Ep 65 - Ge Fei and The Invisibility Cloak with Giray Fidan and Rauno Sainio

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 Murkami
• The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tampinar
• Naked CEO Grant Horsfield and his Moganshan resort
• The Altaic language family and its syntax

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Ep 64 - Chen Qiufan and Coming of the Light with Francesco Verso

‘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

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(云 - yún - cloud)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Ether by Zhang Ran - Francesco’s recommendation
• Chan/Zen Buddhism
• Zhongguancun - the Silicon Valley of Beijing
• duang - a rather old meme - and here it is in a That’s Shanghai meme review
• 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

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Ep 63 - Murong Xuecun and Dancing Through Red Dust with Harvey Tomlinson

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
• Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Faraway by Lo Yi-chin

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Ep 62 - Liu Cixin and The Wandering Earth with Jairo Morales

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’

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Ep 61 - Chen Xiwo and The Book of Sins with Nicky Harman

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 //

• Nicky’s musical pairing: Stride la Vampa from Il Trovatore
• Angus’ musical pairing: God’s Away on Business by Tom Waits
• 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
• Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik
• Thomas Ligotti, anhedonic pessimist horror writer
• Lit by Mary Karr, a considerably more functional individual
• Various edgy Chinese novels: Playing for Thrills … 1988: I Want to Talk with the World … Dancing Through Red Dust … Shanghai Baby … A Perfect Crime

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Ep 60 - Chan Ho-kei and Second Sister with Michelle Deeter

Just as Nga-Yee thought everything was going back to normal, Siu-Man stepped from the window of their twenty-second-story flat

In the sixtieth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are solving the case of Second Sister (網內人 / Wǎng Nèi Rén), penned by crime connoisseur Chan Ho-kei. Logged on with guest-level access and ready to follow the trail wherever it leads is 3-time visitor to the show Michelle Deeter. In the events that follow we hack into moral frameworks, digital archives, memory glitches, and urban navigation. Switch off your VPN (we’re in Hong Kong this time), take a quick glance over your shoulder, and enjoy!

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Gŵyl Haf & Borderless Book Club - International Translation Day event with Sinoist Books, Nicky Harman, and Jun Liu on an upcoming Jia Pingwa translation
• AI 2041: Why the Future is Already Here, with Kai-Fu Lee - Chen Qiufan’s co-author gets interviewed by the Intelligence Squared podcastChen Qiufan does an animated TED video to help promote AI 2041
• a TrChFic 80 minute breakdown of ChQF’s Coming of the Light
• Dark as a Boy - read an excerpt of Ho Fok Song’s Maze Carpet, translated by Natascha Bruce

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(人肉搜索引擎 - rénròu sōusuǒ yǐnqíng - human flesh search engine)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Stress in Hong Kong
• Social engineering within hacking
• Ad Infinitum by Oh the CIty  - Michelle’s musical pairing
• Mr Robot Season 1 OST by Mac Quayle - Angus’ musical pairing
• Jung’s concept of the persona
• Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction by Stephen Knight
• The Untouched Crime by Zijin Chen
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Metazoa: Animal Minds and the Birth of Human Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith
• The Oxford Bar - Ian Rankin’s local

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Ep 59 - More Than One Child with Shen Yang and Nicky Harman

It is a long and painful process to see oneself clearly, as is the process of returning to one’s childhood.

In the fifty ninth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are talking with someone who is More Than One Child (隐形小孩 / Yǐnxíng Xiǎohái), a woman as friendly as she is fearless: Shen Yang. She’s here on this episode, and so is her translator, friend-of-the-pod, and returnee guest Nicky Harman. The book is forthcoming from the excellent publisher Balestier Press.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• From July 2nd: PEN Translates awards announced, including two titles from the PRC
• Dylan Levi King tries out movie commentary for Obsession 疯狂的代价 (1988)
• New book from Astra House: Yu Xiuhua’s Moonlight Rests on My Left Palm
• Publisher’s Weekly shares a Spotlight on Six Contemporary Chinese Fiction Writers

