What Do We Read When We Read Women Writers: a Conversation between Yan Ge and Nicky Harman
By Nicky Harman, May 8, '25
Tuesday 13th May 2025. University of Warwick. See poster for details and registration. Hybrid event
Nicky Harman
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Nicky Harman lives in the UK. She translates full-time from Chinese, focussing on contemporary fiction, literary non-fiction, and occasionally poetry, by a wide variety of authors. When not translating, she spends time promoting contemporary Chinese fiction to English-language readers. She works for Paper-Republic.org, a non-profit registered in the UK, where she is also a trustee. She writes blogs (for instance Asian Books Blog), give talks and lectures, and takes part in literary events and festivals, especially with the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools (Norwich, London, Warwick and Bristol), and judges translation competitions. She tweets, with Helen Wang, as the China Fiction Bookclub @cfbcuk.
She taught on the MSc in Translation at Imperial College until 2011 and was co-Chair of the Translators Association (Society of Authors) 2014-2017.
Winner of the 2020 Special Book Award of China; the 2015 Mao Tai Cup People's Literature Chinese-English translation prize; and of first prize in the 2013 China International Translation Contest, Chinese-to-English section, with Jia Pingwa’s "Backflow River", 倒流河
Forthcoming publications:
Diablo's Boys, A Novel (《男孩们》) Annabel Yang Hao, co-translated with Michael Day, Balestier, 2024
Fellow Feelings, Collected stories by Han Dong, co-translated with Megan Copeland and Jack Hargreaves, no publications details yet
2023 publications:
Shaanxi Opera, （《秦腔》）, Jia Pingwa, co-translated with Dylan Levi King, Amazon Crossing, 2023.
The Sojourn Teashop （《暂坐》）, Jia Pingwa, co-translated with Jun Liu, Sinoist Books, 2023
2022 publications:
Flight of the Bumblebee (《野蜂飞舞》）Huang Beijia, Balestier , 2023
Wake Me Up at Nine in the Morning, (《早上九点叫醒我》）, A Yi, Oneworld
Literary Lectures (《文学课》) , by Bi Feiyu, Routledge
Dinner for Six (《六人晚餐》), co-translated with Helen Wang, Balestier
I Want to be Good (《我要做好孩子》) , Huang Beijia, New Classic Books
2021 publications:
More Than One Child: Memoirs of an Illegal Daughter, Shen Yang, Balestier
2020 publications:
Oriental Silk, by Zhu Xiaowen, Hatje Cantz (Germany)
2019 publications:
Broken Wings, By Jia Pingwa, ACA Publishing
2018 publications:
The Chilli Bean Paste Clan, by Yan Ge, Balestier Press (awarded a PEN Translates grant)
Our Story: A Memoir of Love and Life in China, by Rao Pingru, Knopf Doubleday (awarded a PEN Translates grant)
2017 publications:
Jia Pingwa, Happy Dreams, Amazon Crossing, 2017.
Fish Tank Creatures, by Dorothy Tse, short story, translated with Natascha Bruce
2016 publications:
Crystal Wedding, novel by Xu Xiaobin, Balestier Press, 2016 (awarded a PEN Translates grant). (Longlisted for the Financial Times / Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Awards)
2015 publications:
Paper Tiger, essays by Xu Zhiyuan, co-translated with Michelle Deeter, Head of Zeus, 2015 (awarded a PEN Translates grant).
Sissy Zhong by Yan Ge, published READ PAPER REPUBLIC.
January:Bridges, by Dorothy Tse, published READ PAPER REPUBLIC. The translation and editing of this story is discussed and illustrated here: Free Word Centre.
Also, 2015-2016, READ PAPER REPUBLIC short story series: launching, planning, translating, editing, promotion and publicity.
2014 publications:
The Book of Sins by Chen Xiwo published by FortySix, October 2014.
White Horse, novella by Yan Ge, Hope Road Publishing, October 2014.
A Tabby-cat's Tale by Han Dong, winter 2014.
The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver by Chan Koon-chung, Doubleday, April 2014.
Snow and Shadow, short story collection by Dorothy Tse, East Slope Publishing, March 2014.
