The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast

Starting a podcast is not a dinner party

In the fiftieth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, I put my feet up and have a beer! Woohoo!

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Beijing Lights Archives | Spittoon

• Sci-Fi Writer or Prophet? The Hyperreal Life of Chen Qiufan

• Mither Tongue: Jidi Majia's poetry in 3 Scots dialects

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'One morning, Salinger was woken from sleep by deafening noises. Dazed, he gazed outside the window and saw a row of gleaming Baekdu bulldozers, which had been modified from Chonma-ho battle tanks, bearing down on his cabin.'

In the forty ninth episode we continue our megacrossover, this time tackling modern literature. Once more unto the jazz hall, dear friends, once more, as we tackle: lamppost sexuality, mantou typography, disposable(?) wuxia, and the philosophy of chicken nuggets. No, really. I'm not joking. Wait, come back!!!

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Taiwan Year at the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing - Egoyan Zheng Excerpt

• Jeremy Tiang - The World Is Not Enough - is world literature just a ‘spice rack’ for lazy Westerners?

• Lost in Translation: What’s the Problem with Chinese Literature in the West? - Zoom talk w/ Jianan Qian, Nicky Harman, and Eric Abrahamsen

• Reading "The Story of the Stone" with 白先勇 Pai Hsien-Yung and 陳毓賢 Susan Chan Egan - a superstar Zoom talk!

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// PODCASTERS & THEIR CHOSEN STORIES //

Rob and Lee of The Chinese Literature Podcast chose Sealed Off by Eileen Chang

William and Kevin of Rereading the Stone chose Shanghai Foxtrot by Mu Shiying

Yifan of 文化土豆 Culture Potato chose A Bond Undone, Chapter 1 by Jin Yong

and your host Angus chose Salinger and the Koreans by Han Song

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// Episode Sponsor //

Buy Jeremy Bai AKA Deathblade's The Heretic Peacekeeper here:

Amazon: http://mybook.to/9h10eTHP

Kobo, Nook, etc: https://books2read.com/u/mgzxxx

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'What sort of a fiend are you that you dare change into my appearance, take my descendants captive, occupy my immortal cave, and assume such airs?'

In the forty eighth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are doing something a little different! In this episode half of a small army of Chinese lit podcasters join me to discuss their favourite stories from dynastic China.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• The TrChFic Mailing List

• Distant Sunflower Fields - OUT NOW

• Ma Jian on China's Efforts to Extinguish Memory

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// PODCASTERS & THEIR CHOSEN STORIES //

Mason of the Plum Forest Podcast chose 'The Thunder God', from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio

John of Chinese Lore chose Chapter 2 of The Outlaws of the Marsh, tr. Sidney Shapiro

Yang of The Chinese Mythology Podcast chose 'Weaver Shi Meets a Friend at the Strand from Stories to Awaken the World (醒世恒言) by Feng Menglong, tr. Ted Wang and Chen Chen

Tianqi of Stories from a Chinese Studio chose ‘Two Monkeys’, from Journey to the West tr. Anthony C Yu

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Breakfast with Socrates

• the translator Herbert Giles

• the 1986 TV adaptation of Journey to the West and the 1978 Japanese adaptation

• 'Sworn brothers' and other kinds of kindship in China

• the dark 'Fake Wukong' theory

• the author Feng Menglong

When you've stared at the past for so long that time dissolves, you'll be able to wake from your slumber

In the forty seventh episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are falling into Beijing Coma (肉之土 / Ròu Zhī Tǔ). Avid Ma Jian reader Ronald Torrance is here to guide me from perimeter to epicentre of this colossal novel, and the weighty events it reckons with. Even without politics, stakes are high here: life/death, time/memory, flesh/history, and the intimate bonds that can exist between translators and writers.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Pen Fairy

• Lost in Translation: The World of Chinese Literature in English

• ‘The atmosphere has become abnormal’: Han Chinese views from Xinjiang

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(地标 - Dìbiāo - Landmark)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• The People's Republic of Amnesia by Louisa Lim

• Beijing from Below by Harriet Evans

• Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeline Thien

• What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear by Baoshu

• Prisoner of the State by Zhao Ziyang

• Death Fugue by Sheng Keyi

• The loneliness of Yan Lianke

• Mo Yan & censorship

• How China's censors are taught about 'restricted topics'

• Meng Po and her memory-erasing soup

• Cui Jian, rock, and socialist/patriotic anthems at Tiananmen

If anyone is reading this notebook — don’t come looking for me. Don’t.

In the forty sixth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are undergoing black initiation into The Flock of Ba Hui (巴虺的牧群 / Bāhuī de Mùqún). Returning to the show to rescue me from the abyss - or hurl me into it - is the extremely online Dylan Levi King. We have quite a beast to wrestle with this episode. Lovecraftian fiction, from the Chinese internet, curated, translated and packaged in paratexts by two particularly unorthodox individuals.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Women Writing China: Female Authors and Chinese Literature

• How a Music Streaming Site Became a Safe Space for Leftist Listeners

• Peking Noir with Paul French

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(邪神呼唤 - Xiéshén Hūhuàn - the call of Cthulhu)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• the Cthulhu mythos

• the Ring of Wonder

• the Yi People

• Western Xia as 'lost civilisation'

• Yi Izzy Yu & John Branscum on Ji Yun's weird fiction

• Racism in Lovecraft's writing

• 'Neoreaction' and the fantasy/horror genre

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In bars like this, on nights like this, the people of Yong'an would talk of death

In the forty fifth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are hunting for the Strange Beasts of China (异兽志 - Yì Shòu Zhì). Two very special guests are joining me this time - the book's author Yan Ge and its translator Jeremy Tiang. If I sound a little off-kilter this episode, it's because I'm star struck!

