8.2
Appendix 2: Selected Chinese works in English translation
Author
Resident
Title
Translator
Wild Swans
Chang Jung
Publisher
Comments
Harper Perennial,
new edition, 2004
The story of how three generations of women – grandmother, mother and
daughter – lived and survived through some of China's most unsettling and
violent times, from sword-bearing warlords to Chairman Mao, from the Manchu
Empire to the Cultural Revolution. Sold over two million copies in the UK and
10 million worldwide. Winner 1992 NCR Book Award, 1993 British Book of the
Year Award.
Originally published
HarperCollins, 1991
Chen Da
USA
Colors of the
Mountain
Anchor Books, 2001
(Born 1962,
left China to
study law in
China’s Son
New York and
remained)
Sounds of the
River
Children’s adaptation of Chen Da’s memoir Colors of the Mountain.
Arrow Books UK,
2004
China
Beijing Doll
Dai Sijie
France
Balzac and the Little
Chinese Seamstress
(Born 1954,
left China
Memoir of the author’s struggles at university in Beijing to get a US
scholarship.
Chen Da’s first fiction for children, described by USA Today as ‘China’s
answer to [Harry] Potter.’ Warner Brothers optioned the movie rights.
Wandering Warrior
Chun Sue
Presents the impact of the Cultural Revolution on a small village, far from
China's political epicenter, as seen through the eyes of an exceptionally bright,
sensitive and artistic boy.
Ina Rilke
Abacus, 2005
Banned in China for its candid exploration of a young girl's sexual awakening
yet widely acclaimed as being 'the first novel of tough youth in China', Beijing
Doll describes China's rock'n'roll subculture, where a disaffected generation
spurns tradition for lives of self-expression, passion and music.
Vintage UK, 2003
Two city youths are sent to a rural village to be ‘re-educated’. This mainly
involves carting excrement and listening to Communist propaganda. However,
they find a secret stash of banned Western literature that changes their lives
and that of the beautiful daughter of the local tailor with whom they flirt.
Originally published
in French
Anchor USA, 2002
Author
Fan, Nancy
Yi
Resident
Title
1984)
China / USA
Gao Anhua
Translator
Publisher
Comments
Mr Muo’s Traveling
Coach
Chatto, 2006
A Chinese Don Quixote following the peripatetic misadventures of Mr Muo,
China's first psychoanalyst. It's over ten years since Muo has visited his native
China. He's been in Paris, exploring his subconscious and devouring the
works of Freud and Lacan. When Muo hears that his first great love has been
thrown into a Chinese jail for selling a newspaper article to the foreign press,
he feels he must rush home and rescue her.
Swordbird
HarperCollins, 2007
Written by a 12-year-old Chinese girl whose family had moved from China to
the US. A tale of birds at war. In Stone-run Forest the evil hawk Turnatt has
been turning the tribes against one another as part of his strategy to take over.
The only way to prevent it is to call on the legendary Swordbird – the heroic
bird of peace. Young birds Aska and Miltin fly off on a dangerous mission to
find him. Globally released by HarperCollins and a bestseller in China.
To the Edge of the
Sky
Penguin UK, 2001
Family saga set within the tumultuous events of 20th century China. Anhua
(little flower) is the daughter of two revolutionary martyrs who leave her and
her three siblings orphaned. She, like many thousands, suffers under the
swinging opinions of the powers that be, finding herself one moment favoured
by the authorities and her peers and then denounced and imprisoned.
First published in
2000 by Viking USA
Gao
Xingjian
France
Soul Mountain
Mabel Lee
Flamingo UK, 2001
In 1983, having been diagnosed with lung cancer and expecting to be arrested
for his writings, Gao decided to travel to southwest China. The result of this
epic voyage of discovery is Soul Mountain. Part travel diary, part philosophy,
part love story. 1992 named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Winner Nobel Prize for Literature, 2000.
One Man's Bible
Mabel Lee
Flamingo UK, 2000
Visiting Hong Kong and spending time with Margarete, the unnamed narrator
recalls the nightmare of the Cultural Revolution in late 1960s & early 1970s
China, moving between memories and the limited liberalisations of the 1980s
& 1990s. First published in Chinese in 1999 by Lianjing Publishing, Taiwan.
(Left China for
France in
1987)
HarperCollins USA,
2003
Buying a Fishing Rod
for My Grandfather
HarperCollins, 2005
A selection made by the author of his six favourite short stories, none of which
had been published before in English.
Author
Resident
Title
Translator
Publisher
Comments
Guo Xiaolu
UK
Village of Stone
Cindy Carter
Chatto UK, 2004
Memories of a traumatic childhood spent in an isolated fishing village, narrated
by Coral from contemporary Beijing where she now lives with her Frisbeeobsessed boyfriend Red on the ground floor of a cramped tower block. Coral’s
memories are reawakened by the arrival of a mysterious package of fish.
Xiaolu Guo is also an award-winning film and documentary marker, including
the Becks Futures prize. Shortlisted for the Impact Award, Ireland.
(Born 1973,
left China
2003)
Ha Jin
USA
Vintage, 2005
A Concise ChineseEnglish Dictionary for
Lovers
Chatto, 2007
Written in ‘broken English’, Chinese student arrives in the UK and embarks on
a relationship with an Englishman and a new language. Shortlisted for the
Orange Prize 2007.
Waiting
Vintage, 2000
Tells the story of Lin Kong, a man living in two worlds, struggling with the
conflicting claims of two utterly different women, one a fellow member the
PLA, the other his wife back home in his hometown village, whom every year
he swears he will divorce upon his return trip and every years fails to do so;
played out in the context of the political minefields of a society designed to
regulate his every move. Winner US National Book Award.
In the Pond
Vintage, 2001
Themes of personal honour in the face of political honesty are carried forward
here in this novel, a close depiction of life in a factory town; the manoeuvring,
posturing, petty jealousies & injustices of a man who tangles with party
bosses. (WML)
The Crazed
Heinemann, 2002
Professor Yang, a respected teacher of literature at a provincial university, has
had a stroke, and his student Jian Wan – who is also engaged to Yang's
daughter – has been assigned to care for him. What initially seems a simple if
burdensome duty becomes more problematic when the professor begins to
rave: pleading with invisible tormentors, denouncing his family, his colleagues
and Chinese society. Are these just manifestations of illness, or is Yang
spewing up the truth? New York Times Notable Book, Washington Post and
LA Times Best Book of the Year.
(Born 1956,
left China
1985 for PhD
in USA)
Vintage, 2003
The Bridegroom
Vintage, 2001
Collection of short stories capturing a China in transition, moving from Maoism
towards a more open society. From an entrepreneur, transformed from blackmarket criminal to free market hero, to the workers at Cowboy Chicken, to the
professor mistaken by the police for a saboteur, his characters continue to
deal with petty injustices and a system that still struggles to control them.
Author
Resident
Han
Shaogong
China
Hui Zhou
Wei
Title
Translator
Publisher
Comments
Under the Red Flag
Zoland Books, 1999
Short story collection; Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction 1996.
War Trash
Penguin, 2006
War Trash is the story of Yu Yuan, a young Chinese army officer sent by Mao
with a corps of volunteers to help shore up the Communist side in Korea.
When the Americans capture Yu, his command of English propels him into the
role of unofficial interpreter in the psychological warfare that defines the POW
camp. Desperate to return to his beloved fiancée and widowed mother, Yu is
trapped by both barbed wire and politics.
Dial Press, 2005
The story of a young man ‘displaced’ to a small village in rural China during
the 1960s. Told in the format of a dictionary, with a series of vignettes
disguised as entries, A Dictionary of Maqiao is a fascinating, comic, deeply
moving journey through the dark heart of the Cultural Revolution. Entries trace
the wisdom and absurdities of Maqiao: the petty squabbles, family grudges,
poverty, infidelities, fantasies, lunatics, bullies, superstitions, and especially
the odd logic in their use of language – where the word for ‘beginning’ is the
same as the word for ‘end’; ‘little big brother’ means older sister; to be
‘scientific’ means to be lazy; and ‘street sickness’ is a disease afflicting
villagers visiting urban areas. Filled with colorful characters – from a weeping
ox to a man so poisonous that snakes die when they bite him – A Dictionary of
Maqiao is both an important work of Chinese literature and a probing inquiry
into the extraordinary power of language. Han Shaogong was given the
French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Han's other works include Moon Orchid
(1985), Bababa (1985), Womanwomanwoman (1985), Deserted City (1989)
and Intimations (2002) – most available in French.
Julia Lovell
(Born 1953)
A Dictionary of
Maqiao
China
Shanghai Baby
Bruce Humes
Robinson, 2001
Chinese to English.
(Born 1973,
moved to US
2002/03)
Written 1996
UK rendition also
based on
translation from
French
Semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of Coco, a Shanghai waitress and
aspiring writer. She loves Tian Tian, a drug addicted artist, but makes up for
his impotence by maintaining an affair with a married German businessman.
Set in Shanghai's glittering world of nightclubs and hedonistic materialism.
Came to prominence as a winning submission in a national contest for a
modern urban romance novel. Not considered high art, but one of the first
books to give an insight into modern China. Sold over one million in China
before being banned and selling over six million copies in 34 languages,
including 200,000 in its first year of publication in the UK. Adapted to film.
Author
Resident
Title
Translator
Marrying Buddha
Publisher
Comments
Robinson, 2005
Sequel to Shanghai Baby and more of the same. Coco leaves Shanghai for
New York a decision that leads her through love, desire, and spiritual
awakening. In Manhattan she meets both Muju and Nick and she is caught up
in the intensity and passion of the two relationships. Coco discovers she is
pregnant, but has no idea of whether it is Muju or Nick who is the father.
Jia Pingwa
China
(Born 1952)
Turbulence
Howard Goldblatt
Grove Press USA,
2003
Jiang Rong
China
Wolf Totem
Howard Goldblatt
Penguin, 2008
Based on the author’s observations, during his stay in Inner Mongolia having
fled the madness of the Cultural Revolution, of the workings of a wolf pack and
the ecological disaster that strikes when the soldiers arrive from the capital
city, slaughtering the wolves, and forcing the Mongolian nomads to abandon
their nature-based lifestyle. In China Wolf Totem is currently breaking all sales
records. It has been in the bestseller lists for two years and it is estimated, that
some four million copies are in circulation. Except for Mao’s Little Red Book,
no publication has attracted more readers in China. Jiang Rong, has garnered
10 literature prizes; the book was serialised on prime time radio across China.
Li Yiyun
USA
A Thousand Years of
Good Prayers
Fourth Estate, 2006
Collection of short stories depicting a modern China facing up to a complex
history of repression and guilt. In ‘Extra’, a Chinese woman, alone in middle
age, befriends a young boy. In their friendship, love begins to overcome the
strictures that dominate their lives. Frank O’Connor International Short Story
