Chinese literature published in 2023
Annelous Stiggelbout
2023 has been another good year for Chinese literature in Dutch translation: several novels were published, a collection of short stories, as well as several books of poetry and a stack of children’s books. For convenience’s sake, the term “Chinese literature” is used here in its broadest sense: this list includes not only prose written in China in Mandarin by a Han Chinese author, but also, for example, poetry from Taiwan and a novel written in Xinjiang and translated from Uyghur. Enough for many hours of reading pleasure.
Fiction
The complaint of the buffalo
https://www.singeluitgeverijen.nl/athenaeum/boek/de-klacht-van-de-buffel/
Various authors
Translation Wilt Idema
China does not have a great tradition of animal stories, but Wilt Idema has brought several together in this book. The buffalo in the title complains because he is slaughtered just like that after a lifetime of selfless hard work. The mice and cats wage war after the cats cruelly disrupt the mouse wedding. The swallow returns to his nest to find a family of sparrows who have no intention of leaving, so the phoenix must administer justice in this sensitive matter. Piece by piece finely translated and excellently introduced. [[[https://chinezenlezen .blogspot.com/2023/08/de-klacht-van-de-buffel.html]]]
Hormones at night
Hormonen in de nacht
Lu Min
Various translators, edited by Annelous Stiggelbout
Ten stories about very ordinary people, whose very ordinary lives are derailed by minor obstacles, often caused by runaway hormones. Even more than sex, these stories are about time, decay and inevitable death, but with humor and some absurdity.
The Confucius Institute Groningen made this collection possible: these collections are an ongoing project, in which a collection of stories by an author is translated by several translators, experienced and less experienced, under the editorship of an experienced translator.
Hopefully something nice can be made again this year.
The back streets
https://www.uitgeverijjurgenmaas.nl/product/de-achterstraten/
Perhat Tursun
Translated from English by Irwan Droog
‘The book follows an unnamed Uyghur man who comes from Ürümqi. In his search for a room, a place to spend the nights, he encounters nothing but cold looks and rejection. He roams the back streets and wanders through the perpetually dense fog that plagues the city.’ Perhaps the first Uyghur novel ever published in Dutch.
Writer Perhat Tursun, with many of his compatriots, has since disappeared in a penal camp; so has the anonymous Uyghur translator who assisted Perhat’s English translator.
[[[https://wordswithoutborders .org/read/article/2022-09/translation-as-transgression-bringing-the-uyghur-novel-the-backstreets-into-english-darren-byler /]]]
Notes from a theorist
https//www.vanoorschot.nl/writers/shi-tiesheng/
Shi Tiesheng
Translation Mark Leenhouts
“For Shi Tiesheng, as a rollicking writer, physical disability has always been a starting point for reflections on human lack in general. “Thinking aloud,” in this idiosyncratic self-portrait, he merges his own memories with memories of a handful of others, people whose lives he sees as variously marked by fate. One of China’s most beloved writers, now at last extensively translated into Dutch.
The nail
https://uitgeverijprometheus.nl/boeken/spijker-paperback/
Zhang Yueran
Translation Annelous Stiggelbout
Li Jiaqi returns to the neighborhood where she grew up after an eighteen-year absence and meets her childhood friend Cheng Gong again. In a long dark night, they tell each other about their childhood and how they have fared since then, and slowly it becomes clear how the fates of their families are linked by atrocities committed during the Cultural Revolution, and how they too still mark themselves. One of the best books of the year according to [[ [Volkskrant https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2023/dit-zijn-de-beste-boeken-van-2023-volgens-de-volkskrant~v949244/]]] and [[[NRC https://www.nrc.nl/index/slim-leven/de-50-beste-boeken-van-2023-a4168191]] and [[[FD https://fd.nl/samenleving/1501611/dit-zijn-de-beste-romans-van-2023]]].
Poetry
For years now, translator Silvia Marijnissen has been tirelessly building a broad body of poetry translations, from established to experimental, from calm to playful. Thanks to her efforts, a remarkable number of collections of poetry translated from Chinese have appeared in the last few years. This year’s harvest:
As iron so still
https://www.poeziecentrum.be/publicaties/als-ijzer-zo-stil
Zheng Xiaoqiong
Translation Silvia Marijnissen
Zheng Xiaoqiong was a migrant worker herself: she worked for years in factories in southern China. Now she writes about migrant workers, especially the women among them. The compassion and commitment is evident in her poems, and she wants her poetry to show the conditions in which our things are made. She shows in her poetry the humanity of the workers, their dreams and desires, their ideas about their work and the stuff they make, but she is also very aware of the bigger picture: environmental pollution from factories; the disruption of communities by industrialization; the gap between rich and poor, not only in China, but elsewhere in the world, and the resulting populism and conservatism.
Lifeline
https://www.poeziecentrum.be/publicaties/levenslijn
Yinni
Translation Silvia Marijnissen
‘Many of Yinni’s poems are absurdist, straightforward, humorous and focus on the absurdity and contradictions of modern life. Poetry is essential to her survival, as evidenced by the preface to her fifth collection of poems, “Before I started writing poetry, I was just a wandering corpse.” Her highly personal work is averse to conventions, and her disconcerting observations, emotions, confusion, pain, anger, weakness or wonder reveal a difficult relationship with the world. Consequently, the characters Yinni presents us with are often maladjusted or feel lost in a world whose “rules” elude them.
Children’s Books
For quite some time now, children’s book publisher Clavis has been publishing a stack of Chinese children’s books every year, mostly picture books. This year’s crop of subjects is diverse: from a Mongolian wrestler to a mysterious code from World War II to a tree with delicious apples. It is a pity that nowhere can be found who translated these books into Dutch, it is not even mentioned in the colophon.
Last year’s books:
Duan Xuefei, The Green Country https://www.clavisbooks.com/nl-nl/het-groene-land.html
Jin Xiaoyu, Grandpa Knor’s apple tree https://www.clavisbooks.com/nl-nl/de-appelboom-van-opa-knor.html
Chen Zhou, What are we eating today? https://www.clavisbooks.com/nl-nl/wat-eten-we-vandaag-3f.html
Cedar Wang (Wang Zihuan), Codebreaker Charlotte https://www.clavisbooks.com/nl-nl/codebreker-charlotte.html
Wen Ermin, Boat of paper https://www.clavisbooks.com/nl-nl/bootje-van-papier.html
Liu Hao, The Wrestlers of the Grassland https://www.clavisbooks.com/nl-nl/de-worstelaars-van-het-grasland.html
