The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast

"I tried. I put everything into being an exceptional student. But those things are like water cast out in the desert, they evaporate quickly. Whenever I started something, I would picture its inevitable ending. An apple becomes pips in the trash."

In the tenth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at A Yi's A Perfect Crime (猫和老鼠/māo hé lǎoshǔ)

This is dark and existential novel translated by Anna Holmwood wastes neither word nor sentiment on the reader. Prepare for discomfort as we take on the perspective of an alienated highschooler who murders his classmate for no real reason, then goes on the run.

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// Discussed in this Episode //

INEQUALITY AND CRIME RATES IN CHINA by Tsun Se Cheong and Yanrui Wu

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"Alive, her body belonged to him; dead, she was his ghost"

In the ninhth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Lust, Caution (色，戒 / Sè, Jiè) by a certain someone called Eileen Chang. Heard of her?

It’s a tale of forbidden love and political intrigue set at a precarious time and indeed a precarious place in Chinese history: the Japanese-occupied foreign concessions of WW2-era Shanghai.

The translation I read is from the Penguin Pocket Classics Edition. Julia Lovell was the translator. Co-hosting with me on this episode is the amazing Claire Hao.

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// Discussed this Episode //

• Except of the story available on the Pocket Penguins website

• Julia Lovell/Han Shaogong article

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"Howard Goldblatt is Jay Z and Nicky Harman is Nas"

In this episode I'm talking to Dylan Levi King, translator of Dong Xi's Record of Regret. We talk about Xuzhou's dog tacos, Chinese libraries, Ghost in the Shell...and of course Miss Sophie's Diary. Dylan also spoke about the world of Chinese to English translation, his love of Jia Pingwa, and his own growth as a translator.

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// Discussed in this Episode //

• Dylan's Twitter

• His Floating City article

• Entering Qin, his Jia Pingwa article

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"I was so angry I wanted to weep, but I laughed aloud."

In the seventh episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at: The Diary of Miss Sophie (莎菲女士的日记/Shāfēi Nǚshì de Rìjì)

This is a very personal journey of 'Miss Sophie', an outspoken woman navigating all the questions modern life in early 20th century, May Fourth Movement era China is throwing at her. It's frigging fascinating.

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// Discussed in this Episode //

• The translation I read is from the Beacon Press edition of I Myself am a Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling.

• In Quest of the Writer Ding Ling by Yi-Tsi Mei Feuerwerker

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'It was in the desert that I found poetry.'

In this episode we're talking to Dong Li, translator of The Wild Great Wall (野长城 // Yě Chángchéng) by the poet Zhu Zhu.

Dong Li was born in the PRC and now resides in Germany. He's had fellowships and publications galore, and can speak Chinese, English, German, and French.

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// Discussed in this Episode //

Here's the three poets Dong Li recommends you check out:

• Lorine Niedecker

• Jeffrey Yang

• C D Wright

Dong Li's World Literature Today article www.

Phoneme Media - @phoneme_media

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"This moment countless men up the stairs. Upstairs, Chopin already in the dark. Downstairs, dying alone in a crowd."

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In this episode we are looking at: The Wild Great Wall (野长城 // Yě Chángchéng)

It's a brand new release. It's poetic, it's universal and cross-cultural, and yet it's also quite defiantly (I dare to say) Chinese. In a funny sort of way.

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"The London Book Fair is the global marketplace for rights negotiation alongside the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV film and digital channels."

[ episode transcript here ]

A book fair! Candyfloss and author signings and gazebos? Not quite.

In this episode we're doing something a little different. I'll be recounting my trip to the 2019 London Book Fair and recounting all translated-Chinese-fic discoveries I made and encounters I had. Without disclosing any career ending secrets of course. Jk I have none.

https://olympia.london/whatson/london-book-fair

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"I lit up a cigarette and thought that you shouldn't torture yourself by trying to go against life's grain. The dissolute will take advantage of the young. If you could be happy for a while, then settle for that."

[ episode transcript here ]

In this episode we are looking at: Leave Me Alone (成都，今夜请将我遗忘 // Chéngdū, Jīnyè Qǐng Jiāng Wǒ Yíwàng) It's the 2014 UK edition published by Fortysix

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

Murong Xuecun's 2010 People's Literature Prize acceptance speech // MIRROR LINK

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"The publicity should focus on how we took a pile of shit and a puddle of piss and turned it into somebody. We must make this clear to the masses."

[ episode transcript here ]

In this episode we are looking at: Please Don't Call Me Human (千万别把我当人/Qiānwàn Bié Bǎ Wǒ Dāngrén) It's the 2005 No Exit Press edition, no. 14 of its 18th Anniversary Crime & Noir series

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

Wang Shuo and Liumang (`Hooligan') Culture by Geremie Barme // MIRROR LINK

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Wanting to eat men, at the same time afraid of being eaten themselves, they all look at each other with the deepest suspicion...

[ episode transcript here ]

In the very first episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at The Diary of a Madman (狂人日记/Kuángrén Rìjì) It's the PRC Beijing Foreign Languages Press translation.

This is a foundational text for modern Chinese literature, and sure enough this podcast keeps on referring back here, to Episode 1. In this grim and surreal tale, a man describes his growing suspicion that his friends, his family, and his entire village has turned cannibal.

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READ THE FULL TEXT HERE

Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism by Frederic Jameson

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