2015 translations from Chinese - another bumper crop

By Helen Wang, published

Part of: Year-End Roll Call

For the last three years we have produced a list of Chinese to English translations (books only) published over the year. Here is our list for 2015. As always, if we’ve missed any, please add them below. (Previous lists are here: 2012, 2013, 2014). We have also added most of these titles to our list on Goodreads.

Chinese to English translations (books) 2015

Fiction
A Yi, A Perfect Crime, translated by Anna Holmwood (Oneworld)
Diao Dou, Points of Origin, translated by Brendan O'Kane (Comma Press)
Fan Wen, Land of Mercy, translated by Shelly Bryant (Rinchen Books)
Feng Tang, Beijing, Beijing, translated by Michelle Deeter (Amazon Crossing)
Hon Lai Chu, The Kite Family, translated by Andrea Lingenfelter (Columbia University Press)
Lao Ma, Individuals - Flash Fiction by Lao Ma, translated by Li Qisheng and Li Ping (MakeDo Publishing)
Leung Ping-Kwan, Paper Cuts, translated by Brian Holton (Renditions)
Li Ang, The Lost Garden, translated by Sylvia Li-chun Lin with Howard Goldblatt (Columbia University Press)
Liu Cixin, The Dark Forest, translated by Joel Martinsen (Tor Books)
Liu Cixin, The Three Body Problem, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books)
Liu Zhenyun, The Cook, The Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon, translated by Sylvia Li-chun Lin and Howard Goldblatt (Arcade)
Lu Nei, Young Babylon, translated by Poppy Toland (Amazon Crossing)
Ma Yuan, No Sail on the Western Sea, translated by Tony Blishen (Better Link Press)
Mai Jia, In the Dark, translated by Christopher Payne and Olivia Milburn (Penguin UK)
Mo Yan, Frog, translated by Howard Goldblatt (Viking)
Mo Yan, Radish, translated by Howard Goldblatt (Penguin Special)
Murong, Dancing Through Red Dust, translated by Harvey Thomlinson (FortySix)
Ou Ning and Austin Woerner (eds), Chutzpah!: New Voices from China (University of Oklahoma Press)
Tao Yue, Shanghai Blue, translated by Tao Yue herself, (World Editions)
Xiao Bai, French Concession, translated by Jiang Chenxin (Harper Collins)
Yan Geling, Little Aunt Crane, translated by Esther Tyldesley (Harvill Secker)
Yan Lianke, Four Books, translated by Carlos Rojas (Grove)
Yan Lianke, Marrow, translated by Carlos Rojas (Penguin Special)
You Jin, Death by Perfume, translated by Jeremy Tiang (Epigram Books)
You Jin, In Time, Out of Place, translated by Shelly Bryant (Epigram Books)
Yu Hua, Seventh Day, translated by Allan Barr (Knopf)
Yu Qiuyu, The Chinese Literary Canon, translated by Philip Hand (CN Times)
Yu Qiuyu, The Book of Mountains and Rivers, translated by Jeremy Tiang (CN Times)

Fiction for children, YA
Cao Wenxuan, Bronze and Sunflower, translated by Helen Wang (Walker Books)
Cao Wenxuan, Legends of the Dawang Tome: The Amber Tiles, translated by Nicholas Richards (Daylight Publishing House)
Chang Ying-Tai, The Bear Whispers to Me, translated by Darryl Sterk (Balestier Press)
Shen Shixi, The Red Milk Sheep, translated by Curtis Evans (Sweetafrica Publishers Pty)

Poetry
Hong Ying, I too am Salammbo, translated by Mabel Lee (Vagabond Press)
Ling Yu, A Tree Planted in Summer, translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain (Vif Editions)
Liu Xia, Empty Chairs, translated by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern (Graywolf)
Lu Yi, Sea Summit, translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain (Milkweed)
Wang An-Shih, Late Poems, translated by David Hinton (New Directions)
Xi Xi, Not Written Words, translated by Jennifer Feeley (Zephyr Press)
Zhang Zao, Mirror, translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain (Zephyr Press)

