The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast

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Ep 55 - Wu Ming-yi and The Man with the Compound Eyes with Cara Healey

May 18, 2021

the episode art

‘Only if you go to places nobody’s ever been can you see the colours nobody’s ever seen’

[ this is episode 3 of our Taiwan Season ]

In the fifty fifth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are meeting The Man with the Compound Eyes (复眼人 / Fùyǎn Rén). Brace yourself for the impact of an ecological, apocalyptic, and internationalist vortex of literary weirdness. Joining me to weather this storm at the limits of anthropoid cognition is Sinophone-sci-fi-studier Cara Healey.

// NEWS ITEMS //

// WORDS OF THE DAY //

(涡流 - wōliú - vortex, whirlpool)

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

// Handy TrChFic Links //

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Ep 54 - Qiu Miaojin and Notes of a Crocodile with Conor Stuart

May 7, 2021

‘Some desires, once formed, are impossible to fulfil, so they become frustrations instead. That’s the problem with going forth into new worlds’

[ this is episode 2 of our Taiwan Season ]

In the fifty fourth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are thumbing through the Notes of a Crocodile (鳄鱼手记 / Èyú Shǒujì). Joining me on the lookout for the shy and elusive reptiloid is Conor Stuart.

// NEWS ITEMS //

// WORDS OF THE DAY //

(三八 - Sānbā - usually derogatory adjective used to describe ‘frivolous’ women)

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

// Handy TrChFic Links //

https://www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/destination-peking/

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Ep 53 - The Membranes with Chi Ta-wei and Ari Larissa Heinrich

April 28, 2021

‘Two peach trees, two entirely different universes.’

[ this is episode 1 of our Taiwan Season ]

In the fifty third episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are peeling back The Membranes (膜 / Mó). Joining me at their respective computer terminals in the ocean floor biodome are its author Chi Ta-wei and translator Ari Larissa Heinrich.

// NEWS ITEMS //

// WORDS OF THE DAY //

(赞 - zàn - ‘like’, as in Facebook, Wechat etc)

(情 - qíng - emotion, affection, sentiment)

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

// Episode Sponsor //

Buy Paul French’s Destination Peking here:

// Handy TrChFic Links //

Ep 52 - Monkey King: Journey to the West with Julia Lovell

April 5, 2021

‘An unruly monkey like you has to be restrained somehow, otherwise you’ll never reform’

In the fifty second episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are departing from the Tang Empire on a haphazard Journey to the West (西游记 / Xī Yóu Jì). Talking me through the transformations is Julia Lovell, translator of JttW’s latest, extremely readable English translation.

// NEWS ITEMS //

// WORD OF THE DAY //

(游 - yóu - journey)

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

Can’t Get You Out of My Head, (Dir. Adam Curtis, 2021)
The Sinister Way by Richard von Glahn
Transforming Monkey by Hongmei Sun
The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel by Andrew Plaks
Cultural Syncretism (in a silly video game)
(Breaking the) rules of fantasy fiction

// Handy TrChFic Links //

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Ep 51 - Li Juan’s Xinjiang non-fiction with Christopher Payne and Jack Hargreaves

March 25, 2021

'I stand alone on the earth, unable to bring the show to an end'

In the 51st episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we're heading into the far west to come face-to-face with Li Juan, a Han Chinese writer who has found some degree of fame writing soulfully about her experiences living among the Kazakh herders of Xinjiang Province. Braving the frontier with me are two of her translators, TrChFic returnee Christopher Payne and friend-of-the-pod Jack Hargreaves. The former translated Li Juan's Distant Sunflower Fields and the latter is one of the two co-translators of her Winter Pasture.

// NEWS ITEMS //

// WORDS OF THE DAY //

(“Koychy!” - a versatile Kazakh exclamation, often meaning “no way,” “no thanks,” “get out,” “leave it out” )

( 荒野 - huāngyě- wilderness)

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

// Handy TrChFic Links //

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The 50th Episode Party!

March 17, 2021

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!

// NEWS ITEMS //

// Handy TrChFic Links //

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Ep 49 - The TrChFic Megacrossover Part 2: Moderns

March 3, 2021

'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!!!

// 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!

// 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

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

// 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

// Handy TrChFic Links //

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Ep 48 - The TrChFic Megacrossover Part 1: Classicists

February 14, 2021

'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.

// NEWS ITEMS //

// 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

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

// Handy TrChFic Links //

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Ep 47 - Ma Jian and Beijing Coma with Ronald Torrance

February 5, 2021

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.

// NEWS ITEMS //

// WORD OF THE DAY //

(地标 - Dìbiāo - Landmark)

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

The People's Republic of Amnesia by Louisa Lim
Beijing from Below: Stories of Marginal Lives in the Capital's Centre 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
Balloon by Pema Tseden
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 music, and socialist/patriotic anthems at Tiananmen

// Handy TrChFic Links //