Four Events on Yu Hua's 《活着》from NYC

[Luxi]

Ready for more Zoom readings and discussions, with a movie thrown in? These come from Museum at Eldridge Street in New York via Eventbrite and are free (late nights for us on this side). The 4 events are listed on the link below.

 

Quote

From March 8 - March 18, Museum at Eldridge Street will be exploring Yu Hua’s To Live in a series of lectures, book discussions, and film screenings with partners from China Institute, Chatham Square Library of New York Public Library, and the Museum of the Moving Image

Details: https://www.eldridgestreet.org/events/list/

 

 

Registration through Eventbrite is required for each event separately. 

 

Mon, Mar 8, 2021, 11:00 PM –Tue, Mar 9, 2021, 12:30 AM GMT
NEA Big Read 2021: Yu Hua's "To Live"
In Part I of this two-part dialogue Professors David Der-wei Wang (Harvard University) and Michael Berry (UCLA) will discuss the novel in the context of other works of historical fiction and narratives of trauma in modern China. 

NEA Big Read 2021: Yu Hua’s "To Live" Tickets, Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite

 

Wed, Mar 10, 2021, 11:00 PM –Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 12:30 AM GMT
NEA Big Read 2021: Yu Hua’s "To Live" Bilingual Book Discussion

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nea-big-read-2021-yu-huas-to-live-bilingual-book-discussion-tickets-140124398849?aff=erelexpmlt&keep_tld=1

 

Part 2 of the discussion.

Tue, March 16, 2021 10:00 PM – 11:30 PM GMT

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nea-big-read-2021-yu-huas-to-live-bilingual-book-discussion-tickets-140124398849?aff=erelexpmlt&keep_tld=1

 

Free film screening and discussion. NEA Big Read 2021: Bidding Farewell in Zhang Yimou's "To Live"

Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 11:00 PM –Fri, Mar 19, 2021, 12:30 AM GMT  (if too many late nights for one month, the movie is in You Tube and also available in DVD)

 

NEA Big Read 2021: Bidding Farewell in Zhang Yimou’s "To Live" Tickets, Thu, Mar 18, 2021 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite     something went wrong here. Gremlins!!! 

Right link here (the event time is for New York, I think) :

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nea-big-read-2021-bidding-farewell-in-zhang-yimous-to-live-tickets-141207969839?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

 

 

 

[roddy]

Probably a bit late for me, but thanks for posting these!

[amytheorangutan]

Thank you so much @Luxi you're so up to date with all these awesome cultural stuff. I've registered for the film screening and might also check out the part 1 of the discussion. See you there then  

[Luxi]

I 

1 hour ago, amytheorangutan said:

these awesome cultural stuff

 

 It came about because I had some time to kill and decided to have a look at Eventbrite's coming events. I searched for 'Chinese' - and found these!

 

[Luxi]

Did anyone attend the first event ? I'm sorry if you missed it, it really was excellent. It didn't feel like a late night at all, it was very interesting, inspiring and well worth staying up.

 

The session was technically flawless, very clear, the sound was perfect and even had AI built live transcript as subtitles (it did a mess of the Chinese names but otherwise very impressive). The content was superb. This first session was more in Professor Wang's hands. He gave an impressive, clear, well prepared and focused presentation of 活着 in a historical context. It would be very helpful for anyone wanting to read the novel and I hope it will be available somewhere after these events are finished.

[amytheorangutan]

Yes, I was there and managed to rope in one of my ex classmates as well. I thought the Q&A questions were really good. Too bad they only answered 3. 
 

I started to read the book today, so curious after the talk. My friend read China in 10 words in English but I found a Taiwanese version. I wonder if anyone has read it and what you think of it? 

[Luxi]

Glad you were there and enjoyed it Amy!

 

Yes, those were very interesting questions, clever ones. I got an email after the event saying they'll try to answer more questions on the 2nd discussion next week. Looking forward to it.