Non-fiction
Han Han, 1988: I Want To Talk with the World, translated by Howard Goldblatt (Amazon Crossing)
He Huaihong, Social Ethics in a Changing China - Moral Decay or Ethical Awakening?, translated by Philip Hand (Brookings Institution Press)
Yang Mu, Memories of Mount Qilai, translated by John Balcom and Yingtsih Balcom (Columbia University Press)
Xu Zhiyuan, Paper Tiger, translated by Michelle Deeter and Nicky Harman (Head of Zeus)
Zhang Jianfeng, A Journey to Inner Peace and Joy: Tracing Contemporary Chinese Hermits, translated by Tony Blishen (Better Link Press)

Congratulations to this year's winners of prizes, awards and grants!
Can Xue's The Last Lover, translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen, won the Best Translated Book Award 2015 and was longlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2015
Eleanor Goodman's translation of Something Crosses My Mind by Wang Xiaoni won the Lucian Stryk translation prize 2015
Xu Zechen and Eric Abrahamsen were shortlisted for the 2015 National Translation Award
Liu Cixin and Ken Liu won the Hugo prize 2015
Jeremy Tiang was awarded an NEA Literary Translation Fellowship for Lo Yi-Chin's Far Away
Dong Li was awarded a PEN/Heim Fund Award for Song Lin's The Gleaner Song
EnglishPEN Translation Awards (PEN Translates) supported the publication of Xu Zhiyuan's Paper Tiger, translated by Michelle Deeter and Nicky Harman; Cao Wenxuan's Bronze and Sunflower, translated by Helen Wang; Diao Dou's Points of Origin, translated by Brendan O'Kane; A Yi's A Perfect Crime, translated by Anna Holmwood
Michael Day and Natasha Bruce won the 1st Bai Meigui Translation Competition.

We’d also like to draw your attention to the #namethetranslator campaign, including Lucas Klein's 2014 article. It’s not about glitz and glamour, it’s about nuts and bolts – the facts. Naming the translator acknowledges the significance of translation as well as the individual translator. If you are translating, please ask (and check) that your name is included in the publication details, on publishers’ websites, etc. Do it for yourself, for your fellow translators, and for your readers!

And finally... please take a look at the READ PAPER REPUBLIC series and the Writing Chinese project - RPR is publishing a short story, poem or essay a week for a year, and WC is publishing a short story every month. The 2nd Bai Meigui Translation Competition is now open to all, and the deadline is the end of February 2016.

Helen Wang and Nicky Harman

Comments

# 1.   

I've removed the Mang Ke volume of poetry from this list (it's not published yet)

Helen, December 1, 2015, 10:11a.m.

# 2.   

Hi Helen! Adding two fiction specials from Penguin China:

Radish by Mo Yan translated by Howard Goldblatt https://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780734310798/radish-penguin-specials

And Yan Lianke's Marrow 《耙耧天歌》 translated by Carlos Rojas (Dec 14) https://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780734310798/radish-penguin-specials

Mengfei, December 2, 2015, 9:58a.m.

# 3.   

Ahem... I should have caught those!

Eric Abrahamsen, December 2, 2015, 11:15a.m.

# 4.   

thanks Mengfei, I've added the 2015 one. We'll check the Penguin Specials when we do next year's list. Or you could let us know.

Nicky Harman, December 2, 2015, 1:53p.m.

# 5.   

thanks Mengfei, I've added the 2015 one. We'll check the Penguin Specials when we do next year's list. Or you could let us know.

Nicky Harman, December 2, 2015, 1:54p.m.

# 6.   

https://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780734399618/marrow-penguin-specials

(publication date: December 2015).

carlos, December 2, 2015, 3:44p.m.

# 7.   

Thanks, Carlos and Mengfei, I've added "Marrow".

Helen Wang, December 2, 2015, 4:22p.m.

# 8.   

Have also added Tony Blishen's translation of Zhang Jianfeng's Journey to Inner Peace (thanks, Tony!)

Helen Wang, December 2, 2015, 4:33p.m.