Award and Guardian Foreign Fiction prize.
Set in a rural village in the 1980s, soon after Deng Xiaoping started the market
liberalisation era, an idealistic journalist fights corrupt officials and family clans
First published, 1987 but in the process loses self-respect and the girl he loves. A combination love
story and political parable. Winner Pegasus Prize for Literature.
Author
Resident
Liang, Diane UK
Title
Translator
Eye of Jade
Publisher
Comments
Picador, 2007
Mei is a modern, independent Chinese woman. She runs her own business in
Beijing, working as a private investigator. One day, Uncle Chen – no relation
but a close friend of her mother's – comes to Mei with a case to investigate.
He asks her to find the Eye of Jade, a Han dynasty artifact of great value. The
Eye of Jade was taken from its museum during the years of the Cultural
Revolution when Red Guards swarmed the streets, destroying many remnants
of the past. Mei's investigation forces her to delve into that dark part of China's
history, Mao's labour camps and the countless deaths for which no one was
ever held responsible. It exposes the agonizing choices made during the
Revolution, to kill or be killed, to love or to live.
(Born 1966,
left in 1997
because of
involvement in
Tiananmen
Square
events)
The Lake with No
Name: A True Story
of Love and Conflict
in Modern China
Ma Jian
UK
Two parallel stories: one, a gripping eyewitness account of the dramatic
events leading up to the Tiananmen demonstration and its brutal end and the
other a love story between the narrator and Dong Yi, a student leader.
Red Dust
Flora Drew
Vintage new edition,
2002
In Red Dust, Jian Ma tells the story of how, on his 30th birthday, facing arrest
for spiritual pollution in his journalistic job in Beijing, he fakes an attack of
hepatitis and flees into the Chinese hinterland. Uprooting himself from a
bohemian lifestyle and his estranged wife and child, Jian walks vast distances
and immerses himself in the remotest parts of China. Traveling clandestinely,
and with little or no money, Jian survives by doing odd jobs and publishing
poetry and short stories through his network of literary friends and hospitable
strangers, while facing physical adventures and challenges. Thomas Cook
Book Award 2002.
The Noodlemaker
Flora Drew
Chatto, 2004
Written in 1991 in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square, The Noodle Maker is a
darkly funny novel about the absurdities and cruelties of life in modern China.
Stick Out Your
Tongue
Flora Drew
Chatto, 2006
Banned in China in 1987 as a "vulgar and obscene book that defames the
image of our Tibetan compatriots." this is the book that set Jian Ma on the road
to exile and still makes it difficult for him to publish his work in China today.
Written shortly after the journey to Tibet, he describes in his prize-winning
travel memoir Red Dust. It is a picture of Tibet, both enchanting and horrifying,
violent and beautiful.
(Born 1953,
left China for
HK in 1986,
for Germany
in 1997, and
UK 1999)
Author
Resident
Ma Yan
Mian Mian
China
Title
Translator
Publisher
Comments
The Diary of Ma Yan
He Yanping from
Chinese to French;
Lisa Appignanesi
(French to English)
Virago, 2004
The diary of a young girl who is desperate to go back to school having been
pulled out to work to pay for her brother’s schooling. The diary describes the
life of a rural Chinese schoolgirl. Uncovered by French journalist, Pierre Haski
and published to enormous acclaim in France.
Candy
(Born 1970)
Min Anchee
USA
HarperCollins, 2005
Editions Ramsay,
2002
Andrea Lingenfelter Hamish Hamilton UK, Candy, modelled after the author's real life, tells the story of Hong, a young girl
2004
who drops out of high school and moves to the city of Shenzhen (one of the
freewheeling Special Economic Zones). Once there, she dives into its world of
sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll while searching unsuccessfully for love and self.
Back Bay Books US,
Banned in China, Mian Mian was dubbed a ‘poster child for spiritual pollution’,
2003
making Candy an underground bestseller in China and a bestseller in France.
Empress Orchid
Bloomsbury, 2005
To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her cousin, 17-year-old
Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor's wives. When she is chosen as a
lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised
Forbidden City. But beneath its immaculate facade lie whispers of murders
and ghosts and the thousands of concubines who will stoop to any lengths to
bear the Emperor's son. Orchid seduces the monarch, drawing the attention of
dangerous foes. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and
that she will be its last empress.
The Last Empress
Bloomsbury, new
edition, 2007
Sequel to Empress Orchid. At the end of the 19th century, China is rocked by
humiliating foreign attacks and local rebellions. Moving from the intimacy of
the concubine quarters into the spotlight of the world stage, the resilient, everresourceful Tzu Hsi, also known as Empress Orchid, makes a dramatic
metamorphosis from a strong-willed young woman to a wise political leader,
who must not only face the perilous condition of her fading empire, but also a
series of devastating personal losses. Yearning to step aside yet growing
constantly into her role, only she can hold the nation's rival factions together.
Becoming Madame
Mao
Allison & Busby,
2001
This is an evocation of the woman who married Chairman Mao and fought to
succeed him. The unwanted daughter of a concubine, she refused to have her
feet bound, ran away to join an opera troupe and eventually met Mao Zedong
in the mountains of Yenan.
(Born 1957,
moved to US
1984)
Author
Mo Yan
Resident
China
(Born 1956)
Staff office of
the People’s
Liberation
Army
Title
Translator
Publisher
Comments
Wild Ginger
The Women's Press, Wild Ginger is the intense and erotic love story of Maple and Wild Ginger, set
2002
against the brutal backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution. A naive and poetic
Houghton Mifflin US, parable, Maple sees her school friend Wild Ginger become the star of the Little
Red Guards. In a time and place where sexual relations are not allowed, Wild
2002
Ginger denies her desire for Evergreen – but Maple has less strict scruples.
When Maple and Evergreen plan to leave Shanghai together for a life in rural
China, Maple underestimates both Wild Ginger's feelings of betrayal and the
horrific way she will use her political power to stop them.
Red Azalea: Life and
Love in China
Orion, new edition,
2002
An account of growing up in China’s Cultural Revolution, a powerful and
candid memoir documents the authors coming of age in the Red Guard, the
harbouring of illicit love, and her recruitment from rural hard labour into
Madame Mao's burgeoning movie industry.
Heinemann, 1993
Written in 1992, the story is set in the 1930s as the Chinese were battling each
other as well as the Japanese invaders. The narrator tells the story of his
father and his grandfather, a former bandit and guerilla commander who had
raped the narrator's grandmother just three days after her marriage to a rich
wine maker. Adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. Hailed as a Chinese William
Faulkner and as a magic realist in the style of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Red Sorghum: A
Novel of China
Howard Goldblatt
Minerva, 1994
Penguin USA, 1993
Big Breasts, Wide
Hips
Howard Goldblatt
Arcade Publishing,
2003
Yan Mo summarises 20th century China through one woman, born in 1900,
married at seventeen, she has nine children, all but one girls. The boy narrates
the seven chapters, each of which covers a different time period, starting with
the end of the Qing dynasty, continuing with the Japanese invasion, the Civil
War, the Cultural Revolution, and the post-Mao era.
Garlic Ballads
Howard Goldblatt
Penguin USA, 1996
Set in 1980s rural China. Garlic farmers have a bumper crop that turns into a
disaster because there is a glut in the market. The ensuing riot and sacking of
the local government office becomes the backdrop for three intertwined stories
of love, family and loyalty.
Shifu: You’ll Do
Anything for a Laugh
Howard Goldblatt
Methuen UK, 2002
A collection of eight stories written over the last 20 years. The title novella tells
the story of old Ding, laid off a month short of retirement from the local factory,
who turns entrepreneurial, converting an old bus into a rental space for lovers.
Arcade Publishing
USA, 2003
Author
Resident
Title
Translator
Publisher
Explosions and Other Howard Goldblatt
Stories
Mu Aiping
Qian
Zhongshu
China
Shan Sa
France
Short stories.
The Republic of Wine Howard Goldblatt
Arcade Publishing
USA, 2001
A satire of the Chinese obsession with food and wine. The story follows Ding
Gou'er, a government inspector who is sent to the fictional province of
Liquorland to investigate rumors of cannibalism.
Vermilion Gate: A
Family Story of
Communist China
Abacus, new edition,
2002
One family's rising and falling fortunes. Mu Aiping was born to parents
prominent in the Communist hierarchy and in her early years lived the
pampered life of the Party elite: disrupted by periodic purges which culminated
decades later in the Cultural Revolution and the break-up of the family. Aiping
becomes a Red Guards before being denounced as a bourgeois intellectual
and exiled to a remote province.
Fortress Besieged
Allen Lane, 2005
Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese war, this work recounts the exuberant
misadventures of the hapless hero, Fang Hung-chien, who after aimlessly
studying in Europe at his family's expense, returns to Shanghai armed with a
bogus degree from a fake university.
First published in
1947
(Born China
1972, left for
France 1990
with family)
Comments
The Girl who Played
Go
Chatto, 2003
Vintage, 2004
Originally published
in France 2001
In the Place of a Thousand Winds, a 16 year-old Chinese girl beats all-comers
at the game of go. One of her opponents is a young Japanese officer of the
occupying power. As their two stories unfold, the Japanese army moves
inexorably through their huge land, leaving blood and destruction in its wake.
(WML).
Winner Prix Goncourt des Lycéens and Kiriyama Prize.
First came to attention when, at age twelve, she won a Chinese national
poetry contest.
Empress
Regan Books US,
2007
HarperCollins UK,
2007
Historical novel of one of China's most controversial historical figures: its first
and only female emperor, Empress Wu, who emerged in the Tang Dynasty
and ushered in a golden age.
Author
Resident
Title
Translator
Publisher
Comments
Su Tong
China
Rice
Howard Goldblatt
Penguin USA, 1996
The first full-length novel by the author of Raise the Red Lantern continues his
vision of the bleak world of 1930s China. After his village is flooded, a young
man called Five Dragons escapes to the city, where he agrees to work at a
rice emporium just for food. Initially overworked and humiliated by the owner,
he eventually ends up marrying both of the owner's daughters and sets the
family on a self-destructive course.
Raise the Red
Lantern
Michael S. Duke
Penguin USA, 1996
This is the tale of Lotus and three other concubines who are competing for the
sexual attentions of their master in a 1930s rural clan house.
My Life as Emperor
Howard Goldblatt
Faber, 2004
Opening with a child's ascension to the Chinese throne, this novel charts the
complexities of courtly life, as a boy of few talents is suddenly thrust into a
position of power.
Macmillan, 2001
Lili grows up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, watching while her
