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Helen Wang is a London-based contributor to Paper Republic and co-tweets with translator Nicky Harman on @cfbcuk (China Fiction Book Club UK). She was one of the original editors of Read Paper Republic - working with Nicky Harman, Dave Haysom and Eric Abrahamsen. In September 2016, she started a new project Chinese books for young readers, with Anna Gustafsson Chen and Minjie Chen. She won the 2017 Marsh Award for Literature in Translation for her translation of Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan. In 2017 she was awarded the Chen Bochui "Special Contribution" Award, for her translations and increasing visibility of Chinese children's books.
Translations
Cao Wenxuan's Bronze and Sunflower (children's novel), Walker Books, April 2015. - Cao Wenxuan won the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award; Helen Wang won the 2017 Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation 曹文轩 《青铜葵花》
Cao Wenxuan's Crows (essay), published in Pathlight Summer 2015, and as Read Paper Republic #15.
曹文轩 《乌鸦》
Cao Wenxuan's A Very Special Pigeon (short story), published by Writing Chinese, 10 Sept 2015; also published as a bilingual book 《凤鸽儿/A Very Special Pigeon》, Renmin wenxue chubanshe/Tiantian chubanshe, 2016)
曹文轩 《一个叫凤的鸽子》
Cao Wenxuan's Huiwa takes a stand (short story/novella), Pathlight; also published as a bilingual book 《灰娃的高地/Huiwa’s Stand》, Renmin wenxue chubanshe/Tiantian chubanshe, 2016)
曹文轩 《灰娃的高地》
Cao Wenxuan's The Cassia Tree (short story/novella), published as a bilingual book 《火桂花/The Cassia Tree》, Renmin wenxue chubanshe/Tiantian chubanshe, 2016)
曹文轩 《火桂花》
Cao Wenxuan's Firebrand (excerpt), published as a bilingual book 《白马雪儿/Looking for Snowy》, Renmin wenxue chubanshe/Tiantian chubanshe, 2016)
曹文轩 《火印》
Du Ma’s Into Parting Arms, in Henry Y. H. Zhao and John Cayley (eds), Under-sky Underground, Wellsweep Press, London, 1994, 219-39.
杜麻（李冯）《投入向分裂的怀抱》
Fan Xiaoqing's Ying Yang Alley (short story), in Chinese Arts and Letters vol.2, no.2 (Oct 2015), pp.28-33, and as Read Paper Republic 44
范小青 《鹰扬巷》
Fan Xiaoqing - interviewed by the editor Yang Haocheng, in Chinese Arts and Letters vol.2, no.2 (Oct 2015), pp. 64-78.
杨昊成 范小青 《写作于我，更多地是享受过程中的创造、宁静和自由 —— 范小青访谈录》
Han Dong's Brand New World (short story), co-translated with Nicky Harman, published on 25 March 2012.
韩东 《崭新世》
C.F. Hu's Ever After - this is from chapter 5 of Floating (a novel in stories) prepared as a sample translation for Books from Taiwan (contact Gray Tan at The Grayhawk Agency for details)
胡晴舫 《懸浮》
Li Jingrui's Missing (short story), published on Read Paper Republic, week 8, 6 August 2015. Subsequently published on the WritingChinese website, November 2015.
李静睿 《失踪》
Lin Man-chiu's The Ventriloquist's Daughter (YA novel), Balestier Press, 2017. 林满秋 《腹語師的女兒》
Lu Min's Xie Bomao R.I.P. (short story), in Chinese Arts and Letters, vol. 1, no. 2, Autumn 2014, pp.128-143. Reprinted on Read Paper Republic, no.20, 29 October 2015.
鲁敏 《谢伯茂之死》
Lu Min - chapter 1 of Dinner For Six (novel) prepared as a sample translation (contact Gray Tan at The Grayhawk Agency for details)
魯敏 《六人晚餐》
Lu Min's A Second Pregnancy, 1980 (essay), published on Read Paper Republic, week 21, 3 November 2015.
鲁敏 《1980年的第二胎》
Lü Yao’s The Steamers Came Alive Again That Night (essay), in Pathlight, Winter 2015.
绿妖《轮船复活之夜》
Ma Yuan’s Mistakes (short story), in Henry Y. H. Zhao (ed.), The Lost Boat: Avant-garde Fiction from China, Wellsweep Press, London, 1993, pp. 29-42.
马原 《错误》
Shen Shixi’s Jackal and Wolf (children’s novel), Egmont, London, 2012. The first chapter is available as a preview ('click to look inside').