A New Development Model and China’s Future, by Deng Yingtao, Routledge, March, 2014.
The Stone Ox that Grazed, short story by Sun Yisheng in Asymptote, April 2014.
A Loud Noise, poems by Han Dong, March 2014.
Other Published Translations in date order:
Urban Control and the Modernist City - essay by Leung Man-Tao, in LA Review of Books, originally appeared in Paper Republic, August 2013.
Woman Fish, by Dorothy Tse, for the Guardian newspaper, March 2013
The Shades who Periscope through Flowers to the Sky, by Sun Yisheng, for Words Without Borders, December 2012, and Dad, Your Name is Bao Tian, by Sun Yisheng, for The World of Chinese, March 2013.
Old Man Xinjiang, by Xue Mo, in China Stories for the Guardian newspaper, April 2012.
The Man with the Knife by Chen Xiwo, for Words Without Borders, November 2012
'Goodbye to Anne', in the novella collection The Road of Others, by Anni Baobei, Makedo Publishing, 2012.
Throwing out the Baby, by Xu Zechen, in Words Without Border, April 2012.
Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China, Comma Press "Tales from Ten Cities" series, the two by Han Dong and Ding Liying, 2012
Flowers of Nanjing by Yan Geling, , published by Chatto and Windus, January 2012
A Phone Call from Dalian: Selected Poems by Han Dong, published by Zephyr Press, April 2012. Multiple reviews including World Literature Today and Peony Moon
The Eye of the Eagle, short story by Bai Hua, published by Hope Road Publishing
Prize-winning novel Gold Mountain Blues/Jin Shan by Zhang Ling, published by Penguin Canada
Short stories for Ou Ning's Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, 2009, and literary magazine Chutzpah, 2010 and 2011.
Message from Unknown Chinese Mothers (Author: Xinran), Chatto & Windus, 2010.
China Witness (author: Xinran), oral history Co-translator with Esther Tyldesley and Julia Lovell. Chatto & Windus , 2008.
Banished! (author: Han Dong) (《扎根》 韩东), novel. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009. Won a PEN Translation Fund Award (2006) for this work. Longlisted for Man Asian Literary Prize, 2008.
‘Long Corridor, Short Song’ (author: Zi Ren, in To Pierce the Material Screen: An Anthology of 20th Century HK Literature, to be pub. Renditions, Hong Kong 2008); (《长廊的短调》 梓人) short story.
China Along the Yellow River (author: Prof. Cao Jinqing, pub. Routledge Curzon, December 2004); (《黄河边的中国》 曹锦清) sociology of rural China.
K – The Art of Love (author: Hong Ying, pub. Marion Boyars, 2002); (《K》 虹影) novel.
Research publications:
Li Hao: Translation of Contemporary Chinese Literature in the English-speaking World: An Interview with Nicky Harman, The AALITRA Review, No 4 (2012)
What's that got to do with anything? Coherence and the translation of relative clauses from Chinese. In Journal of Specialised Translation (www.jostrans.org) issue 13, January 2010
Foreign Culture, Foreign Style: a Translator’s View of Modern Chinese Fiction. In Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 14(1): 13-31. (2006).
Beyond Paper Dictionaries: Mining the Web for Technical Terminology in Chinese (available from http://isg.urv.es/cttt/cttt/research.html, or on request from NH).
Visiting Fellow at the Research Centre for Translation at Chinese University Hong Kong, April 2006. Visiting Scholar, Fudan University and Beijing University, China, 2008.
Nicky Harman translated for READ PAPER REPUBLIC, week 3, 2 July 2015, and READ PAPER REPUBLIC, week 10, 20 August 2015.
