Chinese-Canadian translator calls out the British Museum for using her work without permission or payment
- Yilin Wang got the British Museum to remove work by her from its “China’s Hidden Century” exhibition, which it had not sought permission to use nor paid her for
- Now the Vancouver-based translator wants a public apology and compensation for the use of her translations of work by Qing dynasty Chinese poet Qiu Jin
A Canadian-Chinese translator is demanding a public apology and compensation from the British Museum after her translation was used without attribution.
Yilin Wang, a Chinese-English translator based in Vancouver, said the British Museum neither asked permission nor granted credits or reimbursement for using her translations of late Qing dynasty Chinese revolutionary, feminist and poet Qiu Jin’s works that appeared in the museum’s “China’s Hidden Century” exhibition.
“Given that this exhibition description focuses on ‘cultural creativity’, the British Museum should really acknowledge and pay for a translator’s ‘creativity’,” Wang wrote on Twitter.
“I am demanding all my translations be removed from the China’s Hidden Century exhibition and all materials pertaining to the exhibit, including the books, all video, photos, display materials, all signage, all digital or print materials such as brochures, and anywhere else where translations have appeared, unless the museum makes a proper offer to compensate me and the compensation is given immediately.”
According to Wang, she received a grant from Access Copyright, a Canadian content licensing solutions firm, to spend several months reading over 200 works about Qiu, who was executed aged 31. Wang worked about 20 hours a week and published about a dozen translations.