parents are branded as disreputable intellectuals. When they are sent out of
Beijing for ‘re-education’ Lili accompanies them. Whatever idealism she may
have had is thwarted by the oppression of daily life until 1989 and Tiananmen.
Wang
Annie
Wang Shuo
USA
(Born 1972,
left China for
US studies
1996)
China
Lili
Picador, 2002
The People’s
Republic of Desire
Playing for Thrills
Howard Goldblatt
HarperCollins USA,
2006
Also being published in Germany as Peking Girls. After attending college and
graduate school in the US, the heroine of Wang's novel, a journalist also
named Wang, returns to Beijing and finds her homeland dramatically changed.
From Hong Kong to Shanghai, China has become a country utterly spellbound
by status, celebrity and sex. Wang and her three friends – comely fashion
editor Lulu, brash entertainment executive Bei Bei and CC, a public-relations
account manager equally obsessed with labels and love – regularly meet to
dish the dirt and reveal details about the daily dramas in their lives.
Penguin USA, 1998
Fang Yan, an unemployed writer becomes the prime suspect of a murder that
occurred ten years earlier. The problem is that Fang Yan himself is not sure
whether he is guilty or not so he trails through Beijing's underbelly searching
for old friends and girlfriends who might give him a clue.
Author
Wu Fan
Resident
USA
Title
Translator
Publisher
Please Don’t Call Me Howard Goldblatt
Human
No Exit Press UK,
2000
February Flowers
Picador, 2007
Seventeen-year-old Ming and 24-year-old Yan have very little in common:
Ming, innocent and preoccupied, lives in her own world of books, music and
imagination; Yan is, by contrast, sexy but cynical, beautiful but wild. She uses
her looks to get what she wants from the many men in her life. When the two
girls meet and become best friends, Ming's world is changed forever. But their
differences in upbringing and ideologies ultimately drive them apart, leaving
each to face her own dark secret alone. First publication on the new Picador
Asia imprint.
Chatto, 2007
Story of three sisters who, like so many migrant workers in today's China,
leave their peasant community to seek their fortune in the big city. The Li
sisters don't have much education, but one thing has been drummed into
them: females don’t count. But when the money they earn starts arriving back
at the village, their father is forced to recognise that daughters are not so
dispensable after all.
The Good Women of Ester Tyldesley
China
Anchor reprint
edition, 2003
Based on the stories told to Xinran, a Beijing journalist, when, beginning in
1989, she broadcast a nightly program on state radio that was devoted entirely
to personal affairs – a radical concept in Communist China.
Sky Burial: An Epic
Love Story of Tibet
Anchor reprint
edition, 2006
‘Purporting to be a fictionalised account of a true story, it tells of a Chinese
woman whose husband dies while on an Army expedition in Tibet, in 1958.
She heads out west to learn the truth about his death, and winds up living with
nomads for three decades, conveniently missing out on the Cultural
Revolution. For American readers, the urge to mythologise the frontier will be
familiar’. (© 2005 The new Yorker)
Biting satire of China's preoccupation with national pride and ‘saving face’.
After China's humiliating loss to an American at a wresting competition, a
Oldcastle USA, 2000 group of profiteers searches for a fighting hero to restore the country's pride.
He is found in Tang Yuanbao, a Beijing pedicab driver who undergoes
First published China
exorcism, drills, ballet lesson, and castration in preparation for his role. A
in 1989
satire on one of the world's most sacred institutions, the Olympic Games, the
novel's anti-hero is a slacker who aims to win the gold as the human with the
greatest capacity for humiliation
(Left China in
1997 to study
in the US)
Xinran
UK
Comments
Miss Chopsticks
Ester Tyldesley
(Born 1958
left China for
UK 1997)
Ester Tyldesley,
Julia Lovell
Author
Publisher
Comments
What the Chinese
Don’t Eat
2006 Vintage
Collection of pieces from Xinran’s Guardian column on China.
The Lost Daughter of
Happiness
Faber, 2002
Fusang is a Chinese girl who is shanghaied from her village and brought to
San Francisco, where she enters a seedy underworld.
Yan Lianke China
Serve the People!
Constable and
Robinson, 2007
Yen Ma
Falling Leaves
Penguin, new edition, Chinese woman's story of how she suffered appalling emotional deprivation
1998
and rejection by her family as a child growing up in China and Hong Kong in
the ‘40s and ‘50s, and of its consequences in her adult life as a successful
doctor and business woman in the USA.
Chinese Cinderella:
The Secret Story of
an Unwanted
Daughter
Puffin, abridged
edition, 1999
Children’s abridged version of Falling Leaves
Watching the Tree
HarperCollins, 2000
Through her conversation with her grandfather and her aunt and her
knowledge of Chinese traditions and history, Adeline Yen Mah sets out to
bring to Western readers an understanding of Eastern wisdom and philosophy.
Yan Geling
Resident
US
USA
Title
Adeline
Translator
Set in 1967, at the peak of the Mao cult, when 'Serve the People!' was one of
his most famous slogans, it tells the story of the bored wife of a military
commander who artfully seduces a peasant soldier. When the lovers discover
that the sacrilegious act of breaking a statue of Mao deliciously increases their
First published China
desire, they compete to see who can destroy the most sacred icons of their
2005
Great Leader – smashing the commander's beloved Mao icons, ripping up the
Little Red Book or urinating on the Great Helmsman's epigrams. Defacing an
image of Mao was punishable by death during the Cultural Revolution. As a
subversive critique of official corruption, leadership hypocrisy and the insanity
of the Cultural Revolution, his book developed a huge cult following in China
when it was serialised in 2005 in the magazine Hua Cheng, and when banned,
on the internet.
Author
Resident
Title
Translator
Chinese Cinderella
and the Secret
Dragon Society
Ying Hong
UK
K: The Art of Love
(Born 1962,
moved to
London 1991)
Henry Zhao and
Nicky Harman
Daughter of the River Henry Zhao
Publisher
Comments
Puffin, 2004
Children’s adventure story of Chinese Cinderella, a young girl who, after being
thrown out of her home, has no choice but to go out and seek her own destiny.
Soon she meets up with a group of children, all orphaned, but each from a
different background, who live with an old lady called Grandma Wu. Chinese
Cinderella, or CC for short, decides her future after consulting an ancient book
that helps to show her the way forward. And her choice takes her on a mission
to save the lives of others. Based on a true-life incident during World War II.
Marion Boyars, 2002
In the 1930s Julian Bell, nephew of Virginia Wolf, teaching at a Chinese
university, has a passionate affair with Lin Cheng, a writer and wife of the
university dean. Subject of a libel lawsuit filed by the daughter of Ling Shuhua,
the model for Lin the novel's main protagonist.
Black Swan, 2004
Bloomsbury UK,
1998
Grove Press US,
1999
Yu Hua
China
A portrait of a young girl growing up in Mao's China. Born into a slum on the
banks of the Yangtze River in 1962 during the Great Famine, Hong Ying
describes her life, including the mystery which surrounded her early life, her
parents, the death of her lover and child and her eventual move to London
from China after the events in Tiananmen Square.
Peacock Cries
Marion Boyars, 2004
To Live
Anchor Books, 2003) Realist narrative about a family’s struggle to survive war, famine and the
Cultural Revolution. Adapted for film by Zhang Yimou, winner of the Grand
Jury Prize, Cannes, and unlike the book, was banned in China, making Yu
Originally published
Hua in to a worldwide celebrity. Currently back on the bestseller lists in China
in China 1995
following the success of Yu Hua’s Brothers.
(Born 1960)
Chronicle of a Blood
Merchant
Andrew F. Jones
Story of Lin, a scientist whose unfaithful husband is head of the Three Gorges
Dam Project in China. She joins the side of the Dam protestors and is caught
up in trouble and violence, as her ancestral village is drowned by the waters of
the Dam. Takes on the subjects of reincarnation and a spiritual quest.
Anchor Books, reprint Tale of a man driven to sell his own blood to make ends meet. A best seller in
edition, 2004
China. James Joyce Foundation Award 2002.
Originally published
in China in 1992
Author
Resident
Title
Translator
Publisher
Comments
Zhu Wen
China
I Love Dollars
Julia Lovell
Columbia University
Press USA, 2006
This first book-length collection of Zhu Wen's fiction in English opens with ‘I
Love Dollars’, a story about casual sex in a provincial city that caused an
immediate sensation in the Chinese literary establishment when it was first
published in 1994. Set against the mundane landscapes of contemporary
China – a worn Yangtze River vessel, a cheap diner, a failing factory, a forprofit hospital operating by dated socialist norms – his stories zoom in on the
often tragic-comic minutiae of everyday life in this fast-changing country. With
subjects ranging from provincial mafiosi to nightmarish families and oppressed
factory workers, Zhu Wen's claustrophobic narratives depict a spiritually
bankrupt society periodically rocked by spasms of uncontrolled violence.
First published in
China 1994
Sources: Publisher synopses, Amazon, Dangdang, author or as otherwise stated
8.3
Appendix 3: China Publishing Group structure
China Publishing
Xinhua Distribution
Group Co
Joint Venture
Publication Division
China National
post-order co ltd
China National publications
import & export (group) co
People’s literature
publishing house
China National
post logistics co ltd
China National publishing
industry trading co
The commercial
press
Xinhua bookstore
general store
Zhonghua book
company
Encyclopaedia of China
publishing house
China fine arts
publishing house
People’s music
publishing house
SDX joint publishing
co ltd
Orient publishing
centre
China translation
and publishing co
Source: Publishing In China, Xin Guangwei
8.4
Appendix 4: Top Ten publishing groups (non-textbook market)
Group
1
2
Date est Date inc % market share Number of titles (2004) Total value (list price)
China Publishing Group 2002
www.cnpub.com
2004
7.85
6,500
RMB 15.9 billion
Consists of:
 26 Publishing units (including their subsidiaries) including:
o The Commercial Press
o Zhonghua Book Company
o SDX Joint Publishing Company
o People’s Literature Publishing House
o China Fine Arts Publishing Group
 Three large distribution (import and export) corporations
 220 domestic chain bookstores and superstores
 23 overseas China bookstores and offices
Output and activities:
 6,500 book titles annually
 1,500 types of audio-video products and electronic publications
 Three newspapers
 Copyright trade of over 200 titles books and journals
 200,000 sorts of different publication imported and exported
Shanghai Century
Publishing Group
www.ewen.cc
7,252
1999
2005
3.07
Consists of:
 29 affiliates and subsidiaries, 15 publishing units including:
o Shanghai People’s Publishing House
o Shanghai Education Publishing House
o Shanghai Translation Publishing House
o Shanghai Classics Publishing House
o Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House
o Publishing House of the Chinese Dictionary
 Own, wholly or partially:
o Orient Research Centre
o Shanghai Book Company
o Shanghai Synergy Century Audio & Video Centre Co Ltd
o Shanghai Century Choice Logistics Co Ltd
o Shanghai Hong Kong Publishing Co Ltd
RMB 15.8 billion
Output and activities:

