‘The “exquisite bridges and flowing water” one finds in poetry are not written by real farmers, but those who claim to love rural life when they most fear it.’
In the ninety first episode of the Translated Chinese Podcast, we are travelling half across China to pod you. The writer in question is rural/online star Yu Xiuhua and my guest is her translator, the thoughtful and verbally particular Fiona Sze-Lorrain. The art in question is Yu’s collection of poems and essays Moonlight Rests on My Left Palm (月光落在左手上 – yuèguāng luò zài zuǒshǒu shàng), but spare also a thought for my guest’s recent release, Dear Chrysanthemums: a novel in stories.
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// NEWS ITEMS //
- the Qiu Jin affair – a #namethetranslator incident
- Machine Decision is Not Final – new theory-fiction sci-fi allstar text
- a Xu Xiaobin reading from Paper Republic
- Sinoist Books northern expedition incoming, keep your eyes peeled
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// WORD OF THE DAY //
(悟 – wù – understand, enlighten, awaken)
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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //
- Dear Chrysanthemums: a novel in stories (here’s the UK store link)
- In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China
- Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
- Li Juan, another rural writer
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The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast 