I was invited to the “2015 Sino-foreign Literature Translation & Publishing Workshop” (2015 中外文学翻译研修班) that just ended in Beijing, but didn’t make it. It looks like it was a major happening with more than 50 translation and publishing professionals attending from 30+ countries. Check out the site here. Most of it is in Chinese, but … Continue reading Aug 2015 Update: Strategies for Exporting More of China’s Ethnic Fiction
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Documenting Folk Songs of Yunnan’s Bai People in Multilingual Format
Chinese Ethnic Minority Oral Traditions: A Recovered Text of Bai Folk Songs, a new work in the Cambria Sinophone World Series, was published recently. A brief backgrounder on how it came into being: In 1958 while conducting fieldwork in Yunnan, a professor came across a rice paper booklet with strange script created from Chinese characters. … Continue reading Documenting Folk Songs of Yunnan’s Bai People in Multilingual Format
One-Size-Fits-All Qualification Exam for China Publishing Professionals Militates Against Ethnic Minority Talent
In China, since 2002 all technical staff employed in a publishing enterprise engaged in “editing, publication, proofreading and distribution . . . must obtain a National Publication Professional Qualification Certificate” (国家出版专业职业资格). That sounds fairly reasonable in the China context where media is tightly managed for political correctness. But the reality is that in one sector … Continue reading One-Size-Fits-All Qualification Exam for China Publishing Professionals Militates Against Ethnic Minority Talent
“Customs of Zhuang People”
The book “Customs of Zhuang People” describes a remote village where people feel more comfortable singing to stranger than talking to them. So if you got lost in the mountains, you are better off singing your inquiries if you want to get directions from the locals. 『壯族風情錄』裡說，在壯山裡問路，要用唱的人家才回答你。 這不是為難人嗎？ 我好不容易背了簡單的句子問路。這麼看來，練說的不夠，要練唱！ 所以，我寫了首相見歌，等我壯文再多學點，可以用壯文來唱。 Visit Song of Reunion 相见歌 for full text by Chilin … Continue reading “Customs of Zhuang People”
Quote of the Week: Human Rights Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang Uses Taboo “C” Word about Xinjiang
“If you say Xinjiang belongs to China, then don’t treat it as a colony,” Mr. Pu wrote in May 2014. “Don’t act as conquerors and plunderers, striking out against any and all before and after, turning them into the enemy.” 浦志强在 2014 年 5 月时曾写道，“说新疆是中国的，就别把它当殖民地说新疆是中国的，别当征服者和掠夺者，先发制人后发制人都为制人，都是把对方当敌人。” (Tweet by Pu Zhiqiang (浦志强), a human rights lawyer now facing … Continue reading Quote of the Week: Human Rights Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang Uses Taboo “C” Word about Xinjiang
Covering China Best-seller “Kite Runner”: Taking Translator Invisibility to the Extreme
In How to Top China’s Best-seller List Without Really Trying, Alexa Olesen reports on a recent upsurge in sales of the Chinese edition of Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner (追风筝的人)： Over the last nine years, The Kite Runner has sold more than 3 million copies in China. Nearly a third of that total comes from sales … Continue reading Covering China Best-seller “Kite Runner”: Taking Translator Invisibility to the Extreme
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”
Ethnic ChinaLit Briefs (Feb 11)
Shaanxi Fiction via French Comics One of China’s best-selling, classic works of “rural fiction,” the White Deer Plain by Chen Zhongshi (白鹿原，陈忠实), has still not been translated into English, but is available in French (Au pays du cerf blanc) in a rendition by Shao Baoqing and Solange Cruveillé. This month, the comics version (连环画, right) made its … Continue reading Ethnic ChinaLit Briefs (Feb 11)
Light Reading for Tibetans: “1984” and “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
Orwell’s 1984 — in Tibetan (གཅིག་དགུ་གྱ་བཞི།, at left) — is now available in the PRC, confirms French Tibetologist Françoise Robin in an e-mail today. I assume it has the official stamp of approval, because it is published by the state-run Gansu Nationalities Publishing House, according to a news item in Tibetan (here). It was translated by Dorje … Continue reading Light Reading for Tibetans: “1984” and “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
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
Ethnic ChinaLit 