Read Now: On Paper Republic
| One Night on the Wharf | by Han Dong | February 01, 2022 |
| View from a Window | by Han Dong | April 16, 2020 |
| Hide! Hide! Hide! | by Yan Geling | March 28, 2020 |
| Letter to My Mother | by Ou Ning | October 04, 2018 |
| Dad Your Name is Field-Keeper | by Sun Yisheng | February 04, 2017 |
| Gu Jieming – a Life | by Han Dong | June 09, 2016 |
| The Bathtub – Scene of a Struggle | by Han Dong | May 12, 2016 |
| Snow | by Xu Xiaobin tr. Natascha Bruce and Nicky Harman | March 24, 2016 |
| That Damned Thing She Said | by Fu Yuli | March 03, 2016 |
| Backflow River | by Jia Pingwa | February 25, 2016 |
| Apery | by Sun Yisheng | January 28, 2016 |
| The Cry of the Deer | by Han Dong | January 21, 2016 |
| Sissy Zhong | by Yan Ge | August 20, 2015 |
| January: Bridges | by Dorothy (Hiu Hung) Tse | July 02, 2015 |
Read Now: Around the Web
| The Cry of the Deer | by Han Dong | Pathlight: New Chinese Writing |
| Mother Earth (excerpt) | by Chiu Zu-Yin | Books from Taiwan |
| Free! | by Wang Bang | Words Without Borders |
| Old Man Xinjiang | by Xue Mo | The Guardian |
Book Publications
Original Works
Non-fiction (1)
All Translations
Poem (27)
- Dialogue
- News
- So Dispassionate
- Waitress
- Crossing the Lingdingyang, the Lonely Sea
- In Shenzhen, to a Group of Friends
- Love Life
- Absurd Winter Scene
- Pain
- Growing Up Is a Mistake
- The Days of Our Lives
- Wood Work
- Bath-tub––scene of a struggle
- These Past Few Years
- It's Foggy
- Some People Don't Like to Talk
- In White-Tiled Brightness
- We Sat on the Street
- Summertime Window
- Green Tree, Red Fruit
- A Loud Noise
- A Phone Call from Dalian
- The Worker's Hand
- The Chicken-seller
- The Train
- Let Me Describe the Rainstorm
- Making a Note
Short story (39)
- Family Secrets
- Pain
- Head
- The Leftie Sickle
- Our Bones
- I Love My Mum
- The Hint
- Kidney Tonic
- The Man With the Knife
- Going to Heaven
- Throwing Out the Baby
- Brand New World (with Helen Wang)
- The Shades who Periscope Through Flowers to the Sky
- The Stone Ox That Grazed
- A Street in the Wind
- The Traveling Family
- Blessed Bodies
- Black Cat City
- January: Bridges
- Eternal Lamb
- Free!
- Who Stole the Romanian's Wallet? (with Yvette Zhu)
- That Damned Thing She Said
- Zeus
- 1923 - A Fantasy (with Pang Zhaoxia)
- The Seventies: Fragments of Memories
- This Moron is Dead
- A Gift from Bill Gates
- Philosophy in the Boudoir
- Apery
- Backflow River
- Goodbye, An
- The Cry of the Deer
- Snow (with Natascha Bruce)
- Dad Your Name is Field-Keeper
- One Night on the Wharf
- Sissy Zhong
- The Amorous Centaur's Gentlemen's Club
- Old Man Xinjiang
Novella (1)
Novel (15)
- Flight of the Bumblebee
- The Chilli Bean Paste Clan
- White Horse
- Qin Opera (with Dylan Levi King)
- Broken Wings
- The Flowers of War
- I Want to To Be Good
- Crystal Wedding
- The unbearable dreamworld of Champa the driver
- Dinner for Six (with Helen Wang)
- Happy
- Gold Mountain Blues
- Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love
- Banished!
- K: The Art of Love (with Henry Y.H. Zhao)
Essay (3)
Non-fiction (2)
Graphic novel (1)
Excerpt (3)
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.
Posts
Han Dong's poems on new Elixir podcast
By Nicky Harman, May 8, '25
Helen Wing's Elixir podcast has an interview with Nicky Harman about Han Dong's poems. Han Dong reads the original and Nicky Harman reads the translations. Click here
Jack Hargreaves on China Books Review
By Nicky Harman, April 29, '25
Jack Hargreaves writes his regular column, Translated Chinese Literature: Short Fiction
"Short stories are all the rage in China, but get short shrift in the West. We picked five recent translated collections, from riveting horror tales to irreverent queer fiction....."
Yilin Wang has won the 2024 John Glassco Translation Prize.
By Nicky Harman, November 6, '24
The prize, now in its 40th year, is awarded by the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada (LTAC). It is granted annually to a literary translator whose first book-length translation into English or French stands out for its literary merits and precision.
Wang was named the winner of this year’s prize for The Lantern and the Night Moths (Invisible Publishing), translations of selected works of five Chinese poets. She will receive a $1,000 prize and, along with the other two finalists, a one-year membership to LTAC.
In their citation, the jury said “Wang’s renderings eloquently and faithfully convey tone, rhythm and register, yet the translator-poet also walks confidently alongside the original poems and authors, expanding into the possibilities of the target language to better allow the images and evocations in the source texts to draw their English breath.”
Newsletter Issue Nineteen
By Nicky Harman, November 1, '24
Paper Republic Stuff
The Newsletter
As some of you will know, the newsletter has been going for a couple of years now. Huge thanks to Jack Hargreaves for bringing it out fortnightly at the start. Recently there have been a few gaps, but now we’re back! From now on, we aim to publish our newsletter every two months. We hope you enjoy it.
Please ask your friends to subscribe. As a special bonus, you can win a book, as a prize, if you get a number of friends to subscribe.
Please tell us if you have news you'd like us to include in the newsletter... just drop us an email to news@paper-republic.org.
We’re also delighted to tell you that you can now read the archived copies of our newsletter on the Paper Republic webpage here.
Read Paper Republic
One of our Read Paper Republic pieces in the Home series now features on the Youtube video channel, Translators Aloud: Anne Henochowicz and poet Yu Xinqiao read from “At Night I Rise to Mop the Floor”.
It's World Kid Lit Month!
By Nicky Harman, September 16, '24
World Kid Lit month takes place every September. It was started by the dynamic team at World Kid Lit - who have a beautiful new website packed with news about books from around the world, ready-made lists of books, activities and lots more. Help spread the word. Look for and use the hashtag #WorldKidLitMonth!
(this post has been edited)
Newsletter Issue Eighteen: Women in Translation Month, and much more
By Nicky Harman, September 1, '24
August is Women in Translation Month!
WITMonth, an initiative started by Meytal Radzinski in 2014, aims to focus the minds of readers (and publishers) on translated books by women authors, and give them the prominence they deserve. Put simply, women writers are less often translated into English than men writers, and win fewer prizes. Chinese is no exception, as we have recorded in all the years that Paper Republic has been compiling its annual Roll Call of Chinese writers published in translation. Last year, Eric Abrahamsen wrote for the 2023 Roll Call: ‘There is an interesting and varied collection of titles, including classics, left-fielders, big names, and small(er) names. The non-fiction in particular is a wonderful spread of current events, political topics, and essays. [But…] There also continues to be a marked gender imbalance: only two female poets in the poetry section; in fiction only 6 women to 16 men. To find out who those women are, follow the link above!
But rather than just bandy depressing numbers around here, we thought we’d start with a reminder of interviews of Chinese women writers, put together by Nicky Harman and Natascha Bruce, in which we explore how Chinese women authors from mainland China see themselves and their status. Our aim in translating and publishing these interviews was to bring the opinions of Chinese women writers on this topic, in all their rich variety and complexity, to English-language readers. Our survey was conducted in 2019-2020, but is still well worth looking at again. Here it is
Julius Kochan and Author Shen Yang Read from “The Home of a Spare Child”
By Nicky Harman, August 12, '24
Translators Aloud new episode.
Shenyang says: "The Home of a Spare Child” is a Chinese article I wrote for Paper Republic on the topic of home, translated in English by the amazing Julius Kochan. In this video, Julius reads an excerpt in English and I read the same one from the original Chinese text 😊
Please join the Open University and Paper Republic for the 8th session of our Modern Chinese Literature Online Book Club.
By Nicky Harman, June 24, '24
Friday 12th July, 1-2pm UK time (8-9pm Beijing time).
In this session, facilitated by Nicky Harman and Emily Jones from Paper Republic, we'll be discussing the story 'Notes from a Consulting Room' by Sophie Zuo Fei (昨非) and translated by Dylan Levi King and Yun Qin Wang (王韵沁).
You can read the translation of the story in English here: Read Paper Republic: Notes from the Consulting Room and the Chinese version is available here.