Six product lines – school education, higher education, history,
dictionaries, mass publishing and professional publishing

Books and e-books

Magazines, newspapers (including Elle, Money Weekly,
Literature and Art for Teenagers, Story King, Popular Medicine, Home Ideas, Gogo
Comic & Animation Weekly, Shanghai Business, Shanghai Overseas Information)

Media holdings

Book distribution, wholesale, retailing, logistics and CD
copying including integrated Management System with a BB system based on
www.ewen.cc

Online publishing and e-Book wwwewen.cc

8000 book titles annually
3
Group
Date est Date inc % market share Number of titles (2004) Total value (list price)
Jilin Publishing Group
www.jilpg.cn
2003
2.52
Consists of:
Jilin Publishing Co Ltd – Parent company responsible for capital
operation and independent management


21 Subsidiary enterprises and institutions directly under the
News Publication Bureau of Jilin Province
Publishing houses:
o Jilin Publishing Group Ltd
o Jilin Science & Technology publishing House
o North China Women and Children’s Publishing House
o Jilin Fine Arts Publishing House
o Jilin Photography Publishing House
o Jilin People’s Publishing House
o Jilin Education Publishing House
o Jilin Literature and Art publishing House
o Time Literature and Art Publishing House
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Jilin Audio & Visual publishing House
1 electronic press
4 magazines and 2 newspapers
2 printing companies
1 supplying station of publishing products and materials
1 distribution group (with 48 subsidiaries)
1 culture & publication corporation
Shenlong Comics Co Ltd
956
Outputs and activities:
Assets of RMB 1.8 billion
RMB 1.7 billion
4
Group
Date est Date inc % market share Number of titles (2004) Total value (list price)
Beijing Publishing
Group www.bph.com
1999
2.06
2,878 books, electronic
and AV products
RMB 5.3 billion
4,498
RMB 10 billion
Consists of:
 Individual enterprises include:
o Beijing Publishing House
o Beijing Ancient Books Publishing House
o Beijing Education House
o Beijing Children’s Publishing House
o Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House
o Art Publishing House in Beijing
o Electronics audio visual publishing houses in Beijing
o Wen Press
o Donald Western Publishing Company in Beijing