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(葳蕤 - wēi ruí - lush, burgeoning foliage)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• '琵琶語 Pipa Yu' by 林海 Lin Hai - Shen Yang’s musical pairing
• When Everything Is Green by Julie Christmas & All The World is Green by Tom Waits - Angus’ musical pairings
• The One Child Policy
• The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
• Our Story: A Memoir of Love and Life in China  by Rao Pingru, trans. Nicky Harman
• Leftover in China: The Women Shaping the World's Next Superpower by Roseann Lake
• Robert Winston’s BBC program on memory… sadly it’s not streaming anywhere

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Ep 58 - A Que and Flower of the Other Shore with Xueting Ni

The moment I was bitten, I died and became another thing. Now I am loitering on the other shore of the Styx, listening to the past from beyond its waves.

In the fifty eighth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are picking Flower of the Other Shore (彼岸花 / Bǐ'àn Huā), a romantic(!) zombie short story by A Que. Here to help me find sympathy for the undead is the tale’s translator, Xueting Ni. The story will feature in her anthology of translated Chinese sci-fi: Sinopticon.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Hao Jingfang’s Vagabonds shortlisted for the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award
• Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing launches new journal & calls for papers
• TrChFIc Meta News: Ximalaya feed censored, stoopid Lu Xun meme blows up

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(丧尸 - sàngshī - zombie)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Intertextuality - big word for a simple concept
• World War Z - the book & the film
• Xueting’s From Kuan Yin to Chairman Mao: The Essential Guide to Chinese Deities
• The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science Fiction
• Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Ep 57 - Chih-Ying Lay and Home Sickness with Darryl Sterk

‘Chopin always reminds me of being lovelorn in Penang’

[ this is episode 5 of our Taiwan Season ]

In the fifty seventh episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are suffering from Home Sickness (匿逃者 / Nì Táo Zhě), a short story collection by Chih-ying Lay. Here to ease this terrible affliction is the book’s translator: reformed Buddhist and agile herper Darryl Sterk.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Healing with Poisons - a book on the interwining of classical Chinese medicine & poison
• Ketamine and the Return of the Party-State - DLK’s political history of ket vs the CCP
• A&Qs on 'Sinofuturisms' - compiled in Verge: Global Asias by Virginia L Con & 胡子哥
• TrChFic bags a spot in the Feedspot Literature Podcasts list

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(亲源关系 - qīnyuán guānxì - phylogenetic relationship)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Herping - not a word I’d heard before! 
• Small publishers Honford Star, Balestier Press, and Linda Leith
• 航向愛爾蘭: 葉慈與塞爾特想像 (Sailing to Ireland: Essays on W. B. Yeats and the Celtic Renaissance)
• Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale - film about an anti-Japanese indigenous uprising in 30s Taiwan
• Lessons in Essence by Dana Standridge
• The Mystery Religions of Gladovia: A Novel by Bradley Winterton
• Kant’s noumena & the Buddhist concept of ‘convenient means’

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Ep 56 - Pai Hsien-yung and Taipei People with Nadia Ho

‘According to the ancient precepts, grief supersedes all formalities’

[ this is episode 4 of our Taiwan Season ]

In the fifty sixth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are introducing ourselves to the Taipei People (台北人 / Táiběi Rén), as written by Pai Hsien-yung. Joining me to question the merits of nostalgia and muse aimlessly on umbrellas and the like is a genuine Taibei ren; the effortlessly hip Nadia Ho.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• Alain Charles Asia seeking publishing production freelancers - contact daniel.li@alaincharlesasia.com
• Issue One of ‘Jintian’ - the legendary Chinese lit magazine
• READ: The Killer  撞死了一只羊 by Tsering Norbu
• Two Poems by Bei Dao - commemorating June 4th

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(夢 - màng - dream)

pls note I’ve used the character’s traditional form and local Taiwanese pronunciation here!

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• The Taste of Apples by Huang Chun-Ming tr. Howard Goldblatt
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Kun opera - Mr Pai’s favourite style
• The May 4th Movement & Battle of Tsingtao
• The Paramount Ballroom in Shanghai

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