The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast

'We still have a very long time to get along and very many things to talk about, but let us not speak of morals. In the universe, such considerations are meaningless.'

this is episode 4 of 7 in our Chinese Science Fiction Season

In the twentieth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Liu Cixin's Devourer (吞食者/tūnshí zhě)

This is a grim tale for survival in a predatory galaxy, very much in the mold of The Three Body Problem. Helping me out on this episode is Chinese SF superfan and fellow Dundonian Adam McMurchie. I’m sure he’ll be back on again!

The story was translated by Holger Nahm, and published in The Wandering Earth by Head of Zeus & TOR

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// Discussed this Episode //

• Jiayang Fan on Liu Cixin

• The Three Body Problem

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'The robot’s ability to learn was unparalleled, and with the help of its creators it analysed its databank of stories to create a set of scientific laws for storytelling – a model that would later become world-famous. But the mathematical nature of this model was so overwhelmingly complex that only the robot could make head or tail of it.'

this is episode 3 of 7 in our Chinese Science Fiction Season

In the nineteenth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Fei Dao's The Storytelling Robot (讲故事的机器人/jiǎng gùshì de jīqìrén), translated by Alec Ash.

This is a thoughtful tale told by a writer with a melacholic, existential tendency. My favourite! Helping me out here is Matt of the Spectology Podcast. A very chill fellow who really knows a lot about Chinese SF.

This story may also be read online in the original Chinese

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// Discussed in this Episode //

• An End of Days Story by Fei Dao

• The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales by Fei Dao

• Fei Dao interview referenced by Matt (in Chinese)

• Chinese Mythology Podcast

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'Everything was shrouded in a leaden miasma, an amalgamation of the white mist generated by the boiling aqua regia in the acid baths and the black smoke from the unceasing burning of PVC, insulation, and circuit boards in the fields and on the shore of the river. The two contrasting colors were mixed by the sea breeze until they could no longer be distinguished, seeping into the pores of every living being.'

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this is episode 2 of 7 in our Chinese Science Fiction Season

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Chaos reigns in the hyperactive, hyperreal, and highly populated Silicon Isle- a spot just off the coast of Guangdong where downtrodden ‘waste people’ do pitiless, dangerous work for local and global elites. All it takes is a spark, and the whole thing explodes…

In the eighteenth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide (荒潮/huāng cháo). The translator is Ken Liu and the publishers are Head of Zeus and TOR. Our guest is the author himself!

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// Discussed this Episode //

• Qiufan on Waste & Guiyu

• The movie Arrival

• Chaoshanhua

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'The folding city was divided into three spaces. One side of the earth was First Space, population five million. Their allotted time lasted from six o’clock in the morning to six o’clock the next morning. Then the space went to sleep, and the earth flipped.'

this is episode 1 of 7 in our Chinese Science Fiction Season

In the seventeenth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Hao Jingfang's Folding Beijing (北京折叠/běi jīng zhé dié)

This is a Hugo Award-winning ‘novelette’ translated by Ken Liu that imagines a city that has ‘economised’ by splitting social classes more fundamentally than ever before. It was first published by Uncanny Magazine. Helping me out in this episode is the charming and insightful Lyu Guangzhao of the London Chinese Scifi Reading Group. He’s a legend.

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// Discussed this Episode //

Hao Jingfang's essay - I Want to Write A History of Inequality

Paul Mason on automation & future economics

Linus 林路's Chinese SF cinema IG is @sinoscifi

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"Remember, if the police come by in the next few days, just answer their questions the way I taught you."

In the sixteenth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Chen Zijin's The Untouched Crime (无证之罪/wú zhèng zhī zuì)

This novel is a murder mystery with a twist set in...well the setting depends on whether you’re reading the original Chinese, or our guest Michelle Deeter's English translation, published by Amazon Crossing. I bet you want to know why. So, you’d better hit play. Right?

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// Discussed in this Episode //

• Song Aman's '49 Degrees'

• 'Burning Ice', The Untouched Crime TV Show

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“Ai-ya! Don’t go on at me!”

“Well if I don’t, who’s going to?”

In the fifteenth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Yan Ge's The Chilli Bean Paste Clan (我们家/wǒmen jiā)

This is a s-p-i-c-y novel published by Balestier Press about a dysfunctional family and its depraved, conflicted, and frequently disoriented patriarch. Yan Ge has said that it was inspired by her years spent growing up the the chilli bean paste production capital of Sichuan Province. Our guest for this episode is Yan Ge's translator, advocate, and friend, Nicky Harman.

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// Discussed this Episode //

• 1st chapter online - available from The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing

• Nü Voices Women and Chinese Scifi Episode

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"There’s an old saying: the earth is like a vomiting carcass."

In the fourteenth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Jiang Zilong's Empires of Dust (农民帝国/nóngmín dìguó)

This is an epic of ‘reform literature’ published by Sinoist Books, charting the rise and fall of Guo Cunxian, a ‘rugged individual’ of sorts who lives through the revolution, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and Reform and Opening. What is ‘reform literature’ you ask? Listen and find out, comrade! Our guest is one of the book's two translators, Christopher Payne. His co-translator was Olivia Milburn.

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South China Morning Post review

China Channel Dylan Levi King article

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"A weill-kent scholar at the court o King Shenzong o the umqhile Hous o Song, he wis vext at the Five Dynasties, yon hinner-en o the Tang times whan there wis naethin but weir an brulyie: in thae days whit wis Jin’s i the mornin wad be Liang’s bi nicht, an richtlie wis it said: Zhu, Li, Shi, Liu, Guo; Liang, Tang, Jin, Han, Zhou: Fifteen kings thegither Skailt fiftie year o stushie!"

In the thirteenth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at The Mossflow, Brian Holton's Scots translation of Water Margin (水滸傳 / shuǐhǔ zhuàn)

Also, please have a giggle at this angry, weirdly homophobic Global Times Article

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"An idyllic island in the midst of boiling oceans. Hot enough to cook a hotpot. One maverick entrepreneur sees a development opportunity and begins to devise the most absurd schemes for environmental protection."

In the twelfth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Chen Si'an's Ocean Hotpot (海洋火锅 / hǎiyáng huǒguō)

This one was translated by Jeremy Tiang and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with Chen Si’an in attendance. I was lucky enough to ask Si'an a question, the answer to which you’ll hear in this episode!

Smog brick article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/01/chinese-vacuum-cleaner-artist-turning-beijings-smog-into-bricks

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"Fire spreads and rages underground, and once the lava’s broken through it will burn up all the weeds, along with the tall trees. Thereupon, therefore, nothing else will rot."

In the eleventh episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Weeds (野草/yě cǎo) by Lu Xun

Matt Turner has brought new life to one of Lu Xun's more downbeat bodies of work. He and I talk about the whys and hows of this endeavour. Fire does indeed rage underground.

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// Discussed in this Episode //

• Formerly published by Foreign Language Press as Wild Grass - translated by Glays Yang & Yang Xianyi

• Nick Admussen baihuawen article

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