Ep 47 - Ma Jian and Beijing Coma with Ronald Torrance

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
• The TrChFic Mailing List
• 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: 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

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Ep 44 - Ge Fei and Peach Blossom Paradise with Canaan Morse

 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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Ep 42 - Chi Zijian and The Last Quarter of the Moon with Bruce Humes

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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Ep 33 - Jin Yong and Legend of the Condor Heroes with Gigi Chang

'We Han Chinese outnumber the Jurchen by more than a hundred to one. If the Imperial Court decided to employ honest and loyal men, our great Empire would prevail. With one hundred of our men against one of their worthless soldiers, how could the Jin army win?'

In the thirty third episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Legend of the Condor Heroes (射雕英雄传 / Shèdiāo Yīngxióng Chuán), the magnum opus of Wuxia grandmaster Jin Yong. Our guest is one of the translators working to bring it into English, Gigi Chang.

Condor Heroes is a huge entry in Chinese literature (both highbrow and lowbrow), and pop culture in general. In this first episode of the podcast's Wuxia season, I begin to get to grips with this absolute behemoth of genre fiction.

// NEWS ITEMS //

• Paper Republic's Sunday Sentence 一周一句
• Deng Anqing's Forty Days 

// WORD OF THE DAY //

(忠肝义胆 / Zhōng Gān Yì Dǎn / Loyal liver, righteous guts)

// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• Mobikes
• 'Qi Blasts' in Street Fighter
• President Deng Xiaoping as Wuxia nerd
• The Assassin, dir. by Hou Hsiao Hsien
• Paper Swordsmen: Jin Yong and the Modern Chinese Martial Arts Novel
• JG Ballard’s Miracles of Life, Yao Xueyin’s Li Zicheng 姚雪垠 李自成, Ma Ka-fai’s new book 马家辉 鸳鸯六七四 

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Ep 31 - Su Tong and Petulia’s Rouge Tin with Anya Goncharova

"Autumn Grace jumped up from the ground, kicked off her high heels and dashed away, one hand holding up the hem of her gown"

In the thirty first episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Su Tong's Petulia's Rouge Tin (红粉 / Hóngfěn) Our guest is Anya Goncharova of the Peony Literary Agency

Su Tong on Paper Republic

Penguin China on Twitter

// NEWS ITEMS //

• A Summer Beyond Your Reach
• Penguin China Zhejiang Series
• Barbarians at the Gate x China History Podcast
• A Yi x DLK: A Match Held to the Flame

// WORD OF THE DAY //

(亲 / Qīn / Dear)

// DISCUSSED IN THE EPISODE //

Ching Shih, invincible pirate

A Billion Voices: China's Search for a Common Language

The Eighth Life

// Handy TrChFic Links //

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Ep 14 - Jiang Zilong and Empires of Dust with Christopher Payne

"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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// Discussed in this Episode //

South China Morning Post review

China Channel Dylan Levi King article

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Buy Me a Coffee

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