Extract: “Back Quarters at Number 7” by Manchu Writer Ye Guangqin

In Back Quarters at Number 7, Ye Guangqin recreates what it was like growing up Manchu in a traditional Beijing hutong during the early years of the New China. Once part of a prince’s stately residence, the Big Courtyard now belongs to the masses and serves as a venue for collective activities such as neighborhood … Continue reading Extract: “Back Quarters at Number 7” by Manchu Writer Ye Guangqin

Translation Services/中译英服务

Chinese-to-English Translation Services I undertake Chinese-to-English translation projects in a number of fields, including those noted below. Interested? Get in touch here. Marketing-use Synopsis & Translated Excerpt I frequently provide translated excerpts, or an entire “marketing kit,” to help market foreign language rights for Chinese novels. Here is a list of several novels for which … Continue reading Translation Services/中译英服务

2015 Mao Dun Prize: Who Will Snare Award for Unofficial “Ethnic-themed” Category?

The longlist for what is arguably China’s most prestigious award for novels has just been published (第九届茅盾文学奖参评作品目录). I write “arguably” because, like virtually every literary competition in the PRC of late, even the reputation of the Mao Dun Literature Prize — sponsored by the very official Chinese Writers Association — has been questioned. See 2014: Year of … Continue reading 2015 Mao Dun Prize: Who Will Snare Award for Unofficial “Ethnic-themed” Category?

Cultivating Uyghur Writers and Translators

As I’ve reported before (Sessions), the editors at China’s very official Nationalities Literature Magazine (民族文学), which appears in 5 languages plus Mandarin, are heading up a nationwide series of “rewriting/editing training courses” (改稿班). The latest took place in Urumqi in late September, and brought together more than 30 Uyghur writers and their translators, along with editors … Continue reading Cultivating Uyghur Writers and Translators

June Training Sessions: Authors of Five Major non-Han Languages Meet their Translators

During June 5-9, Nationalities Literature Magazine (民族文学) organized an intensive “editing/rewriting training course” (改稿班) that brought together the magazine’s editors with twenty-plus Kazakh writers and their translators. Mandarin and Kazakh aside, the magazine appears in Mongolian, Korean, Tibetan and Uyghur, and training sessions for writers and translators of the latter four languages are also scheduled to … Continue reading June Training Sessions: Authors of Five Major non-Han Languages Meet their Translators

Manchu Novelists: Storytellers First, and Partial to the Spoken Language

A conference on the unique contribution of Manchu novelists was held in Beijing on June 6, 2014, to celebrate the publication of 满族小说与中华文化 (Manchu novels and Chinese culture). The book is the result of a project sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Fund (社科基金项目). Editor Guan Jixin (关纪新), a Manchu himself, conceded that … Continue reading Manchu Novelists: Storytellers First, and Partial to the Spoken Language