5
Magazines:
o October Magazine
o Juvenile Science Magazine
o Beijing Cartoon Magazine
o Night Magazine
Zhejiang Publishing
Group www.zjcb.com
2000
1.87
Consists of:
 Ten Publishing Units
 Zhejiang Xinhua Distributing Group
 Zhejiang Printing Group
 Zhejiang Publishing Printing Materials Corporation
 Zhejiang Huahong Optelectronics Group Co Ltd
 Zhejiang CCAV Culture Communication Co Ltd
Outputs and activities:
 Publication, printing and distribution of books, newspapers, AV products and
electronic publications
 Materials trade: CD/DVD/CDROM/DVD/EVD manufacture
 Capital management
 6,000 staff members
 RMB6.4 billion gross assets
 Annual sales in 2005 totalled RMB6.7 billion, from which RMB5.2 billion came from
the sale of 650 million copies of books
 Over 1,000 titles of books traded with over 100 foreign publishers
Group
6
Date est Date inc % market share Number of titles (2004) Total value (list price)
China International
Publishing Group CIPG
www.cibt.com.cn
1.87
Outputs and activities:
 China’s largest publisher and distributor of foreign language publications
 Books, periodicals, AV products, and websites
 Five periodicals: Beijing Review, China Today, People’s Pictorial, People’s China
and El Popola China
 200 book titles, 21 print periodicals & 25 online journals, in a total of 20 languages
 Runs www.china.org.cn releasing news in nine languages
 Exported to more than 100 countries and regions via CIPG’s subsidiary – China
International Book Trading Corporation
 Offices: China, US, UK, Germany, Japan, Russia, Belgium, Egypt, Mexico, Hong
Kong
Consists of:
 Seven Publishing Houses:
o Foreign Languages Press
o New World Press
o Morning Glory Publishers
o Sinolingu
o China Pictorial Publishing House
o Dolphin Books
o New Star Publishers
 One Distribution
7
Science Publishing
Group
2000
1.66
Consists of:
 Five Publishing Units:
o Science Press
o Science in China Press
o Beijing Chinese Science Import and Export Corp.
o University of Science and Technology of China Press
o Kehai Electronics Press
 Other enterprises
o Beijing Science Hope Software Co Ltd
o Chinese Science Import and Export Corporation
o Beijing Lonfman Travel
5,240
RMB 10.5 billion
Outputs and activities:
 The publishing arm for the Chinese Academy of Sciences
 In 2005 published 7,000 titles and 200 science and technical journals
8
9
Group
Date est Date inc % market share Number of titles (2004) Total value (list price)
Phoenix Publishing
Group (Jiangsu)
www.ppm.cn
2001
1.62
4,579 (600 books)
RMB 17 billion
Consists of:
 Eight Publishing Houses
 One AV Publishing House
 Subsidiary:
o Jiangsu Xinhua Distribution Group (with 82 affiliated
Xinhua Bookstores and 1,000 agencies) Science Press
Outputs and activities:
 Powerful state-owned provincial publishing group headquarter in Nanjing, Jiangsu
 Publishing, printing of books, newspapers & magazines, fabrication of audio &
visual products, manufacturing of CDs, and providing website content through its
distribution network in China
 The PPMG distribution network also has exclusive rights to the Xinhua Distribution
Group, which includes over 80 bookstores throughout Jiangsu
 Sold 1,000 titles through copyright trade with publishers in over 20 countries
 Produces 600 books and AV titles annually as well as 23 journals and newspapers
Liaoning Publishing
Group
www.ppmlnpgc.com.cn
3,020
2000
1.47
Consists of:
 Nine Publishing Houses
o Liaoning People’s Publishing House
o Liaoning Fine Arts Publishing House
o Liaoning Publishing House
o Liaoning Children’s Publishing House
o Chung Feng Literature and Art Publishing House
o Liaoning Education press
o Liaoning Nationality Publishing House
o Volumes Publishing Company
RMB 7.4 billion
Outputs and activities:
 Provincial publishing group headquartered in Shanghai
 First publisher in China to separate government function from enterprise
management
Group
10
Date est Date inc % market share Number of titles (2004) Total value (list price)
Shanghai Literature and 2005
Art Group
www.wenyigroup.com.cn
1.41
300 new, 200 reprints
Outputs and activities:
 Achieved group status not through conglomeration, but by spinning of successful
elements into separate business enterprises
 Book publishing, art, fashion, literature magazines
Consists of:
 Eight publishing houses:
o Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House
o Shanghai Culture Publishing House
o Shanghai Music Publishing House
o Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House
o Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House
o Shanghai Brilliant Books
o Baijia Publishing House
o Duo Yun Xuan art brand
o
o
o
Stories Culture Media Co Ltd
Shanghai Weekly Culture Media Co Ltd
Shanghai Using the Right Word Culture Media Co Ltd

29 magazines and 2 newspapers – of which literary
magazines are strong points and includes Stories magazine

One printing group
o Shanghai New Printing Technology (Group) Co Ltd
Top ten totals
Sources: Trade press
RMB 1,000 million
25.4
8.5 Appendix 5: London Book Fair – exhibitors from
China 2007
Beijing International Book Fair, CNPIEC
Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press and Publication
Beijing Shengtong Colour Printing Co Ltd
Big Apple Tuttle-Mori Agency - Mainland China and Taiwan
China International Book Trading Co
China Travel & Tourism Press
China Universal Press & Publications Co Ltd
Guangxi Education Publishing House
Guizhou People's Publishing House
Hengyuan Printing Co Ltd
Hunan Education Publishing House
Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House
Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House
Hunan Publishing Investment Holding Group
Hunan Science & Technology Press
Jiangsu Juveniles & Children's Publishing House
Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House
Jiangsu People's Publishing House
Jiangsu Press & Publication Administration
Jiangsu Science & Technology Publishing House
Jiangxi Publication Group Corp.
Kunlun Press
Liaoning Publishing Group
Metto International Ltd
Northeast Normal University Press
Party Building Readings Press
People's Medical Publishing House
People's Music Publishing House
Reliance Printing Co Ltd
Science Press
Shandong Education Press
Shandong Friendship Publishing House
Shandong Publishing Group
Shandong Publishing House of Literature and Art
Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers
Shanghai Scientific and Technological Education Publishing House
The Commercial Press
Timezone 8 Art Books
Tomorrow Publishing House
Xiamen International Book Center
Yilin Press
Zhejiang Education Publishing House
Zhejiang Photographic Press
8.6
Appendix 6: International translation programmes
A significant number of countries have translation subsidy programmes of
some sort to support the translation of their domestic language books abroad
and occasionally to support the flow of foreign copyright in. While these are
interesting as examples of various approaches, what is most interesting
perhaps is the number of them, acting against the argument that publishers
do not publish because translations are too expensive. A number of countries
are profiled below.
Korea (www.litkorea.net)
In Asia, Korea has set the pace in terms of building up its creative industries
and using them, not only to feed its own economy in terms of direct income
generation, but to raise the international profile of Korea and to position it as a
high tech, modern, creative country. Korea has set its sights, under the
banner ‘With the strength of culture, we will change the future of Korea’ to be
one of the top five creative nations in the world. To achieve this it has a
comprehensive programme linking creativity, technology and sports. Unlike
the current situation in China and much to Korea’s advantage, Korea
recognised that to be creative it had to allow freedoms, removing almost all
traces of censorship. Korea’s work to build its creative industries provides an
exceptional model. Korea is already dominating the ‘cool’ end of the market in
China.
Within Korea’s programme, it has a well thought-out, comprehensive and
generous programme to support Korean literature abroad. This is worth a look
in some detail as it provides an outstanding model.
Initiatives include: translation grants with generous allowances, publication
and marketing grants, sales assistance grants to cover the cost of catalogue
production, grants for sample translations and overseas liaison, international
exchange grants for attendance at book fairs and to support international
writer exchanges, promotional grants including essay contests on Korean
literature, education grants supporting the training of translators and research
grants to develop a blueprint for facilitating translations and the globalisation
of Korean literature. The Korea Literature Translation Institute (LTI) initiatives
include:
Translation grants:

Literature translation grant:
Classical to contemporary Korean literary works recognised for merits in
their field. List of recommended titles produced by LTI. Translators or
overseas publishers can apply. Any language. Grant is for 16 million won
(£8,722) per project, more if necessary

General translation grant
General non-fiction in the areas of culture and arts, humanities and social
sciences. Qualified translators, recommended by publisher. Amount
flexible

Translation of books on Korea
Translation and publication of books on Korea written in other languages
from 16th century onwards from a list of 91 titles. Grant worth up to 10
million. Won (£5,483)
Publication grants:

Publication grants
Financial support for the publication of classical or contemporary Korean
literature or related to Korean culture. Amount in relation to local costs

Marketing grants
Up to $3,000 per title for overseas publication

Sales assistance grants
Covering cost of catalogue production, sample translations and overseas
liaison. Open to Korean publishers and agents
International exchange grants:

International events attendance
Support for attendance at Korean literature-related international
conferences and exchanges. Amount related to project

Author exchanges
Support for Korean author’s residence abroad and foreign author’s
residence in Korea to facilitate better communication and deeper
understanding between them. Includes round trip airfare and living
expenses. Partners include:
o University of Iowa International writing programme (1 author, 11 weeks)
o Literariches Colloquium Berlin (1 author for 4 weeks)
o Residency exchange programme for Asian writers, Korea, 6 authors, 2
from other countries for 6 months

Seoul Young Writer’s Festival
Opportunity for 20 young authors, born after 1960, from Korea and 20
young writers from around the world, ‘who are leaders in their literary
circle’, to meet
International promotion grants

