12/23/2023 0 Comments Zhang jing translator age![]() ![]() That mindset also places you as a link in the middle of a chain, so you do think about how your actions will affect the generations after you.įor this collection you are both translator and editor how have you found this dual experience working with the authors?Īs a translator, I consider it my responsibility to precisely convey author’s words, meaning, and tone into the secondary language, making it read well. ![]() As for thoughts about future legacy, the veneration of ancestry and lineage are very Confucian, so you’d think there would be a lot about the past, and there’s indeed a lot of historical genre fiction out there. In this collection, they are explored in different ways, the obsession for the perfect score, the perfect life, taken to extremes by the manipulation of a single piece of tech, the debate of whether human-machine interface is the next stage of intellectual evolution, and taking a look at more meaningful, effective ways of learning. So of course, these are going to be themes that pervade the arts and literature. A profound reverence and love of learning is also another well-known, and age-old, preoccupation in China. They just culturally have a head start on it. The pressures to achieve, and the desire for self-improvement has been one of the most recognisable traits of the Chinese people, but honestly, it is by no means exclusive to China. What makes this a theme many authors come back to?Ĭhina is a country with a massive population, the number of high paid, white collar jobs are increasing, but not as fast as the population, so that’s a lot of people competing for relatively fewer opportunities. Looking at the collection common themes seem to be living with the pressure to be the best (educationally or even socially) and thoughts about future legacy. This has actually put a whole slew of publishing platforms literally into people’s hands, and has removed a lot of the gatekeeping, opening doors for female authors of all genre fiction, sci-fi included. The second has been the rapid growth of the internet usage, and in particular, via smart phones. With that acceptance, sci-fi became better known, and as the money followed, it got deemed more as an acceptable career path. I remember sitting with an investment banker who had a pair of replica Iron Man bracelets that calls the suit. That’s comic book movies, video games, grown ups still collecting toys. Culturally, we’ve seen a global acceptance of zhai wenhua (geek culture in in Chinese). There has been both a cultural and technological catalyst in accelerating the publication of sci-fi, with the technological one probably reaching further in the promotion of women’s writing. I believe that as more female scholars, writers and translators like myself are researching, translating, writing science fiction, we’re giving more of a voice to female creators internationally, and bringing it more into the public’s attention. Zhang Jing, who wrote the award-winning “Love of Nüwa”, was born in the ‘30s, and Qian Lifang, had a best-selling novel Providence, published in 2004, and my research found a huge number of great works between them. As early as the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when science fiction as we know it today, began in China, there were already female scholars propagating the genre. There have always been female writers of Kehuan (Chinese for science fiction), they just haven’t always been as visible, especially on the international stage. ![]() It’s not that female SF authors have suddenly popped out of the ground. ![]() What was the catalyst for this change in SF popularity or was it always there? I really appreciated the sense of the recent developing history of Chinese SF the collection covers and in particular the growth of female authors you highlight. Other than wave its gorgeous cover under people’s nose? I’d quote some of the reviewers who’ve said some very kind things like “It is one of the best, and most accessible collections to the vast world of Chinese Sci-fi”, and point out the long list of award winning authors, and probably continue like this till I’m dragging them to the checkout. How would you usually booktempt Sinopticon 2021 – A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction? Wishing to know a little more Xueting kindly agreed to answer some questions which I hope you enjoy! Last month I talked about the excellent Sinopticon - A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction translated and edited by Xueting Christine Ni a glorious collection of some of the best science fiction stories from chinese authors in the last thirty years. ![]()
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