great beard].
I'm pleased to be here: we put a fair amount of work into the planning
stage of this event ("we" here means Canaan), and it's nice that we
can also be present for its execution ("we" here means me). Houses of
Literature around the globe, take note!
This is day three of events, but I only arrived last night, so more
reports to follow. So far, the House of Literature seems lovely: a
large, well-run place offering regular readings and author talks, with
a writing center, writer-in-residence quarters, children's literature
center, and bookshop. The bookshop had a nice selection of Chinese
literature in English and Norwegian translation: Lenin's Kyss by Yan
Lianke can only be 受活 (Shouhuo), currently being translated into
English by Carlos Rojas. I was also foolishly amused to read of Mo
Yan's association with the "Lu Xun-prisen" and the "Mao Dun-prisen". I
guess a translator shouldn't laugh at these false cognates—the problem
is in your head, after all, not the language—but one permits oneself a
little snarkle.
Events have so far been packed: 500+ for writers with no Norwegian
translations.
By Eric Abrahamsen, October 3, '11
This month's newsletter is going out now… Actually that would be September's newsletter, but hell, everyone's on vacation. Things I like in this issue: Ge Fei finally published the final volume in his "Utopia" series, titled Southern Spring (春尽江南), and Lawrence Li of Tangcha (唐茶) is producing really beautiful Chinese-language e-Books, selling them via iOS, and… people are buying them. Sign up here!