Attending international fairs
Including Leipzig Book Fair, Paris Book Fair, Bologna Book Fair, Beijing
International Book Fair, Seoul Book Fair, Frankfurt Book Fair, Guadalajara
Book Fair

Essay contest for overseas readers
LTI Korea holds contests for overseas readers to write essays about their
impressions of Korean literature in translation

Korean publication public relations centres
LTI Korea runs a variety of Korean literature public relations centres where
expatriates and Koreans can experience Korean literature in translation
Education programmes

Translation award for best translation
Awarded on biannual basis to selected works published overseas that has
‘contributed to a better understanding of Korean literature overseas’. Prize
fund of $40,000


Translation award for new translators
Award for ‘talented budding translators’ working in English, French,
German, Spanish or Chinese. Prize of 3 million won (£1,645) plus
‘preference in translation grant applications and opportunities to translate
for LTI Korea’s program’

Overseas translation fellowships for foreign nationals and overseas
Koreans
Financial support to study Korean literature or translation and
interpretation at graduate schools in Korea or in the Korean department of
overseas universities with professors specialising in the study of Korean
literature. Available for short-term fellowships (under 12 months), mid-term
(12-24 months) and long-term (24+ months). Open to those wishing to
study for a MA or PhD in Korean literature or Korean translation. Grant for
study in Korea pays for round trip airfare, tuition fees, room and board
stipend of approximately one million won per month (£548). Grant for
study abroad $1,000.

Lecture series on translation
LTI organised a lecture series on translation to help expand the base of
qualified translators of Korean literature. Run by professors from related
universities and professional translators and available in two levels, basic
and professional, running once every two weeks March to December and
totaling 20 lectures. Open to 50 and 30 students respectively, free

Monthly lectures and talks
Lectures and talks by guest authors on Korean literature and culture for
foreign nationals in Korea.

International workshops for the translation and publication of Korean
literature
Planned to give participants a greater understanding of the theoretical and
practical aspects of creative writing and the translation publication. Also
serve as venues for exchange of information and practical assistance with
the translation process. Run once a year and include guests from four or
five countries
Study research grants

Research on globalisation of Korean literature
LTI Korea is forming a theoretical foundation for the globalisation of
Korean literature, including researching methodology and conducting basic
research for the effective implementation of business related to this end.
The long-term plan includes creation of a detailed blueprint to create an
environment where Korean literature can communicate on a global level

Research related to translation policies
Including methods to develop the talent pool for translation in Korean
society as well as to improve the quality of the translation profession and
the education of professional translators

Construction of a database for the internationalisation of Korean literature
LTI Korea is creating a database of important information related to the
translation and globalisation of Korean literature including a list of
translated Korean literature as well as bibliographies, information on
Korean literature, Korean writers, Korean literature translators and
overseas Korean literature professionals. This database will be made
available to the public online

Specialised archive of Korean literature
LTI Korea owns multi-lingual translations of Korean literature. The list of
books in the archive is available online and LTI Korea lends these works to
the public. The archive is responsible for the collection, administration,
distribution and lending of these books. LTI Korea also supplies books to
related organisations and events

Overseas correspondents
LTI Korea has correspondents in major countries around the world. They
analyse the local literary circles and the activities of local publishers. They
are also responsible for observing local media reaction to Korean
literature. Correspondent teams are currently working in the United States,
France, Germany, Spain, China and Russia.
Other examples of national literary translation programmes
Ireland Literature Exchange programme
Ireland Literature Exchange is the national organisation for the international
promotion of Irish literature in English and Irish. It offers translation grants to
international publishers; residential bursaries to literary translators; organises
translator and author events at international festivals; and participates in the
major world book fairs. In addition, it supports Irish publishers who wish to
publish international literature in translation.
Funded by Arts Council in Ireland, by Culture Ireland and by Bord na Leabhar
Gaeilge/The Irish Language Books Board. Established in 1994, ILE has
funded the translation of over 800 books into 40 languages in 34 countries.

Translation grant programme
Offers translation grants to publishers and funds the translation of
literature from Ireland into foreign languages and the translation of foreign
literature into English or Irish. Eligible works include biography, children’s
literature, drama, literary fiction, history, poetry and literary criticism.
Grants described as a ‘substantial contribution towards the translator's
fees’

Residential bursary programme for literary translators
Annual programme of residential bursaries for professional translators
working on publisher-commissioned translations of works of Irish literature.
Enables translators to spend up to four weeks in Ireland ‘working on a
translation, meeting with authors, carrying out research in Irish libraries
and generally immersing themselves in the cultural, linguistic and artistic
environment of contemporary Irish literature’. Based on calls for areas of
strategic interest to ILE. In 2006 two bursaries were offered for Chinese
translators, as well as a special bursary to mark the centenary of the birth
of Samuel Beckett for a translator working on a new translation of his
work. Bursary included cost of return trip from China, accommodation and
living expenses for a period of up to four weeks

Author and translator events

Promotion
o New writing from Ireland
o Published once a year by ILE to offer international publishers and other
interested parties a snapshot of the latest Irish writing for which
translation rights are available
o Attendance at international book fairs and festivals
o Information to publishers, agents, translators, writers and other
interested parties
o Participation in international literary translation projects.
France (www.diplomatie.gouv.fr)
France has a good publishing history with China and a very active
contemporary publishing programme being conducted by Philippe Picquier. It
was Guest of Honour at the 2005 Beijing International Book Fair.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides support for the translation and
publishing of contemporary French authors in China (as part of its
programmes for sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Mediterranean basin) via a
number of initiatives:

Publishing assistance programme (Programme d’Aide à la Publicaiton)
Since 1990, with the assistance of its network of cultural services and its
embassies overseas, provides assistance to foreign publishers and
translators who have made a long-term commitment to translate works by
French authors, distributing books and reviews to foreign publishers,
supporting the granting of rights and contributing towards the cost of
publication.

Fu Lei Translation programme (www.fulei.org)
Fu Lei Bibliographical Database: Created to meet the needs of editors,
translators, researchers booksellers, students and the public, the Fu Lei
Bibliographical Database aims to record all the books translated from
French into Chinese and published in China since the end of the 19th
century. The data generated by Chinese and French editors, the National
Library Beijing, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of
Culture and the French Embassy in China.
Launched in September 2004, it now lists in excess of 3,791 titles, 256
translators, 53 Chinese and 110 French publishers, providing details of
editors, publishers and publications and literary reviews from both
countries.

Le Centre National du Livre translation bursary
Twice-yearly grant for a Chinese translator to spend a period of three
months in France with a monthly stipend of €1,525.

Plan translate
To create a database for the major languages (English, Arabic, Spanish,
Chinese and Russian) of publishers, foreign translators of books written in
French and titles translated from French since 1970. Also tasked to assist
in the training of new translators.

Review of reviews (Revue des Revues)
To raise awareness for French authors and stimulate debate across
borders, a selection of five articles drawn from a selection of 20 major
French reviews is translated into English, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and
Russian every two months.

The Alembert fund
Funding for debates organised by embassies with local partners.

Multimedia Libraries – Information Centres en France
400 multimedia libraries located in the overseas French cultural
institutions, the French Institutes and Alliances, with close to 400,000
items recorded and 6,000,000 loans each year. There are twelve branches
of the Alliance Française in Greater China – in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei,
Kaohsiung, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Nanjing, Chengdu, Xi’an, Dalian,
Jinan and Qingdao.
Germany
Litrix.de is a project initiated by the Federal Cultural Foundation and
supported by the Goethe-Institut with the aim of promoting contemporary
German literature and providing an impetus for its translation. The GoetheInstitut in Munich is the project’s executive agency and headquarters and the
Frankfurt Book Fair is its co-operation partner. The website is available in
German and English, as well as a third focal language, which changes each
year. In 2005 the language was Mandarin. Its two areas of concern are:
Promoting contemporary German literature:

Making available online extensive specimen texts and translations of some
twenty pages in length of thirty titles each year, covering fiction, non-fiction
and books for children and young people. The texts are translated into
English and into an annual focal language, which in 2005 was Chinese,
together with detailed background information on authors, titles and
publishers. The titles are selected by an expert independent three-person
jury from the target region, who are tasked to choose the books that lend
themselves particularly well to publication in the focal language from the
titles presented in German and English in the respective year. In 2005 the
Chinese judges were:
o Li Changke, Professor of German at the University of Beijing. studied
literature, linguistics and political economics in Chongqing and
Heidelberg and completed a doctorate on the Chinese novel in German
literature at the University of Augsburg.
o Ren Weidong, Professor at the Foreign Language University of Beijing.
Read German in Beijing and in Germany at University of Heidelberg.
o Wang Bingjun, Professor at the Foreign Language University of Beijing
and edits the journal Wir lernen Deutsch. Read German in Beijing and
Hamburg.

