WHERE can you find a group of professionals who translate and edit translations of local and mainland modern literary classics from Chinese into English for nothing? Only in Hong Kong, says a research team at the Chinese University.
''We are probably the only such research unit in the world which publishes Chinese literary works in English without having to worry about money or politics,'' said Dr Eva Hung, general editor of Renditions Paperbacks. ''We welcome anything that comes our way.'' The research centre was set up in 1971 to promote translation in Hong Kong and all researchers are classed as university staff. Renditions Paperbacks was launched in 1986, receiving funds from sources ranging from the Asia Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Foundation in the United States to the Taiwanese CCK Foundation.
''There are no restrictions on what we translate or publish,'' said Dr Hung.
The 17 titles published so far include controversial works such as Yu Luojin's A Chinese Winter's Tale, a personal account of a young woman's experience during the Cultural Revolution and Wang Anyi's Love in a Small Town exploring sexuality.
Selected Poems was translated and compiled by leading mainland dissident poet, Gu Cheng, who committed suicide earlier this month after killing his wife at their New Zealand home.
The total print run for the unit's paperbacks is small, normally 2,000 per title, although A Chinese Winter's Tale proved so popular that an extra 1,000 copies were printed. ''But nobody makes money out of these books,'' said Dr Hung.