The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast

‘There is never anything so difficult that it cannot be resolved’

In the seventieth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are taking part in The Adventures of Ma Suzhen (马素贞复仇记 / Mǎ Sùzhēn Fùchóu Jì). From the backwaters of Shandong to the criminal dens of Shanghai, stout man of Oxford Paul Bevan leads me on a quest for vengeance that is little known in the west, yet part of an entire extended universe of Sinophone multimedia culture.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• PODCAST: Sabina Knight on Daoism, Confucianism & Anti- War Poetry

• INTERVIEW: My Crime, Being Born Illegal - Shen Yang in Conversation with Nicky Harman

• FICTION: The Old Cicada by Can Xue - now readable online, for free

• EVENT: Hard Roads an Cauld Hairst Winds: translations from Ancient China with Brian Holton

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(女 - nv - woman)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• The much-derided Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies literary genre

• Ma Yongzhen, a real life Shandong badass

• Wuxia and Jin Yong

• Central Shanghai’s artsy street: Fuzhou Lu

• Cai Guoqiang 蔡国强 - Fujian firework artist

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// Handy TrChFic Links //

Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFic

INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD

You couldn’t get to grips with fate, but the enemy you could see and touch was your own body

In the sixty ninth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are riding with The Women, the Camels, and the Dholes, one of the stories contained within the Selected Stories of Xue Mo (雪漠小说精选 / Xuěmò Xiǎoshuō Jīngxuǎn). Two women are joining me on this trek: audiobook producer Nicola Clayton and voice actor Sarah Lam. In this tale we get material, we get Buddhist, we get into self-help, and we get really close to death...

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• BUY: The Paper Republic Guide to Chinese Literature

• LISTEN: Craig Clunas on Sigmund Freud’s Chinese Collection

• LISTEN/WATCH: Jing Tsu & Dan Russell on Kingdom of Characters

• READ: Ecocriticism and Chinese Literature

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(生存 - shēng cún - to exist, to survive)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Gansu

• The Holy Monk and the Spirit Woman - note that this link leads to a page on Xue Mo’s own website

• The Inspector Chen Mysteries - the BBC Radio 4 series featuring Sarah!

• The Leeds Centre January 2022 Author of the Month

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// Handy TrChFic Links //

Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFic

INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD

In-your-face. I want more in-your-face, if you please.

In the sixty eighth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are being Raised by Wolves (狼養的 / Láng Yǎng De), just like Amang and her translator Steve Bradbury. Revel in trash. Bound down a mountain. Take a ride on a nuclear sub. Argue furiously in favour of your preferred adverb. Do all these things, and you will channel the spirit of the wolf.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• READ: Tiffany Troy talks to author Sheng Keyi about Death Fugue

• LISTEN: Sinica’s Kaiser Kuo interviews author Megan Walsh about ‘what China is reading’

• MY FIENDISH RIVALS… are running an amazing Lu Xun series, with awesome guests

• META-NEWS: I have restored a VPN-off option for listeners in the PRC

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(狼養 - láng yǎng de - raised by wolves)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Steve’s music choice: Lisa Rose - Hook and Eye - (w/ music video by Amang herself!)

• Angus’ music choice: Potty Mouth - The Gap

• New Directions - publishers of poetry

• Hong Hong - a poet

• Alastair Reid - a translator

• Ezra Pound - a Tim Budong

• Vermont - a poetry fortress

• Trident - London govt’s nukes, in Scotland

Maybe I would only begin to understand these things when I became fatherless too, having no-one to lean on, the bitter solitude of not knowing what you ought to say before the world

In the sixty seventh of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are going Faraway (遠方 / Yuǎnfāng) with Lo Yi-Chin. Lighting lamps with me as time, memory, and family dissolve into an indistinct fog is the writer, translator, and mega-linguist Jenna Tang.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Paul French is back on British radio with A Chinese Odyssey: Artists, Poets and Exiles in Interwar London - streaming online for 1 year+

• Sinoist Books’ Longevity Park bags a spot in the Dublin Literary Award Runlist

• Sinoist Books announce lineup of 4 new titles

• Chinese language podcast Loud Murmurs goes dark

• Jennifer Feeley translates Xi Xi’s concrete poem Thicket of Green Grass for the new Tiger Year

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(遠方 - yuǎnfāng - far away (or should it be ‘faraway’?)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Wintry Night 寒夜 by Li Qiao 李喬

• Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu

• 1988: I Want to Talk with the World by Han Han

• Bo Ke Lai 博客來 - International Taiwanese bookstore 海外專館

• Taiwanese writers Jian Zheng 簡媜 and Qi Jun 琦君

The rocking of the boat created the illusion that all the lights were moving

In the sixty sixth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are adrift in Hong Kong Nights (香港之夜 / Xiāng Gǎng Zhīyè), as fleetingly recollected by Sichuan’s long-surviving left-anarchist writer, Ba Jin. Joining me in the constellations is fellow Sino-lit podcaster Luo Tianqi – here to talk about revolution, regret, and responsibility. Grab a seat on deck, comrade, brush up on your Bakunin, and let go of your transient identity as sights become sounds, and sounds become sights.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Lu Xun’s The True Story of Ah Q to broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on January 26

• The Sons of Red Lake and Chinese Elemental Philosophy - Sinoist Books’ blog

• The Way Spring Arrives gets a beautiful Chinese edition

• A dialogue between past and future show guests Mike Fu and Jenna Tang

• KakaoEntertainment buys Wuxiaworld - plus thoughts from the translators

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(家 - jiā - home/family)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Tianqi’s podcast

• Various translated Ba Jin essays available on Anarchy Archives

• Dissenting from Ba Jin by Geremie Barmé // Available on DOUBAN and GDOCS

• Family by Ba Jin (trans by Sidney Shapiro)

The best attributes of anyone or anything usually reside on the surface, which is where, in fact, all of us live out our lives

In the sixty fifth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are swathing ourselves in The Invisibility Cloak (隐身衣 / Yǐnshēn Yī). Languishing with me in the peace and pain of relative obscurity are Giray Fidan and Rauno Sainio, two translators of the book’s author: Ge Fei, an imperceptible fabulist and three-time subject of this very show. I still haven’t figured him out, and I’m sure he’d be glad of it.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• ACA Publishing/Sinoist Books bags an English PEN translation grant for The Sacred Clan by Liang Hong

• New book: The Artisans by Shen Fuyu, translated by Jeremy Tiang

• Chinese student writes Marxism dissertation on Warhammer 40K

• Lemony Snicket’s new book has a cameo from Pu Songling and John Minford

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// PHRASES OF THE DAY //

(太阳还好端端的在天上挂着呢! - Tàiyáng hái hǎoduānduān dì zài tiānshàng guà zhene - And the sun is still hanging right up there in the sky!)

(安居乐业 - Ānjūlèyè - To live in peace, and work happily)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• I Found My Mind in Connecticut - Cage

• La Follia - Vivaldi

• Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

• The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tampinar

• Naked CEO Grant Horsfield and his Moganshan resort

• The Altaic language family and its syntax

‘Suppose the universe is a program. Everything that we can observe is the result of the machine-executable code. But the cosmic microwave background can be understood as the record of some earlier version of the source code.’

In the sixty forth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we bear witness to the Coming of the Light (开光 / Kāiguāng), penned by the shaman-consulting Google graduate himself; it’s Stan, it’s the man, it’s Chen Qiufan. And hark – what’s this? Waves and photons in the shape of noted publisher Francesco Verso surge from the underscreen to puncture my cybernetic solipsism, but will our agile enterprise decode the universe before its unravelling, or are all digital startups nought but the initiation of the end?

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• READ: A Ramble Through the Heart: A Semi-Coherent Attempt at Self-Justification by Chua Chim Kang, tr Tan Dan Feng, from Renditions Issue 96

• LISTEN: My Scandinavian nemesis strikes again - Owlish and Other Translated Languages with Natascha Bruce

• ROUNDTABLE: Can Chinese Science Fiction Transcend Binary Thinking?