Online magazine on the German publishing scene containing portraits of
writers and works, as well as the latest reviews, general articles on
contemporary literature, press reports and links with comments on the
themes discussed, and a monthly book recommendation by well-known
personalities.
Promoting translation

Financial assistance for publishers in the targeted linguistic region. While
the funding is intended primarily for the translation of the work concerned,
in special cases contributions may also be made towards the licensing
costs. In order to receive funding there must be a contract between the
foreign licensee and the German licensor, as well as a contract with the
work’s translator. An expert jury decides on awarding of translation grants.
The grant is not given until the published translation has been submitted.

Organisation of further training courses for literary translators via annual
workshops in Germany for young literary translators to provide these ‘upand-coming’ translators with direct contacts to the German literary scene
and publishing industry. Have been held in co-operation with the textwerk
series published by the Munich Literature House. Future cooperations are
planned with other literary and intermediary institutions.
Complementary promotional measures are undertaken by the Goethe-Institut
and Frankfurt Book Fair:

The translations programme of the Goethe-Institut (GI)
Translations of German Books into a Foreign Language supports the
publication of German literature in other languages, including major
academic works, works of high-quality fiction and children’s and young
peoples‘ literature, as well as selected works of non-fiction. The
programme serves cultural policy objectives and is an important instrument
in Germany’s cultural and educational policy abroad. The funding is given
in the form of grants to cover translation costs. Only foreign publishers
may submit an application.
Priority is given to funding works in the following subject areas:
o
democracy, the rule of law and civil society
o
current global and regional issues
o
the cultural dimension of the European integration process
o
recent German history
o
outstanding works of contemporary German literature
The following are also considered:
o
classical German literature
o
contemporary drama
o
high-quality children’s and young peoples‘ literature

The German Book Information Centre (BIZ), Beijing
BIZ is a cooperative project, organised in 1998 by the Frankfurt Book Fair
and the Goethe-Institut, with the Federal Foreign Office of Germany as
one of the main sponsors. BIZ focuses its activities on promoting the
cooperation of German and Chinese publishers and booksellers.
BIZ is tasked to address identified barriers for German entry to the
Chinese market including communication problems, uncertainties
regarding legal issues and different rules, lack of familiarity and expertise
in China’s dynamic but unpredictable market.
It is also tasked to support Chinese publishers to venture into the global
market, to share experience and know-how with Chinese publishers and
distributors, particularly the new private booksellers, including organizing
bookseller and publisher tours to see the German industry.
Promoting German books is also a focus and BIZ runs a number of profileraising initiatives, including, to get around the language barrier, a
competition for Best Designed German Book.
Finland (http://dbgw.finlit.fi/fili/eng/apurahat/apurahat-1.html)
FILI awards translation grants for:
 The translation of Finnish, Finnish-Swedish and Saami language literature
into other languages: Grants are awarded to cover translation costs on
works that promote knowledge or awareness of Finland in the literary
world abroad and to works of non-fiction with literary merits and only for
works translated directly from Finnish, Swedish or Saami into other
languages. Translation grants are awarded on the assumption that the
translator has professional experience. If the translator is a native Finnish
speaker, another translator who speaks the target language as his/her
native language must work in cooperation on the text.

The translation of Finnish literature for children and young people into
other languages

The translation of fiction and non-fiction from Finnish into Swedish in
Finland: Grants are awarded for the translation into Finnish of fiction or
non-fiction, which promotes knowledge and awareness of foreign literature
in Finland. This does not apply to scientific or academic publications, PhD
theses or textbooks. Finnish publishers or a foreign publisher on behalf of
a Finnish publisher may apply.

The translation of academic publications into Swedish

The translation and publication of fiction and non-fiction from Finnish into
Swedish in Finland.
FILI also awards grants for publishing /printing for:

The publishing/printing of Finnish picture books for children (foreign
publishers)

The publishing/printing of fiction and non-fiction in Finnish and Swedish (in
Finland).
FILI also awards:

Grants for Finnish publishers for the production of translation samples
Young translators (beginners) can apply for a grant of a maximum of €700
in order to fund a translation extract and a reader's opinion.

Travel grants to translators from abroad
Grants for translators who translate Finnish literature into other languages
and writers who are writing works dealing with Finland to cover the costs of
a working visit to Finland. Travel grants can be awarded to the same
translator at most every other year.
Sweden: Svenska Institutent (support for translation of Swedish fiction)
The Swedish Institute promotes the wider circulation of Swedish quality fiction
by providing financial support for translations from Swedish. Foreign
publishers outside the Nordic countries are invited to apply for grants covering
translation costs. The grant will partly or totally cover the translator's fees in
accordance with standard practice in the country concerned. The money is
paid after publication.
The scheme is open to translations of quality fiction, written in Swedish.
Priority is given to contemporary works, with preference given to works
published after 1945. Exceptionally, works published before 1900 may be
considered.
Priority is also given when a writer is being introduced to a new reading public
and is being translated for the first time into a specific language.
Non-fiction and picture books do not qualify for grants, nor do extracts from
literary works translated with the aim of interesting a non-Swedish-speaking
publisher in taking on the whole work.
Novels, short stories, drama, poetry and children's books rank equally.
Support of special issues of literary magazines and anthologies may be
considered. No language is given preference, but support is not given for
translations to other Nordic languages.
USA (www.nea.gov)
US government funding for translations is administered via he National
Endowment for the Arts, an independent agency of the federal government
and the nation's largest annual funder of the arts.
Literature Fellowships for translation projects in prose
 Translation fellowships in poetry and prose are currently offered to
published literary translators for specific translation projects from other
languages into English. Award amounts can be for either $10,000 or
$20,000, depending on the scope and merit of the project.
Translations of writers and of work that are not well-represented in English
translation are encouraged. The work to be translated must be published
and should be of interest for its literary excellence and value and
applicants are asked to consider carefully whether the work would be
competitive at national level. Priority is given to projects that involve work
that has not yet been translated into English.
Since the programme began in 1981, the Endowment has awarded 246
translation fellowships for 200 foreign works in 46 languages from 60
countries. This includes Howard Goldblatt's 1992 translation of Red
Sorghum by Chinese author Mo Yan and $20,000 in 2004 for the
translation from Chinese of the novel My Life as Emperor by Su Tong.
Other interesting initiatives

Words Without Borders (www.wordswithoutborders.org)
Provides useful sample translations in English of previously un-translated
works.

Literature Across Frontiers (www.lit-across-frontiers.org)
Programme of literary exchange and policy debate operating through
partnerships with European organisations engaged in the international
promotion of literature and support for literary translation. It aims to
enhance the work of its partners, to act as a catalyst for new collaborations
and innovative projects and particularly to:
o
Promote literatures written in the less widely-used, minority and
regional languages of Europe
o
Encourage greater diversity in the publishing of literature in
translation and in international literary events
o
Develop innovative approaches to literary promotion, support for
translation and skills improvement of literary translators working in less
widely-used languages
o
Create opportunities for collaboration and sharing of experience
and resources amongst cultural operators active in this field
Literature Across Frontiers is based at the Mercator Centre, University of
Wales Aberystwyth, a European research and documentation institution,
which runs projects in the fields of European minority and regional
languages and the media, languages and the internet, and translation and
publishing of literature written in the less widely-used European languages.

UNESCO
Information on translation resources including exhaustive listing and linking
to international translation programmes – http://portal.unesco.org
8.7
Appendix 7: UK Chinese organisations
Diaspora

British Born Chinese Organisation (www.britishbornchinese.org)
Community-driven site designed to provide a forum in which British Born
Chinese can meet, share experiences, ideas and thoughts. The site
announces two core purposes. The first is empowerment – through
sharing experiences the site hopes to help BBCs develop a stronger sense
of identity, finding a way to ‘balance our cultural heritage with the daily
reality of living in Britain’. The second is participation. The site is operated
on a not-for-profit community basis by volunteers. Technical and legal
support is donated by Chinatown Online. The site has about 8,500
registered users and received the BT New Media Award in 2001.

DimSum (www.dimsum.co.uk)
Founded in 2001 and described by the BBC Online as ‘media savvy and
brimming with confidence’, DimSum is aimed at giving a voice to second
generation ethnic Chinese. Founded by Sarah Yeh, a creative director with
a global advertising agency, the site, which feels young and modern,
encourages debates and discussions via its easy to use online forums.
‘The presence of the Chinese communities in Britain has been very small’,
Sarah Yeh has said, ‘I have long thought we don’t have a strong
community identity’. DimSum invites articles and participation on a range
of topics including identity issues of the Chinese communities, culture, arts
and life in China. The site includes the DimSum Fiction Series, exploring
identity and the Asian diaspora.
Arts and culture

British Chinese Artists' Association (www.bcaa.org.uk)
Established in 1991, London based BCAA aims to promote Chinese arts
and artists of Chinese descent living and working in Britain. Its activities
include education work, community projects, exhibitions, seminars,
collaborations, partnerships, providing information and advice services to
the public, networking and maintenance of the British Chinese Artists'
Association database.

