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 of the Uyghur edition of the magazine.
Among the participating writers and translators were:
- 王一之, 马克, 伊明·艾合买提, 艾克拜尔·吾拉木, 艾合买提·帕萨, 博格达·阿布都拉, 帕尔哈提·伊利亚斯 (author of 楼兰古国的奇幻之旅), 亚森·阿瓦孜 (translator of Tang poetry), 阿不力孜·卡斯木, 雅森·孜拉力, 拜格买提·玉苏普, 苏永成, 乌斯曼江·买买提, 普拉提·艾祖拉, 拜合提亚尔·巴吾东 and 阿不力克木·艾山 .
As I tried to research these writers and translators online, I was struck by the lack of links. Several didn’t show up on the first page of results, and none of them appeared to have any links to the English-speaking Internet. This is notable because many Han writers can now be found in English by searching either for their name in Latin letters, or by simultaneously searching for them in both Chinese and pinyin. Also, I was struck by how old most of them are — several must be in their sixties (at least), and their “biographies” listed no new publications since the 90s. So where is the new generation of Uyghur writers/translators?
Trainers for the sessions included:
- 聂震宁, 阿扎提·苏里坦, 伊明·艾合买提, 艾海提·帕萨尔, 博格达·阿布都拉 and 帕尔哈提·伊力牙斯 (translator of Tolstoy and Shaanxi writer Jia Pingwa) .
The Uyghur edition of Nationalities Literature Magazine also plays an important role in translating into Uyghur works by foreign and China writers of various ethnicities. They have included writing by Lao She (Manchu), Wang Zengqi, Tie Ning, Wang Meng, Mo Yan, Ma Shitu, A Lai (Tibetan), Ye Guangqin (Manchu), Jidi Majia (Yi), Malchinkuu (Mongolian), Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Neruda and Orhan Pamuk.
Bruce Humes 