Breakout stage for Chinese books
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Finding a good translator is one of the biggest challenges in getting Chinese novels out to an international readership. According to Lusby, "the biggest barrier to getting more and a wider range of books published is the small pool of qualified translators. Right now there is an A-list of about 5 or 6 top translators, but every day there are about 400 Chinese books being published."
One of the foremost translators of modern and contemporary Chinese literature in the West is Howard Goldblatt who translated novels such as Jiang's "Wolf Totem," Mo Yan's "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out" and Hong Ying's "Daughter of the River."
Cultivating a large group of truly world-class translators between any two languages requires a long time. Since it was nearly impossible for foreigners to reside in China from 1949 to 1978, literary translators had few opportunities to work in China.
Marketing translated Chinese works outside China is also a challenge which lies in bridging cultural gaps and making topics that are culturally specific to China accessible around the world.
Some novels that are popular within China have a difficult time making it internationally because they are geared toward the Chinese reader. They are usually in the genre of historical fiction.
"In China this is not an issue because for the most part, Chinese history is accessible and mainstream," says Lusby. However, explaining a novel that takes place in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to non-Chinese readers is another story. "Even after all that explanation, they would not understand the Ming Dynasty context."
Another marketing issue is that since many Chinese authors don't speak English, it is hard for them to promote the work overseas. When assessing a book, Lusby says "publishers need to consider whether they (the authors) can speak eloquently about the work to journalists or at reader events."
Using a translator at a book talk is not only expensive, but it can also interfere with the author's expression of the work. Thus, publishers must think of other ways to promote Chinese authors.
The majority of Chinese fiction works that have gained popularity abroad are usually about the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) or Chinese minority groups.
This should not come as a surprise. Bruce Humes, who has translated Wei Hui's "Shanghai Baby" into English, states that "intellectuals, many of whom had hard times during the 'cultural revolution,' went on to write about their miseries for years thereafter."
One genre that emerged from this time was "scar literature," or literature of the wounded, which portrayed the life of cadres and intellectuals during that period. "So," Humes maintains, "the pool of post-1949 literature likely to be free of the shadows of that period only begins sometime in the mid-1990s."
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