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Faraway by Lo Yi-Chin - coming out this September

• How Lin Qi's Poisoning Death Shocked China - A suspected murder by poisoning related to the Three Body Netflix adaptation

• Round up, Round up - News #1 - Paper Republic now has its own news roundup!

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(异 - Yì - strange/different)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• The Shanhaijing

• Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

• Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton

• Attrib by Eley Williams

• I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

• the mighty 小儿赶牛 - red bull & ergoutou baijiu

• the seven sages of the bamboo grove

• The 'san xian/third line' industrialisation plan

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Every person's heart is an island, trapped by water, sequestered from the world

In the forty fourth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are going in search of Peach Blossom Paradise (人面桃花 - Rénmiàn Táohuā) by Ge Fei. Rowing me through the lingering mists and dark waters is craftmaster Canaan Morse, its translator.

Ge Fei has been covered once before on this show. We did his Flock of Brown Birds in Episode 30. This time we are dealing with something less surreal. On the surface, it's a typical 'important Chinese novelist writes historical saga' affair. But beneath...

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• There and Back Again: Tracking Down Transliterations in Stories of the Sahara - a blog from translator Mike Fu

• Paper Republic's 2020 Roll Call of Published Translations from Chinese

• Understanding Chinese Fantasy Genres - a guide from translator Jeremy Bai AKA Deathblade

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(徒 - Tú - in vain)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• the 100 Days' Reform

• The Invisibility Cloak also by Ge Fei

• In the Heat of the Sun (1994, dir. Jiang Wen)

• The Tradition of Telling and the Desire of Showing in Ge Fei’s ‘Fictional Minds’

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'Underneath the hole is another hole. Do you dare go down?'

In the forty third episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are grappling with the experimental literature of Can Xue, as embodied in I Live in the Slums. Helping me train for the performance of a lifetime is Chinese-to-Bulgarian translator & friend of the pod, Stefan Rusinov.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Yan Ge's White Horse shortlisted for the Warwick Women in Translation prize

• Lovecraftian stories from the Chinese internet: The Flock of Ba Hui

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(审丑 - shěn chǒu - examining ugliness AND/OR the abject, if you like)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Stefan's podcast (it's in Bulgarian!)

• High Culture Fever by Jing Wang

• Stubborn Dirty Snow - Can Xue at the Asian American Writers' Workshop

• Kafka and the struggles of an absurd existence

• Can Xue interview - The Aesthetic Activity in Modern Fiction

• The Aesthetics of the Transposition of Reality, Dream, and Mirror: A Comparative Perspective on Can Xue

• Ambiguous Subjectivity - Reading Can Xue

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I am an Evenki woman. I am the wife of our people’s last Clan Chieftain. I was born in the winter.

In the forty second episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are heading into the mountains of Manchuria to seek out The Last Quarter of the Moon (额尔古纳河右岸 / É'ěrgǔnà Hé Yòu'àn) by Chi Zijian. Tramping with me through the snows is its translator, Bruce Humes.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• The Book of Shanghai: Chen Danyan & Wang Zhanhei in conversation

• The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, upcoming 'Chinese SFF in Translation' anthology from TOR

• Yan Lianke Wins 2021 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(urireng / 乌力楞 / the basic social unit of Evenki society; the campsite and the clan)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Northern Hunting Culture - resource for photos of Evenki & other northern ethnic groups

• Eels by The Handsome Family

• Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong

• Animism and Pantheism

• Nature and Ethnic Women: An Ecofeminist Reading of Chi Zijian's The Last Quarter of the Moon and Linda Hogan's Solar Storms

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It is not often that one has the opportunity to observe the extinction of an entire civilisation

In the forty first episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are venturing into Cat Country (猫城记 / Māo Chéng Jì), a science fiction oddity of the Republic of China. Helping me save the nation and stay off the damned reverie leaves is Molly Silk, a doctoral researcher of Chinese Space Policy.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Little Smarty Travels to the Future comic now available in translation

• Chinese Science Fiction Goes Global by Regina Kanyu Wang

• Celestial Empire: The Emergence of Chinese Science Fiction by Nathaniel Isaacson

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(迷叶 / Mí Yè / reverie leaves)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• The Wandering Earth: A Device for the Propagation of the Chinese Regime’s Desired Space Narratives? by Molly herself

• The Trial by Franz Kafka

• Lao She in London

• I Am a Cat by Natsume Sōseki

• The Cat Returns (2002, dir. Hiroyuki Morita)

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// Handy TrChFic Links //

Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFic

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