沈石溪著 《红豺》
Shi Kang's Sunshine in Winter (short story), translated by Helen Wang, Michelle Deeter, Killiana Liu and Juliet Vine, published in March 2012.
石康 《冬日之光》
Tsen Peng-Wei's The Nowhere School (sample of children's book), published in Books from Taiwan, June 2015.
岑澎維 《找不到國小三部曲》
Wang Anyi's Ah Fang's Lamp (short story), published in The Book of Shanghai, ed. by Dai Congrong and Dr Jin Li (Comma Press, 2020). Read online on Bookanista
Xu Zechen's Galloping Horses (short story), published on the Guardian website, 12 April 2012. Subsequently published with audio version on the WritingChinese website
徐则臣 《奔马》
Ye Mi's Velvet, in Pathlight Autumn 2015, pp. 91-102.
叶弥 《天鹅绒》
Ye Zhaoyan's Police Python 357 (short story) in Chinese Arts and Letters, vol. 2, no. 1 (2015), pp. 6-17.
叶兆言 《左轮三五七》
Yu Hua’s One Kind of Reality (short story), in Henry Y. H. Zhao (ed.), The Lost Boat: Avant-garde Fiction from China, Wellsweep Press, London, 1993, pp. 145-84.
余华 《现实一种》
Yu Hua's How My Books Have Roamed the World (essay), Specimen - The Babel Review of Translations, online publication 21 Sept 2017.
余华 《我的书游荡世界的经历》
Zhang Chengzhi’s The Way of Heaven – Beginning of Autumn (essay), in Henry Y. H. Zhao and John Cayley (eds), Under-sky Underground, Wellsweep Press, London, 1994, pp. 145-48.
张承志 《天道立秋》
Zhang Langlang's The Legend of the Sun Brigade (essay), in Henry Y. H. Zhao and John Cayley (eds), Under-sky Underground, Wellsweep Press, London, 1994, pp. 87-95.
张朗朗 《太阳纵队》
Zhang Xinxin's IT84
(novel) Originally published as a novella in Shanghai Wenxue 2015.12, it was rewritten as a novel, and published in 2018. Five chapters of the novel were translated into French by Brigitte Duzan and published in Jentayu 10 (summer 2019). I translated the same five chapters into English - available online
张辛欣 《IT84》
Zhang Xinxin's Dragonworld (short story), published on the Guardian website, 12 April 2012, and in the Read Paper Republic Afterlives series, 3 Nov 2016 (read here, with introduction by the author)
张辛欣 《龙的食谱》
Zhang Xinxin's Pai Hua Zi and the Clever Girl (graphic novel), published by Zhang Xinxin on ibooks, August 2012, Part 1 (includes free 20-page preview) and Part 2
张辛欣 《拍花子和俏女孩》
Zhang Xinxin's Self-portrait (essay) - available online and as Read Paper Republic 45
张辛欣 《自画像》
Zhang Xinxin's Mad About Orchids (short story) - available online
张辛欣 《疯狂的君子兰》
Zhang Xinxin's The Adventures of a Graphic Novelist - available online
张辛欣 《小人书画家历险记》
Zhang Xinxin's After the Inferno, in Words Without Borders, 1 Nov 2017 - available online
张辛欣 - excerpt from her book 《我 Me》
Zhou Jianing's Let Us Talk About Something Else, in Pathlight, Summer 2014, 34-43.
周嘉宁 《让我们聊些别的》
Zhu Hui's Just You Wait, in Pathlight, 2017.