China People Promotions (www.chinesemusic.co.uk)
China People Promotions (CPP), formed in 1994 by a group of Chinese
musicians based in the UK, promotes Chinese arts and culture through
organising concerts, festivals, educational workshops and music
productions within the UK and Europe. CPP’s mission is ‘to raise the
standard and awareness of Chinese arts and culture across the UK and to
improve the breadth and depth of the public knowledge of Chinese
culture’.

Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester (www.chinese-arts-centre.org)
Established in 1986, the Chinese Arts Centre is based in Manchester, a
city with the second largest Chinese community in the UK. It aims to
develop an infrastructure to allow Chinese arts, and especially British
Chinese artists, to flourish. Work covers four main areas: exhibitions,
education, agency work and advocacy – which include training,
conferences and publications.
In 2003, funded by the Arts Council England’s lottery scheme, it built a
new British and International Chinese Arts Centre, which includes an artist
residency studio and apartment, an education suite, resource area, offices,
shop and teahouse.

The Chopsticks Club (www.chopsticksclub.com)
The London-based club, founded in 1994, is a social club for informal
networking with like-minded sinophiles. The club encourages Chinese and
foreign nationals to meet, make friends, advance business opportunities
and enjoy good Chinese food on a regular basis. The Chopsticks Cub
does not own its own Clubhouse so usually meets once a month in a
restaurant or private venue. Club membership consists of over 400
professionals and students, most London-based and who have lived,
studied or worked in China and/or Hong Kong. About 60% have some
level of competency in Mandarin Chinese and about 50% are British and
50% a mix of overseas Chinese. Membership costs £20 per person per
annum or £15 for students.

London Chinese Cultural Centre (www.chineseculturalcentre.org.uk)
London-based non-profit arts organisation, founded in 1986, running
cultural and educational workshops, lectures, exhibitions and performing
arts (including New Year festivals at the V&A and Docklands Museum),
The CCC also administers the London Chinese Orchestra, the Chinese
Film Society, the Chinese Dance and Mime theatre as well as providing
advisory services in Chinese arts.

Oriental Central (www.orentialcentral.com)
Oriental Central is an interactive forum to meet people, get information and
stay in touch with the Chinese community. Its aims are to provide constant,
accurate and up-to-date information about the Chinese community in the
UK, build the community through the involvement of individuals,
associations and businesses and promote community spirit through the
support of Chinese events and culture.

The Red Mansion Foundation (www.redmansion.co.uk)
The Red Mansion Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, which
promotes artistic exchange between China and Great Britain through
exhibitions, exchange programmes, publications and the Red Mansion Art
Prize. Red Mansion’s vision is to encourage mutual cultural understanding
through contemporary art. Located in London, Red Mansion has recently
moved to bigger premises with a dedicated space for showing cutting edge
contemporary Chinese art, including an artist in residence programme, as
well hosting the annual Red Mansion Art Prize exhibition.
The Red Mansion Art Prize, established in 2002, supports young British
artists by offering them the opportunity to broaden their perspectives and
develop their work through the experience of a different culture.
The prize is open to postgraduate students from six of London's art
colleges: Central St Martins College of Art, Chelsea College of Art,
Goldsmiths, Royal Academy Schools, and The Royal College of Art. The
Slade School of Fine Art and the Ruskin School in Oxford have also taken
part in the prize. Each college shortlists six students from whom a panel of
judges selects one winner from each college.
The 2006 panel of judges was composed of Allen Jones (artist), Kay
Hartenstein (art advisor), Edward Lucie-Smith (writer and critic) and
Nicolette Kwok (Director of The Red Mansion Foundation). Past judges
have included Philip Dodd (ex-director of the Institute of Contemporary
Arts, now Director of own company Made in China), Judith Nesbitt (Head
of Exhibitions and Displays, Tate Britain), and Rebecca Wilson (Editor, Art
Review).
Every year the winners travel to China during the summer where they are
given a studio space and live and work alongside local artists and create a
diary of their experiences. The resulting work is displayed in an annual
exhibition in London. Flights, accommodation and living expenses are
provided by the Foundation.

Yellow Earth Theatre (www.yellowearth.org)
This London-based international touring company was formed in 1995 by
five British East Asian performers, producing ensemble physical
performance using traditions of East and West and exploring and
celebrating ‘cultural heritage and contemporary experience’. The range of
work covers both new writing and the reinterpretation of classics, with an
emphasis on exploring the links between contemporary experience and
multicultural heritage. The company also runs educational workshops,
residencies and community projects as part of its outreach programme.
For the past four years the theatre has run a writers’ group called Yellow
Ink to encourage, develop and empower Anglo-East Asian playwrights.
Community organisations

Chinese BBS Forum
Mandarin bulletin board forum

Chinatown Chinese Association (www.chinatownchinese.co.uk)
The London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA), formed in August
1978, aims to enhance the area and to improve the quality of life for the
entire community as well of visitors. It also strongly supports maintaining
and developing Chinatown’s distinct character. The LCCA has been
central to the enormous success of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Chinatown Online (www.chinatownonline.co.uk)
Provides information about China, Chinese culture, the Chinese
community in the UK, Chinese businesses, education and food. Links to
the British Chinese Online Forum for discussion and participation.

The Chinese in Britain Forum (www.cibf.co.uk)
The forum works to promote equal access to public services for Chinese
people in the UK, and to assist the voluntary sector to participate
effectively in community development.

British Chinese Society (www.britishchinese.org.uk)
The objectives of the British Chinese Society, a not-for-profit organisation,
are to organise social events and activities for the British Chinese
community, promote Chinese culture and language amongst its
membership, and raise money for charitable causes in the British Chinese
community. Regular events include Sunday dim sum, fund-raising dinners
and ‘Mandarin Meet Ups’ for language practice. Individual events included
a weekend trip to Iceland (March 2007). The site has a good online forum.

Chinese Community Centre (www.ccc.org.uk)
The London Chinese Community Centre, Gerrard Street, has five main
aims:
o
To provide a range of community support activities and services
for Chinese communities, particularly for those people who are
disadvantaged, isolated or vulnerable
o
To increase understanding and awareness of the needs of
Chinese communities locally, regionally and nationally through
undertaking and commissioning research
o
To provide a strong voice for the Chinese community through
representation of the views and – interests of the community at the
local, regional and national level. The London Chinese Community
Centre also provides a channel through which the views and proposals
of local, regional and national government can be presented to the
Chinese community
o
To become a leading centre for the promotion of Chinese culture
and traditions within the UK Chinese community, the wider UK
population and internationally
o
To increase the effectiveness of support services for the
Chinese community through a programme of Centre development to
improve quality and efficiency.

London Chinese Community Network (www.chinese-network.net)
London Chinese Community Network aims to promote the interests of the
London Chinese voluntary and community sector (VCS). The work of the
Network includes community research, publishing, brokering partnerships,
organisational capacity building and holding consultation conferences and
community activities.
Regional community organisations
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Chinese Welfare Association, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Birmingham Chinese Association
Birmingham Chinese Society
Birmingham Chinese Youth Centre
Burton Chinese Community Association
Cambridge Chinese School
Cambridge Chinese Community Centre
Camden Chinese Community Centre
Chinese Educational Development Project, Brighton
Devon and Cornwall Chinese Association (BBC site)
Doncaster Chinese Women's Group
Hillingdon Chinese Community Organisation, London
Hua Xian Chinese Society, Morecombe
Islington Chinese Association, London
Lambeth Chinese Community Association, London
Leeds Chinese Community Association
Merseyside Chinese Community Development Association (MCCDA),
Liverpool
Newcastle Chinatown
North London Chinese Association (NLCA)
North West Chinese Council
Pagoda Cultural Club, Liverpool
Rugby Warwickshire Chinese Society
Chinese Association of Southampton
Swansea Chinese Community Co-op Centre
Wai Yin Chinese Women's Society, Manchester
Education and Learning

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
United Kingdom Federation of Chinese Schools
Chinese Student and Scholar Association
Milton Keynes Chinese School and Community Centre
Northolt Chinese School
The Scotland-China Association
UK Association for the Promotion of Chinese Education
Libraries

Westminster Chinese Library holds one of the largest collections of
Chinese materials in the UK public library system
Media





Chinatown, a business and lifestyle publication
TVB Television Channel, a Chinese TV channel
Firecracker, magazine
Cambridge-Parasol, a link website to Chinese information in the
Cambridge area
Da Ji Yuan (The Epoch Times), a newspaper for overseas Chinese
Music


UK Chinese Music
Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra
Social enterprise



The Pearl Foundation
The Pearl Awards
The Pearl Careers Fair
Youth



Chinese Youth Forum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
DragonLink, online community
Squat, community publication
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© Arts Council England, August 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7287-1358-1
Written by Virginia Barry
Edited by Paul Richardson
Layout by Jonaki Sarkar
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