• REVIEW: TrChFic named ‘Shiver-Worthy Runner-Up’ in: {Scary’s Voices} Sound Bites for November 26th

- // WORD OF THE DAY //

(云 - yún - cloud)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Chan/Zen Buddhism

• Zhongguancun - the Silicon Valley of Beijing

• Solarpunk - according to the BBC

• Wired’s article on Silicon Valley Buddhism

• And…Wired’s brilliant article on Chen Qiufan - some more evidence of his interest in the shamans of China’s periphery

• the PRC's internet/gaming addiction camps

In my innocent youth, I was a paragon of virtue, but after wandering for so long in the red dust of this world I had joined the forces of evil

In the sixty third episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction we are Dancing Through Red Dust (原谅我红尘颠倒 / Yuánliàng Wǒ Hóngchén Diāndǎo), a nightmarish lurch through the PRC (il)legal system dreamed up by the Shandong webnovelist-turned-dissident Murong Xuecun. Presiding over the court with me is Murong’s esteemed translator, editor, publisher, and friend: Harvey Tomlinson. What have judges to do with the Jinpingmei? What has loss to do with licentiousness? How does Buddhism end up parceled in with backhand business? You shut up and listen. We’ll deliver the verdict.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Strange Beasts of China lands a spot on the NYT’s 100 Notable Books of 2021

• How an American fell in love with China and Chinese - Great SCMP article on/by translator/Mr Paper Republic, Eric Abrahamsen

• New & queued TrChFic Patreon episodes: 2046, The Road Home, Taiwan symposium, Faraway, and a kehuan battle royale

• Sinoist Books have upgraded their website

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// WORDS OF THE DAY //

(晚 & 碗 - wǎn & wǎn - ‘evening’ and ‘bowl’)

(色 - sè - here meaning ‘carnality’)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Leave Me Alone by Murong Xuecun himself

• The Strike - Harvey’s experimental syntax novel

• Red dust 红尘 - a Sino-Buddhist concept

• The Plum in the Golden Vase and a horrible Jin Ping Mei anime doll

• Running Around Beijing by Xu Zechen

• Northern Girls by Sheng Keyi

Before us stood the long abandoned skyscrapers of Manhattan, the Sun's weak light casting their long shadows across the quiet ice of the New York Harbor. In my tipsy haze, tears began to gush down my cheeks.

In the sixty second episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are setting sail on The Wandering Earth (流浪地球 / Liúlàng Dìqiú), drawn up and captained by Liu Cixin himself. Calling into the show from the Peruvian Engine Bunker is Jairo Morales. We get deep into postnationalism, censorship, cultural transmission, and the sublime spectacle of the utter annihilation of our planet’s fragile surface. Goodbye solarpunk, hello solardoom.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• The Tyranny of Neutrality - Virginia L Conn reviews AI 2041

• TrChFic Meta News: The Leeds Centre Taiwan Literature Symposium

• HKKH interviews Dorothy Tse

• Announced by Tweet: Amazon Crossing will publish a translation of Han Song’s Hospital Trilogy

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(短暂的 - Duǎnzànde - ephemeral/efimero)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Jairo’s musical pairings: Gymnopédie No 1 by Erik Satie & 消愁 - Xiao Chou (Drown One's Sorrows) by Mao Buyi 毛不易

• Angus’ musical pairing: Black Light Machine by Frost

• Magical realism from Latin America

• The Emerging Japanese Superstate by Herman Kahn - 70s think tank guy does a yellow peril, history buries him

• Chuang article: The Wandering Earth: A Reflection of the Chinese New Right

• 200 Drones Fall Out Of The Sky In China’s Zhengzhou

• Ken Liu’s anthology of Chinese sci-fi: Invisible Planets

• The Cultural Revolution as ‘partially denouncable’

I loathe reason. Reason is the sort of rubbish you can indulge in when life is sweet, like love and honour. I totally reject it.

In the sixty first episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction we are opening The Book of Sins (冒犯书 / Màofàn Shū), by edgelord-with-a-conscience Chen Xiwo. Playing common-sense counterpoint to my doom-laden interpretations of the text is its translator, Nicky Harman. Here’s what we deal with: pain, incest, and the political uses of shock, horror, and offensiveness. Are you sure about this? You can delete this episode now. Do you choose to hit play?

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet by Bogna Konoir - applies Liu Cixin’s logic to cyberspace

• Sense of Place - new issue of Pathlight Magazine

• Gei Fei’s Peach Blossom Paradise bags spot in translated literature finalist list for US 2021 National Book Awards

• TOR announces full contents of The Way Spring Arrives

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(痛 - tòng - pain)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Chen Xiwo’s speech on literary censorship in the PRC, given at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club in 2010

• A Banned Take on Contemporary China: Wall Street Journal review of The Book of Sins

• Lit by Mary Karr, a considerably more functional individual

• Playing for Thrills … 1988: I Want to Talk with the World … Dancing Through Red Dust … Shanghai Baby … A Perfect Crime