朱辉 《要你好看》
PICTURE BOOKS
CeeCee, by Mao XIAO and Chunmiao LI, Candied Plums, 2016
萧袤: 《西西》
Express Delivery from Dinosaur World, by Yanan DONG, Candied Plums, 2016
董亚楠: 《恐龙快递》
The Frog and the Boy, by Mao XIAO, Wei CHEN, Xiaomin HUANG, Candied Plums, 2016
萧袤: 《青蛙与男孩》
An’s Seed, by Zaozao WANG and Li HUANG, Candied Plums, 2016
王早早: 《安的种子》
Flame, by Zhucheng LIANG, Candied Plums, 2016
朱成梁: 《火焰》
Little Rabbit’s Questions, by Da You, Candied Plums, 2016
大友： 《小兔的问题》
Tan Hou and the Double Sixth Festival, by CAI Gao et al, Balestier Press, London & Singapore, 2016
作者: 向华 / 邬朝祝 整理 / 绘者 蔡皋 : 《晒龙袍的六月六》
Bibbit Jumps, by Bei Lynn, Gecko Press, 2020
林小杯:《步步蛙很愛跳》
The Mask that Loved to Count, by Luo Xi, Cardinal Media Kids, 2020
爱数数的口罩
The Empty Bowl, by AI Wener, Cardinal Media Kids, 2020
空饭盒
Grandpa's 14 Games, by Zhao Ling, Cardinal Media Kids, 2020
爷爷的14个游戏
A Journey of 600 Inches, by Zhang Xiaoling, Cardinal Media Kids, 2020
九千毫米的旅行
Levin the cat, by Tao Jiu, Cardinal Media Kids, 2020
列文是只猫
Mom is Hiding, by Qian Mo, Cardinal Media Kids, 2020
躲起来的妈妈
I am Hua Mulan, by Qin Wenjun, Balestier Press, 2020
我是花木兰
Myna Bird as Free as a Cloud, by Bai Bing, Balestier Press, 2020
云朵一样的八哥
Other publications
The Music of Ink at the British Museum (edited volume featuring Yang Lian, Romesh Gunesekera, Denis Brown, Qu Lei Lei, Rohan de Saram, Zeng Laide and Wang Tao), Saffron Books, London, 2012. Info here
Is Gao Xingjian’s play Chezhan merely a blind worship of modern Western plays as the critic He Wen claims? How far can Chezhan be compared with Beckett’s Waiting for Godot?, Bulletin of the British Association for Chinese Studies, 1986, pp. 83-89. Available here
Interviews and short pieces
Interview, with Julie Sullivan, in Words and Pictures (SCBWI), 7 Oct 2018.
Interview, with Nanette McGuinness, in SCBWI, The Blog, 7 Sept 2017.
Interview, with Eric Abrahamsen, for Paper Republic, April 2016. in English and in Chinese
Interview, with Daniel Hahn, in Books for Keeps.
On "Bronze and Sunflower" in LARB China Blog, 13 April 2016
Translating Children's Books - a short piece for Books from Taiwan (2015)
Learning about Chinese children's books - interview with Zoe Toft for Playing by the Book, 27 April 2015
Bronze and Sunflower - Ann Morgan's Book of the Month, April 2015
Guest Interview: Helen Wang on Children's Book Translation, interviewed by Avery Fischer Udagawa for Cynthia Leitich Smith's "Cynsations" blog, 26 May 2015
Review by Nicky Harman of Bronze and Sunflower in Tribune 6 March 2015
| Small Town | by Li Jingrui | October 11, 2018 |
| Dragonworld | November 03, 2016 | |
| Self-Portrait | by Zhang Xinxin | April 21, 2016 |
| Ying Yang Alley | by Fan Xiaoqing | April 14, 2016 |
| Sunshine in Winter | by Shi Kang tr. Michelle Deeter, Killiana Liu, Juliet Vine and Helen Wang | January 14, 2016 |
| A Second Pregnancy, 1980 | by Lu Min | November 03, 2015 |
| Xie Bomao R.I.P. | by Lu Min | October 29, 2015 |
| Crows | by Cao Wenxuan | September 24, 2015 |
| Missing | by Li Jingrui | August 06, 2015 |
The Paper Republic database exists for reference purposes only. We are not the publisher of these works, are not responsible for their contents, and cannot provide digital or paper copies.
By Helen Wang, August 16, '12
Pai Hua Zi and the Clever Girl: A Graphic Novel by Zhang Xinxin.
Published digitally, 20 pages of this book are available as a sample. This is Part 1 of the English edition. Part 2 and Chinese edition to follow soon.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/pai-hua-zi-clever-girl-vol./id553372788?mt=11&ls=1
By Helen Wang, August 2, '12
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/23241.China_s_Cultural_Revolution_and_its_aftermath_in_fiction_and_memoir
This list of 79 books is from goodreads.com, and was created by someone called Hannah on 1 August. It's not always on target, but gives an idea of which books general readers are recommending to others, the average rating for each book and the number of ratings it has received.
Here are the Top Ten on the list...
By Helen Wang, June 5, '12
MCLC LIST
From: tom moran moran@middlebury.edu
Subject: contributors for fiction writers volume
Contributors are needed for the Modern Chinese Fiction Writers, 1950-2000 volume of the Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) series that is produced by Bruccoli, Clark, Layman and published by Gale. The book is co-edited by Tom Moran and Dianna Xu.
By Helen Wang, June 2, '12
A recent piece on this website, raised the issues of racism and sexism (perceived or real) in fiction.
These are just some of the issues that face translators, publishers and readers. For a heated discussion on what is and is not acceptable in children's literature, including children's literature in translation, see this recent piece in The Guardian and the 100+ comments that follow it...
