Language barrier still blocks Chinese lit overseas

• Source: Global Times
• [02:26 October 26 2009]
• Comments

GT: How to address the problem of translation? Is there a lack of translation talents in China?

Chou: When translating Chinese into English, we often look for native English speakers who've studied Chinese, like Howard Goldblatt. But these veteran translators often have projects lined up for two years, so we keep looking for ideal translators.

There are a lot of translators out there in China. In this era of online technology boom, everyone is a translator.

Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol was translated online through collaborative efforts before the real version came out from the People's Literature Publishing House. Unfortunately, the number of professionals is much smaller.

Niven: There's not enough time and training being invested in good translators in China. Without that, I don't think you can really develop a sophisticated market overseas.

In literature, being able to communicate the context and richness and emotion of a story is more important than merely translating every word literally.

There are problems in the reception of those books overseas too. I have friends who work in agencies or are publishers overseas. If they receive a book in French, and if they don't read French, it's very easy to pass it to someone behind their desk and ask them "Tell me what you think."

But because there are comparatively a small number of Chinese speakers, publishers often have to make decisions based on a small sample translation.

The market needs to be funded differently so that the translators have enough cash advances for them to do full translations before there's a guarantee of publishing.

Liu: There are great native English translators. For instance, I really like the Tao Te Ching: A New Translation by Sam Hamill. The spirit delivered in this translation is in exact accordance with China's ancient philosophy concerning the relationship between humanity and nature.

I then wrote to him, and found in his replies that he had quit his teaching job and lived in a remote mountain. He had no fridge, no TV, but translated one word after another of Tang poetry by the light of an oil lamp.

In contrast, the atmosphere in China is flippant, not only in literary translation, but also literary creation.

The reform and opening-up has been practiced for just three decades, and the Chinese nation is still obsessed with materialism, whereas people in the West have a strong demand for high-level cultural creation and consumption.

GT: Is there a lack of marketing strategy when China's books are introduced overseas?

Liu: When exporting a book overseas, the marketing strategy depends on how willing the foreign publisher is to promote it. The Chinese side has little to do with it.

I do admit that a book's success on the market can be related to a good marketing strategy. For instance, Yilin Press successfully promoted The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros in China. This book, which wasn't a hit abroad, became a bestseller here.

But without the graceful cover design and the lovely cartoons of cats, not to mention such marketing tools as feature blogs, and word-of-mouth popularity stirred up by recommendations from influential Chinese authors, it wouldn't have been so successful.

Chou: A lot of English speaking authors have already written about China. If you search for "China books" on Amazon, the authors are likely to be from the US or UK.

Thus, when we want to take on a Chinese author, the publishers often want a big name, a famous and published one.