“Let a thousand translations bloom”

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” →

Quote of the Week: To Gloss or Not, That is the Question

There’s a part of me that just deeply resents the fact that there’re many parts of the world where the fiction that comes from there is read as anthropology rather than as literature. And increasingly that kind of anthropological reading then means that . . . you’re explaining your world rather than inhabiting your world. … Continue reading Quote of the Week: To Gloss or Not, That is the Question →

Feminist: A Dirty Word in Xi Jinping’s China?

Chimamanda Adichie is hot. Not just in her homeland Nigeria, and the US where she spends much of her time nowadays, but in China too. Witness the fact that four of her works have been translated into Chinese, including her moving portrayal of the Biafran war, Half of a Yellow Sun (半轮黄日), The Thing Around … Continue reading Feminist: A Dirty Word in Xi Jinping’s China? →

Behind the Bamboo Curtain: At Last the World Is Paying Attention to How Foreign Works Are Translated into Chinese

Jan 12 Update: Indiatoday's Interview with Feng Tang * * * * * January 7 Post Feng Tang, a well known Chinese author — and occasional translator — will reportedly not be among a group of Chinese writers attending the World Book Fair in New Delhi next week (Jan 9-17). He had previously been scheduled … Continue reading Behind the Bamboo Curtain: At Last the World Is Paying Attention to How Foreign Works Are Translated into Chinese →

Booming Sales of Alexievich’s Works: State Media Attributes them to China’s “Nobel Complex”

Amazon China’s sales of new Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s works in soared from nowhere to occupy the Number 20 ranking in less than 24 hours after she was awarded the prestigious prize, reports the Xi’an Evening News at Chinanews.com (作品销量). Nothing like this jump occurred when China’s own Mo Yan was honored with the same … Continue reading Booming Sales of Alexievich’s Works: State Media Attributes them to China’s “Nobel Complex” →

One Belt, One Road: China Has the $, but Does it Have the Cross-cultural Expertise?

China's ambitious "One Belt, One Road" campaign (一带一路, OBOR) is a development strategy and framework that seeks to foster connectivity and cooperation between China and the countries along the ancient Silk Road that passed through Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It also includes the lesser-known Maritime Silk Road. This global initiative … Continue reading One Belt, One Road: China Has the $, but Does it Have the Cross-cultural Expertise? →

Silk Road Economic Belt: Translators to Get their Slice of the Pie

Representatives of five of China’s northwestern provinces met June 15 in Xining to discuss how to benefit from the “Silk Road Fragrant Books Project” (丝路书香工程). This is a global publishing initiative, given the stamp of approval by China’s Ministry of Propaganda, which is designed to stimulate the translation and publication of great literary, historical and … Continue reading Silk Road Economic Belt: Translators to Get their Slice of the Pie →

Mo Yan’s “Frog” Reviewed: Call for Diversity among Chinese-to-English Translators

In Literary Prowess Lost, we have one of the first coherent --- and highly critical --- reviews of a modern novel translated from the Chinese in which the reviewer knows the source language and doesn't shirk from calling out the translator on several points: Without multiple translations of the same work, it’s impossible to adequately … Continue reading Mo Yan’s “Frog” Reviewed: Call for Diversity among Chinese-to-English Translators →

Peter Hessler on the China Translator and “Defensive Censorship”

In Travels with My Censor: A Book Tour, author Peter Hessler decides the best way to understand censorship in China is to spend some quality time with the humans --- they aren't machines or faceless apparatchiks --- who practice it. Very educational for him and us, I'd say. This piece in The New Yorker also … Continue reading Peter Hessler on the China Translator and “Defensive Censorship” →

By the Numbers: Non-Han “Literary Families” during the Qing

In much the same way as modern gender studies have exploded the myth that great writers throughout human history were necessarily male, contemporary research into literary production by non-Han authors is slowly lifting the veil on their role in China’s pre-20th-century literary life. In a recent piece on the current state of research into so-called … Continue reading By the Numbers: Non-Han “Literary Families” during the Qing →