Chutzpah!: Latest Issue Devoted to Writers of non-Han Descent

Good news from the bimonthly Chinese literary magazine Chutzpah! (天南): the latest edition (Issue 14) is devoted entirely to writing by authors of non-Han descent. Several languages are involved here—most are published in Chinese, but some were written in other tongues and then translated into Chinese, while one has been rendered in English.

The latter deserves a special mention because . . . I translated it. It’s a marvelous short story by Uyghur writer Alat Asem (阿拉提·阿斯木), entitled Sidik Golden MobOff (《斯迪克金子关机》). If you want to read it in full, you’ll have to purchase the magazine in hard copy form, but here’s an excerpt. But for more information on the author, see China’s Bilingual Writers: Narrative with a Difference.  And if you can read Chinese, check out this very informative interview with the author, 地域化、全球化和双语写作.

Here’s the intro to this June 22, 2013 edition of Chutzpah!:

Gaze into this ethnic kaleidoscope and you’ll see China through Tibetan, Mongolian, Kazakh, Uyghur, Yi, Sibo, Tung, and Tujia eyes; dig just beneath the surface and you’ll see that Chinese culture is fed by a vast and ramifying system of roots. From the mythical origins of the Yi to the clash of cultures between Kazakhs and Han Chinese, from daily life in Xinjiang to a surreal Tibet of the imagination, from the plains of Mongolia to backwoods Hubei, this selection of stories and memoirs reflects the unique subjectivities of China’s ethnic “minorities,” whose voices are too often drowned out in the noise of contemporary Chinese society. Look for fiction by Na Zhangyuan [纳张元], Aydos Amantay [艾多斯·阿曼泰的], Alat Asem [阿拉提·阿斯木], Kanglin Gioro [觉罗康林], Pema Tseden [万玛才旦], and Lhajam Gyel [拉先加]; memoirs by Baoerj Yuanye [鲍尔吉·原野] and Ye Fu [野夫], winner of PEN’s Freedom to Write Award; verse by young Uyghur poet Muhammedemin Abliz [麦麦提敏·阿卜力孜] and Tibetan Qinghai native Ju Kelzang [居·格桑]; and pictures by Han photographer Li Wei [李伟] capturing the Inner Mongolia of his childhood. In English, Alat Asem [阿拉提·阿斯木] offers a colorful sketch of a beloved Uyghur barfly, and Ren Xiaowen [任晓雯] spins a tale of vengeance in the wake of a hutong demolition.