By Bruce Humes "This has been a great year for African writing," said South Africa's Damon Galgut upon receiving the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel, The Promise. As reported in From the Booker to the Nobel, several other African authors also snagged prestigious European literary prizes during 2021. They include Abdulrazak Gurnah (Nobel), David Diop (International Booker), Mohamed Mbougar … Continue reading African Writing in Chinese Translation: 2021 Round-up + A Peek at 2022
Desmond Tutu: Speaking Truth to Power
“Mr. Zuma, you and your government don’t represent me. You represent your own interests. I am warning you out of love, one day we will start praying for the defeat of the A.N.C. government. You are disgraceful.” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking in 2011 during Jacob Zuma's period as President of South Africa, as quoted in … Continue reading Desmond Tutu: Speaking Truth to Power
Growing up Uyghur in Xinjiang: “Setting Sail in a Chinese-language World”
(Posted Dec 22, 2021) In China's Minority Fiction, Sabina Knight notes how China is pushing its ethnic minorities --- particularly the Uyghur in Xinjiang --- to master Mandarin: "The question of cultural survival haunts Patigül’s Bloodline《百年血脉》(2015). The novel situates the narrator—who, like the author, is half-Uyghur and half-Hui—within the matrix of the Han majority’s aggressive promotion … Continue reading Growing up Uyghur in Xinjiang: “Setting Sail in a Chinese-language World”
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Nobel Speech: “A kind of beauty”
. . . writing cannot be just about battling and polemics, however invigorating and comforting that can be. Writing is not about one thing, not about this issue or that, or this concern or another, and since its concern is human life in one way or another, sooner or later cruelty and love and weakness … Continue reading Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Nobel Speech: “A kind of beauty”
Nobel Laureate Gurnah’s Tales of Exile and Migration Set to Launch in China within 2nd Half 2022
By Bruce Humes Recent press reports in the English-speaking world note that the new Nobel Laureate for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, is relatively unknown in his native Zanzibar and Africa in general, but none of his novels have ever appeared in Chinese. This looks set to change. "We aim to publish five of Gurnah's full-length novels within the second … Continue reading Nobel Laureate Gurnah’s Tales of Exile and Migration Set to Launch in China within 2nd Half 2022
Gurnah’s Nobel Prize for Literature: One African Publisher’s Take
During the immediate aftermath of the naming of Zanzibar-born author Abdulrazak Gurnah as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, it seemed that much of the Sinosphere coverage was either scholarly papers penned a few years back by Chinese scholars and reheated for the occasion, or translated snippets of English-language wire service reports pasted … Continue reading Gurnah’s Nobel Prize for Literature: One African Publisher’s Take
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and his “The Perfect Nine”: Now Slated for Future Translation into Chinese?
April 14, 2021 Update: Writer's Literary Agent Confirms that a China Publisher has Bought the Rights to Translate and Publish <The Perfect Nine> in Chinese Reports the Guardian: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has become the first writer to be nominated for the International Booker prize as both author and translator of the same book, and the first nominee writing … Continue reading Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and his “The Perfect Nine”: Now Slated for Future Translation into Chinese?
“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”
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
Altaic Storytelling 