Ten months ago, when Cindy Carter and her fellow Beijing-based translators of Chinese fiction met to talk about creating a blog dedicated to Chinese literature in translation, they agreed that few people outside China knew much about contemporary Chinese literature - and it was time to do something about it.
'A few years ago I remember Googling for contemporary Chinese literature and I came up with nothing,' says Carter, sitting in a Beijing coffee shop. Authors such as Su Tong, Wang Suo, Mo Yan and Yu Hua have been translated into English by Howard Goldblatt and other overseas scholars, but there is 'definitely a backlog of literature by writers born in the 70s and 80s which has yet to be translated', Carter adds.
Unfortunately, many western readers still view Chinese novels as 'just China stories' rather than carefully crafted writing by individual mainland voices, says Carter, a California native who translated Guo Xiaolu's Village of Stone. It was in part a desire to correct this misconception that convinced Carter and two American colleagues, Eric Abrahamsen and Brendan O'Kane, to create the site (paperrepublic.org) in June.
Since then, Paper Republic has put together a database of Chinese authors, publishers and literary anecdotes. The homepage lists three featured writers, including Yan Lianke, author of Serve the People and several other high-profile works about the darker side of Chinese society; and Wang Xiaobo, a brilliant fiction writer who maintains a cult following even after his death 10 years ago.
The site also includes sample translations of Golden Age by Wang, who is a favourite author of the three translators.
Website co-founder Abrahamsen admits that posting sample translations is about more than just venting frustration or correcting bad literary renditions already out there. It is also a way to raise the profiles of translators.
'I think translators here can connect more directly with the local authors because we're living in the same environment and have experienced some of the things these authors are writing about,' says Abrahamsen who, like his colleagues, came to China on a whim to study Chinese before falling in love with fiction. Those working locally are in a much better position to sit down and talk to the authors about their work, ideally leading to more nuanced translations than are otherwise possible, he adds.