# 9.   

Michael Orthofer also wrote in with Li Ang's Lost Garden, translated by Sylvia Li and Howard Goldblatt, and published by Columbia University Press, which he's also just reviewed.

Or wait, do we do Taiwanese literature? I forget...

Eric Abrahamsen, December 3, 2015, 2:05a.m.

# 10.   

I've added Li Ang's Lost Garden. I've also added to the list of prizewinners Can Xue's The Last Lover, translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen - which won the Best Translated Book Award 2015 (thanks, Annelise - and congratulations again!)

Helen Wang, December 3, 2015, 7:23a.m.

# 11.   

Dear All:

I would also like to mention the publication of Mai Jia's In the Dark (Ansuan), the second novel translated by myself and Olivia Milburn (after 2014's Decoded). It was published by Penguin UK in August. Not sure if it has reached North America yet.

Thank you.

Christopher Payne, December 3, 2015, 3:13p.m.

# 12.   

For all you wenyan fans, Harry Miller published an excellent translation of the Gongyang Zhuan (http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/?k=9781137493002)

Also, clear your calendars, next month 2,400 pages of Zuozhuan is finally coming your way in English! (Translated and introduced by Stephen Durrant, Wai-yee Li, and David Schaberg, http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/DURZUO.html)

Jeff K, December 3, 2015, 8p.m.

# 13.   

Congratulations Christopher, Olivia and Jeff - we've added Mai Jia's to the list.

Helen Wang, December 4, 2015, 7:33a.m.

# 14.   

Have added Ling Yu's collection of poetry A Tree Planted in Summer, tr by Fiona Sze-Lorrain (thanks to Kirk Denton and MCLC List)

Helen Wang, December 4, 2015, 4:31p.m.

# 15.   

Thank you for your great work! But it seems that links to 2012-2014 lists are not available right now?

grace, December 11, 2015, 11:06a.m.

# 16.   

Oh, it's only temporary network problem. Thank you very much!

grace, December 11, 2015, 11:08a.m.

# 17.   

A few more additions have been made to the list. Keep them coming!

Helen Wang, December 13, 2015, 8:35a.m.

# 18.   

Have just added to this list "Land of Mercy" by Fan Wen, translated by Shelly Bryant.

Helen Wang, January 7, 2016, 1:39a.m.

# 19.   

Shen Shixi, The Red Milk Sheep, translated by Curtis Evans (Sweetafrica Publishers Pty) Hello, Helen. Have Curtis Evans really translated 红奶羊 by 沈石溪?I have searched online and yet I cannot find any information on the translation, the translator even the publisher Sweetafrica Publishers Pty. It's not available on Amazon. So I doubt it really exists. Could you tell me where you got the translation?

vickie25, April 25, 2017, 11:05a.m.

# 20.   

Hi Vickie, Curtis sent me a physical copy. Curtis Evans is at SISU http://en.shisu.edu.cn/resources/features/my-hometown-yili Helen

Helen Wang, April 30, 2017, 4:57p.m.

# 21.   

Hi Vickie - here are the details taken from the printed copy of the book:

The Red Milk Sheep, by Shen Shixi, tr. Curtis Evans and Dong Ming, illustr. Cloth Pocket Illustration. Published by Zhejiang Juvenile and Children's Publishing House, and Sweetafrica Publishers (Pty) Ltd, South Africa, 2015. ISBN 978-0-620-67624-3 (price ZAR 79)

Addresses: Sweetafrica Publishers (Pty) Ltd., South Africa - PO Box 30546, Wonderboom Poort, Pretoria, South Africa

Zhejiang Juvenile and Children's Publishing House, PO Box 310013, 40 Tianmushan Road, Hangzhou, China.

Helen Wang, May 2, 2017, 8:45p.m.

# 22.   

Helen,thanks for your detailed information on the book. I really appreciate your painstaking efforts on the list of Chinese to English translations. I have been doing a research on the English translations of the Chinese fictions.The lists by you and Nicky are a great help for me. Thanks again.

Vickie, May 5, 2017, 1:43p.m.

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