By Helen Wang, June 2, '12
From Winstonsdad's Blog:
"I m sure somewhere last year I heard some one in an interview ,they said the 21st century was going to be the century of the Chinese novel .So lets start with the Great chinese novel ,any one that reads this blog ,I m sure there are a few people know I struggle with Chinese fiction ,I feel what may be classed a the great Chinese novel hasn’t been written China is so fast-moving in the last few years you feel a book that could capture the feel of one of these Mega cities .The books I have read tend to deal with social issues and the moves from country to town ,rather than a look as Chinese culture as a whole in these mega-cities and how it effect people everyday .They are great books but not what may be classed as great Chinese novel."
Winstonsdad also reviewed Yan Lianke's Dream of Ding Village (tr. Cindy Carter) and Ma Jian's Stick Out Your Tongue (tr. Flora Drew), see his section on China
By Helen Wang, April 28, '12
During my challenge on Paper Republic, I wanted to find out more about Chinese literature in France: who is translating it, and who is publishing it. After hours of surfing, I had produced a list, but I didn't really have a feel for what I was doing. So I asked Bertrand Mialaret (editor of the website www.mychinesebooks.com) if he could help. He has produced two really helpful lists for us, which are now posted on this website under Resources for Translators.
Thank you, Bertrand!
By Helen Wang, April 25, '12
China in Ten Words by Yu Hua, Duckworth £16.99 (4/5 stars), reviewed by Siobhan Murphy in The Metro (free newspaper, London), 25 April 2012, p. 39. The translator, not named in the review, is Allan H. Barr.
I'm posting this because it is the second review of a Chinese novel that I’ve spotted this year in The Metro (free London newspaper). The first was Geling Yan’s The Flowers of War, translated by Nicky Harman. Maybe coincidence, or maybe the Arts Editor is taking an interest in Chinese fiction?
By Helen Wang, April 24, '12
http://cadensa.bl.uk/cgi-bin/webcat
While looking for podcasts and recordings, I asked at the British Library. The curator/librarian provided the following info:
To browse the British Library Sound and Moving Image Catalogue, got the website, select advanced search, and check out the language and type menus.
By Helen Wang, April 21, '12
From MCLC mailing list (MCLC@lists.service.ohio-state.edu) https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/mclc
Chinese highlights: An extensive interview with Hsia Yü and the other editors of Xianzai Shi (Poetry Now)--Yung Man-Han, Ling Yü, Hung Hung and Tseng Shumei on their latest issue, conducted by Dylan Suher and Rachel Hui-Yu Tang--accompanied by an immersive slideshow of erasurist poetry from the journal; an excerpt of Alai's King Gesar via new contributing editors Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Lin; and a new translation of a poem by Li Li, via Eleanor Goodman. There's also Sim Yee Chiang's and Sayuri Okamoto's new translation of a short story by Kou Reishi (黄霊芝), who has the distinction of being the last living Japanese-language writer in Taiwan.
By Helen Wang, April 21, '12
Interview with Yan Geling
Interview with Mo Yan
By Helen Wang, April 21, '12
http://www.granta.com/New-Writing
16 April - Flying Towards a Country of Rain, poem by Wang Yin (tr. Andrea Lingenfelter)
17 April - Petty Thief, short story by A Yi (tr. by Alice Xin Liu)
18 April - Shen Congwen: A Letter, tr. by Alice Xin Liu
19 April - Podcast of Mo Yan, interviewed by John Freeman
20 April - Solitude, poem by Huang Canran (tr. Judith Roche)
By Helen Wang, April 19, '12
Just published! Ten stories from urban China, by Ho Sin Tung, Cao Kou, Jie Chen, Yi Sha, Zhang Zhihao, Han Dong, Ding Liying, Xu Zechen, Diao Dou and Zhu Wen.
Published by Comma Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1905583461
www.commapress.co.uk
By Helen Wang, April 18, '12
From Michel Hockx: We are pleased to announce the launch of the JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR CHINESE STUDIES (JBACS), the new official journal of the British Association for Chinese Studies (BACS).
By Helen Wang, April 15, '12
A few weeks ago I took on a challenge – to post something on Paper Republic every day until the London Book Fair (see more here). The LBF starts tomorrow, so my challenge is now over! I’ve learnt a lot in the process. If you’re interested, read on…
By Helen Wang, April 15, '12
http://harvard.academia.edu/DavidYao/Blog
From David Yao's blog, 7 November 2011:
Dr. Bethune’s Children by Xue Yiwei
Dr. Bethune’s Children was described as a masterpiece that “would go down into history” by Shouhuo and Huacheng, two top Chinese literary magazines....
