Chinese stories

I can’t but help feeling a little confused over the latest dustup between the translation of Wolf Totem. You mean to tell me that the author had serious issues with the translation that he only found out about after he had the final printed copy in his hands!? Now, I’ll admit that I don’t have any experience in professional literary translation, but surely this can’t be the best system?

I have had the opportunity to work on academic translation project, and that experience I felt appropriately allowed the authors to have their final say. Money was discussed up front, but after that I found that the Chinese scholars did not find it appropriate to be bothered with all the financial details until all was said and done (not the best arrangement, I’ll admit). The project was a collection of papers that had been published in different Chinese journals and that were to appear as one volume in English. The way we did it was I first provided them with drafts of the five articles I did (the rest were done by others), and the main editor of the volume went over them once. The authors themselves also provided comments, and I went back to take all of these comments into consideration. Finally, all of the articles were edited once more to keep things consistent.

Now I admit that this would not be a healthy model for literary translators to follow. I think the professors probably had a better grasp of English than ordinary writers of Chinese literature would, and the snail pace of the academic world allows for the luxury of such reviewing by multiple parties. But at least the authors had a chance to have their say about the work that would have their name attached to it before it went to press. As Wolf Totem will undoubtedly reach many more readers than this academic volume will, isn’t it fair that Jiang Rong can get his say?

The argument against this would be that the translators would be overwhelmed by nitpicky little issues and waste valuable time trying to convince the authors that their choices were the best ones. I agree completely, but from the accounts of the dispute there was both nitpicking and major issue taking with the translation of the word ‘Han.’ I agree that the arguments for choosing ‘the Chinese’ as a translation are good ones, but look folks, Jiang Rong is the author–its his name that’s biggest on the front cover, not Goldblatt’s–and he should be able to have his way with something he feels so passionately about. I don’t care how bad a literary decision it may be in English. I know that the literary translators are artists and need to be left to do their work in peace, but I don’t think we can place their judgement above the author’s wishes.  It also seems to me that this whole thing should have taken place behind closed doors before decisions were set in stone.

The case of Jiang Rong is probably an anomoly, and in most cases the author probably cannot be consulted or doesn’t care. There would be no way for J.K. Rowling to get involved with the huge process of translating her Harry Potter books into dozens of languages in just a few months. But I would like to hope that even the best translator (and most prestigious publisher) wouldn’t be above listening to feedback before the final draft is made, and accomodating the author’s most heartfelt wishes no matter how ‘ignorant of novellistic nuances’ they may be, otherwise we risk raising the status of the translator above that of the author.

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It’s been about a year since I’ve last been to Hunan, and its been great to get a breath of fresh air for a change. In Beijing you tend to forget that you live in a giant smog bubble until you have the fortune to get on a plane or train and escape to somewhere else. I have escaped to Taoyuan to spend a couple of well-deserved weeks with the in-laws. We took a flight from Beijing to Changde, which is available 4 times a week via Air China. I have to say that despite Air China being cursed left and right a few years ago as being the worst airline in China, it has become a world class airline recently (at least compared to the nightmare stories I am hearing about China Eastern). Air China flies to 3 cities in Hunan: Changsha, Zhangjiajie, and Changde, the latter probably having the fewest visitors. I would guess that at most the Changde airport has 2 or 3 flights a day, and reminds me of flying into my hometown airport, the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek international airport. You walk down a stairway onto the runway and the two things I noticed were that I could actually see the stars from the runway looking up, and that I had finally escaped from the Beijing smog blanket. After getting our luggage and a thirty-minute ride we arrived at our destination.

We are staying in a high school, as my wife’s father is the school principal. That means that in the morning there is a huge gathering of students doing their daily exercises to the voice over the loud speaker. In China a school principal has a much higher status than in the US. In the US the principal’s house gets TP’d, and none of the students really interact with the principal after school, but here, due to probably both the higher importance placed on education and the college entrance exams, and the importance of guanxi, being the principal is a bigger deal. All the school’s former successful students are possible sources of future guanxi for the school’s administrators to use. 

Anyway, after who knows how long of not having a decent vacation it is good to be able to put my feet up for a while. I don’t know how long it’s been since I had a day off of work that I didn’t have to help look after our baby, and here there is an endless stream of friends and family who will look after him. I also don’t know how long it’s been since my wife and I sat down for a decent meal without one of us having to hold the baby while the other quickly scarfs down their food. So I was very happy to sit down for a feast at Taoyuan’s best hotel, the Hotel Fairyland, with a bunch of loud guys insisting I drink baijiu with them. I can’t remember the last time I actually enjoyed a big baijiu lunch with stangers.  (Is that even possible?) I also couldn’t believe that our boy was so tired that he slept through the whole thing, most of which was a heated discussion of the differences between the US and China. Unfortunately my grasp of the dialect coupled with my baijiu logged brain meant that I couldn’t really follow what was being said. All I managed to catch was the suggestion that someone open a casino in Las Vegas for playing the local card game Paofuzi. Most of the food was damn good, and I even managed to skip the goose foot that was served to everyone in an orange sauce, and the local delicassy, turtle. They say that when Jiang Zemin visited the area he had turtle every day.

