Mridula Nath Chakraborty on the controversy arising from the resignation of Amanda Gorman’s Dutch translator: Translators ferry across the meaning, materiality, metaphysics and all the magic that may be unknown in the mediums and conventions of their own tongue. The pull of the strange, the foreign, and the alien are necessary for acts of translation. It … Continue reading “Let a thousand translations bloom”
Author: xumushi
Chinese-to-English literary translator. Interested in topics such as fiction by the non-Han peoples of China, storytelling by Altaic peoples, and Silk Road cultures.
Coming soon to China: African Poetry, Novellas and Parables Translated Direct from Hausa and Swahili
2021 looks set to be a banner year for what I refer to in shorthand as “Afrolit4China,” i.e., African writing in Chinese translation targeting readers in the People’s Republic. According to the latest statistics from the sole online mini-database in this niche, the bilingual African Writing in Chinese Translation (非洲文学: 中文译本), now lists 240 translated works by 101 … Continue reading Coming soon to China: African Poetry, Novellas and Parables Translated Direct from Hausa and Swahili
Crime & Punishment for Online Speech in the People’s Paradise —— 中国文字狱事件
The New York Times reports: In China, don’t question the heroes. 在中国，不要怀疑英雄。 At least seven people over the past week have been threatened, detained or arrested after casting doubt over the government’s account of the deaths of Chinese soldiers during a clash last year with Indian troops. Three of them are being detained for between seven and … Continue reading Crime & Punishment for Online Speech in the People’s Paradise —— 中国文字狱事件
Book Review of “The War on the Uyghurs”: How a People Became “Terrified”
An excerpt from Darren Byler’s review of Sean Roberts’ The War on the Uyghurs: Prior to the US declaration of the Global War on Terror, Uyghurs were described occasionally as “counterrevolutionaries” or as “separatists”, but never as terrorists. Working in concert with Chinese state security in a Beijing-based investigation, in the early 2000s US intelligence officials took up … Continue reading Book Review of “The War on the Uyghurs”: How a People Became “Terrified”
Quote of the Week: Querying the Maori Canon
Canons have real-world effects. When I first talked about teaching Māori literature in an English department in New Zealand, a number of people questioned whether there would be enough writing to justify a whole course, let alone a whole job. This assumption is not accidental – it grows out of a colonial view that Indigenous … Continue reading Quote of the Week: Querying the Maori Canon
“Sidik Golden MobOff”: Li Bai was Uyghur
An Excerpt from Sidik Golden MobOff by Alat Asem 斯迪克金子关机 阿拉提·阿斯木 著 First published in Peregrine, Issue 14, June 2013 Translated by Bruce Humes In our community, the only person who excelled at translating Uyghur into Chinese was Big Brother Sidik, and this was the inexhaustible source of his arrogance and aloofness. His colleagues and fellow students … Continue reading “Sidik Golden MobOff”: Li Bai was Uyghur
AfroLit4China: Bilingual Guide to Links about African Writing in Chinese Translation
非洲文学：中文译本 African Writing in Chinese Translation (Mini-database) African Lit in Chinese Translation: Still Stuck on “Things Fall Apart”? African Writing in Chinese Translation: 2020 Round-up and a Peek at 2021 Chimamanda Adichie is leading the rise of an African literature wave in China Chinese Academics Ask: 非洲文学离我们有多远？ Chinese Translations of African Writing Rise 63 Percent since … Continue reading AfroLit4China: Bilingual Guide to Links about African Writing in Chinese Translation
Synopsis: Moŋgoliya by Guo Xuebo
《蒙古里亚》郭雪波著 Original novel in Chinese by Guo Xuebo Synopsis by Bruce Humes A tale of ruthless ecological exploitation, a 20th-century European explorer’s fascination with Altaic culture & epiphany in today’s Inner Mongolia This semi-autobiographical novel comprises three parallel narratives that eventually intersect in 21st-century Inner Mongolia: A spiritual journey, in which the author — ostensibly … Continue reading Synopsis: Moŋgoliya by Guo Xuebo
One of the People
遭遇深圳 By Bruce Humes “You’ll have to excuse us, Bruce. We’ve always looked after you as a guest,” said longtime friend Liu Jie, pausing delicately. “But yesterday we treated you like one of our own.” Indeed. My reception the previous night at the emergency room of this People’s Hospital in Shenzhen, just north of Hong … Continue reading One of the People
African Writing in Chinese Translation: 2020 Round-up and a Peek at 2021
As Xi Jinping’s maritime Silk Road initiative reaches its tentacles further West into Africa, it’s not just accumulating alarming rates of China-driven debt and sucking up the continent’s mineral exports. Publishers in the People’s Paradise are now showing modest interest in importing what the authorities label “cultural products.” In this case, contemporary African writing. According to … Continue reading African Writing in Chinese Translation: 2020 Round-up and a Peek at 2021
Altaic Storytelling 