We are delighted that the author Sophie Zuo Fei (昨非) and translator Dylan Levi King will be joining us for the session.
The book club takes place online using MS teams and is held in English. You do not need to be able to speak Chinese to attend. All are welcome to attend.
For more information and to register to attend, please register here on Eventbrite to attend. The meeting link will be sent to you about a week before the event (note: the confirmation email after your registration does not contain the meeting link).
We look forward to seeing you there!
The Online Confucius Institute team at The Open University
Email: online-ci@open.ac.uk
A group of us held an impromptu online translation workshop on 5th June 2024.
By Nicky Harman, June 11, '24
A group of us held an impromptu online translation workshop on 5th June 2024. It came about because there were a fair number of people who submitted fully-translated pieces for the new Read Paper Republic "Home" series. We couldn't choose all of the pieces and decided to offer any whose work had not been chosen the chance to join Nicky Harman and Chen Du for an hour-and-a-half session. It was very informative, with everyone contributing. We discussed specific challenges we had while translating, the business of translation, and where to find additional resources. Jessica Morris's detailed notes follow:
2022 Roll Call of Published Translations from Chinese into English
By Nicky Harman, December 18, '22
Welcome to the 2022 list of literary works translated from Chinese into English. There is the usual eclectic mix listed below – from scifi to crime, to all other types of good and readable fiction. We have included poetry too, and children’s and young adult fiction. If anyone has any entries to add, please let us know at info@paper-republic.org and we’ll add them. Similarly with star reviews and other newsy items. Enjoy browsing!
Let us also take the chance to remind you that Paper Republic is a UK-registered charity (non-profit). We are run by volunteers and depend on your donations. Everything you give us goes towards our mission, to promote Chinese literature in translation. Please consider donating here: Paper Republic donations link See also the Benevity.org charitable portal. If your employer gives matching funds for donations, Benevity is a great chance to amplify your generosity.
The Open University (UK) Online Book Club - second session, 18 November 2022
By Nicky Harman, October 15, '22
The first session of the book club, held last week, was a great success. 70 + participants from all over the world discussed Yan Ge's short story Sissy Zhong, translated by Nicky Harman, with great enthusiasm. Book here for the second session on 18 November. We will be discussing an essay from Sanmao's Tales of the Sahara, and are delighted that the translator, Mike Fu, will join us from Tokyo. Registration is free.
OUT NOW! The Paper Republic Guide to Contemporary Chinese Literature.
By Nicky Harman, March 1, '22
We are delighted to announce the publication, today, of our new and definitive guide to contemporary Chinese Literature. It features in-depth essays, including an introduction by prize-winning film-maker and author Xiaolu Guo on what reading Chinese authors means to her, and nearly one hundred biographies of contemporary Chinese authors. Buy it here in paperback or Kindle
Two radio programmes on the Beeb this weekend
By Nicky Harman, February 4, '22
Two China-lit-focussed programmes on BBC radio: Saturday 5 February, The Cultural Frontline, "We hear from two award-winning sci fi writers. Chen Qiufan is the author of a series of short stories called AI 2041, 10 Visions of Our Future. And Xia Jia’s first English language collection, A Summer Beyond Your Reach, was published a few months ago." https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct1ptx And BBC Radio 3, Sunday 6 February, Paul French "A Chinese Odyssey: Artists, Poets and Exiles in Interwar London. Between 1937 and 1945, a small group of émigré Chinese artists and intellectuals living in London forged a unique bond between Britain and China. Paul French recovers the story." Sunday Feature https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00147jr
2021 Roll Call of Published Translations from Chinese into English
By Nicky Harman, December 13, '21
There’s good and bad news this year. The good news is that books translated from Chinese have won an encouragingly wide selection of translation prizes and awards. For the first time, we have listed them below in different categories: prizes, awards and ‘other successes’. The not-so-good news is that, as in previous years, women writers and women poets are far less well-represented than men. The gender imbalance in all categories is shocking!
As usual, please let us know if you’d like to add books, star reviews and awards that we may have missed off the lists. Finally, we’re delighted to be able to add links to lists of books translated from Chinese into other languages. (Do let us know if there are more we can include.)