Even though we are in a small city near what might be called a third-tier city in Central China, they have a baby products store that is stocked with more things than you can find in one of Beijing’s larger supermarkets. And a lot of the designer brands you see in Beijing can be found here too. So even though we might be in the middle of nowhere, the people are pretty well off I think. The only thing I would miss here is the western food you can get in Beijing. Maybe that will change soon though, who knows.

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Today’s Beijing News has an article on Yu Dan’s sequil to her Reflections on the Analects, called Revelations on the Analects, saying it has only sold at half of the rate of the first work in the two weeks it has been on the market. Now I read her first book after picking it up in a Wudaokou bookstore to see what all the fuss was about, and neither loved it nor disliked it. Even though it has the style I would expect of a Dr. Phil book on the subject, I thought it was refreshing that Chinese mainstream culture actually embraces scholarly topics, unlike the anti-intellectual mainstream American culture. I also like how the CCTV lecture programs on TV encourage people to learn about history and literature. I thought Yu Dan was helping to promote such interest, rather than trying to ride the wave of enthusiasm of the recent years. But a sequel? Give me a break.

I decided to check out Li Ling’s Stray Dog, a longer book on the Analects by a Beijing University professor. (Unlike Yu Dan’s book, this one wasn’t that easy to get ahold of.) Just from reading the introduction and a few pages of the body, I can tell that this book engages the Analects on a totally different level from Yu Dan’s book. The introduction was fascinating. First of all, Li Ling not only admits he never liked reading the Analects, unlike Yu Dan, who takes it as a given that the book has valuable lessons to offer us.

The intro also gives a brief account of the Analects’ reception in modern China, from the high enthusiasm of the early twentieth century, to the criticism of Confucius during the Cultural Revolution, to the current craze reemerging in China. He says that those who were the most ardent critics back in the day are the same people who are at the forefront of the craze nowadays. Probably not a dig a Yu Dan specifically, as he names other people, but one has to wonder…

Just by reading a few pages I could tell Li Ling did not just sit down to write a book on the Analects as Yu Dan seems to have done (even if it may have been published at an opportune time). Instead it is a result of a lifetime of scholarship, and you can tell the guy knows his stuff. It doesn’t make for as light reading, though, as he comments on every passage following the order of the original work. Li Ling says he aims his commentary at giving a non-political, non-religious, and non-moral interpretation, so most of it is explaining just what the heck the original means anyway. Its also refreshing that even though its written by an academic, it is readable and was actually a best-seller. There are very few philologists in the US that can make the same claim (if any?).

Even though my view of Yu Dan has changed, I was glad to see that her first book will be translated into English by Esther Tyldesley, because I’m for anything that would get folks interested in understanding China. The translation may not get the reception that the Yijing and Laozi usually get, but hopefully it will do well.

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I was waiting to post until I could find a Chinese translation of Obama’s March 18th speech. So far I only found a partial translation on the Chinesehorizon forum. Who’s going to step up and do a full version?? Even though it is supposed to be the best speech since JFK, in China the topic of American race relations seems so remote, so I can understand why it wouldn’t make a big splash here. In some ways I feel China is even more diverse than the US. Even though the Han people are the vast majority, there are so many languages, dialects, and customs that every day people can encounter someone who is different from them. However, the latest developments in Tibet have a little of the taste of US race relations I think. I put a link to the Chinese translation along with the Chinese version of Randy Pausch’s last lecture on a speeches page.

I was happy to see NewsinChinese back up–I sure wish I had this kind of resource when I was first learning Chinese. They even have a few goodies like passages from Honglou Meng and Lu Xun. I have tried installing the Adsotrans plugin on this site, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe I have to fiddle with it some more. Here’s a big thanks to David and the Chinesepod folks for this great resource.

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In honor of April Fool’s day and this blog’s birthday, here’s a joke:

艾子常醉，门生私语曰：“是不可谏止，当以险休之。”一日饮哕，门生密置豕肠，示艾曰：“凡人具五脏，今师饮而出一脏，何以生耶？”艾子熟视，笑曰：“唐三脏犹可活，况四脏耶？”

Aizi was a drunkard. His buddies said amongst themselves, “If we can’t convince him to quit, we will have to scare him into quitting.” One day Aizi got drunk and vomited, and when he wasn’t looking his buddies put a pig’s intestine in the vomit. They pointed it out to Aizi, saying, “Everyone has five organs, but you have lost one due to your drinking. How is it you are still alive?” Aizi looked closely, and laughed, saying, “If Three-Organs Tang could live, why not me with my four organs?”

From the book 酒牌. Three-Organs Tang is Tripitaka. Its probably only funny in the original…

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