 

 

[roddy]

I would like to watch these, so dropped them a line and they said the sessions will turn up on their Youtube channel - possibly already there

https://www.youtube.com/user/EldridgeStreetMuseum

[wibr]

@amytheorangutan I'm currently reading the Taiwanese version (十個詞彙裡的中國) and found it to be quite interesting. Since it's my first non-reader book I still have to look up quite a few words but in general it's not too difficult. There is also an old thread about it somewhere.

[amytheorangutan]

@wibr Thanks so much! I think I will put it in my wish list ?

[wibr]

video is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7qBTPng8oM

[Luxi]

That's great news @wibr. 

 

Last night's session was also excellent. It was announced as a live reading, which could have been a bit heavy-going at midnight, but it was a well balanced program of talk and reading, and very enjoyable. The talk included more analysis of the novel and its context. This time Prof. Michael Berry (UCLA) who first translated 活着 into English talked about the translation (it's nice and a rare experience to be able to hear a translator). Prof. Song Mingwei (Wellesley College) knows Yu Hua and talked a bit about the person Yu Hua, that was also very nice, it seems to create a special connection. There was also a comparison between the film and the novel and some explanation of the differences. Time went very fast!

 

I found a very nice version of the audio book 活着 in Ximalaya . It wasn't free but it was quite cheap (9.98 Yuan) and is read beautifully.

 

 

Edited March 11, 2021 at 12:19 PM by Luxi

[roddy]

I note in the 'related videos' side bar a 100 minutes of Yu Hua talking about his Ten Words book, which might also be of interest. He looks to be talking in Chinese with an interpreter off screen. 

[amytheorangutan]

So since we are on this topic. Youtube recommended a video to me that looks interesting. It's a conversation hosted by the China Institute in New York. They discussed the gap between literature in China and the literature that is being brought to the west how it possibly skews and limits western views and knowledge of China. They mentioned Yu Hua as well Lost in Translation: What’s the Problem with Chinese Literature in the West?

 

I think if I'm not mistaken on the first day talk, it was touched very slightly by Prof Wang. 

[Luxi]

That's a good find @amytheorangutan , there seems to be quite a lot of good stuff scattered about. This associated page may help (I had problems following the names of some of the authors they mentioned) - 

Recap: Lost in Translation: What’s the Problem with Chinese Literature in the West?, 2.24.21 | China Institute

 

My You Tube side bar gave me an interview and short reading by Yu Hua from the CCTV1 program 朗读者 

[朗读者第二季]第十二期 余华说自己弃医从文的经历 写小说风格简练原因：我认汉字不多 | CCTV - YouTube 

 

[Guest realmayo]

18 hours ago, amytheorangutan said:

Lost in Translation: What’s the Problem with Chinese Literature in the West?

 

This was actually quite interesting, although I'm none the wiser about what the problem with Chinese Literature in the West actually is! Is there a problem? I mean, almost no one in the West cares about Chinese literature, but why should they? Do typical English readers complain they can't get enough French literature, are German readers desperate to read the latest fiction from Portugal or Ukraine? And at least Western writing will mostly be from the same broad tradition, both cultural and literary. Chinese is of course different, meaning you're probably targeting translations at Westerners who want to read something from China, rather than who want to read something good and don't care where it's from.

 

Also the current cultural turn in the west would appear to be very problematic for white, western translators of non-white, non-western fiction. I saw a couple of translators - into Dutch and Catalan I think - of the poet who did Biden's inauguration had to stop because they were a different skin colour to her. But on the flip side, a Chinese novelist is hardly a marginalised voice - they have a huge audience at home and it's the Western reader, unable to read Chinese, who is the one being cut off without a translator.

 

 

[amytheorangutan]

I think one of their main points is about the selection of literature that are being translated to English, there is just not enough diversity because a lot of publishers wants to publish certain things that they are confident would sell so they keep going around in the same circle of literature that describe how awful life in a communist country is and how brave it is for authors who dare to criticise the government, while those are good points but it starts to get old and paints a weird picture of China for people who doesn’t know much about the country which I think a lot of foreign readers probably don’t know much, so they only see China from these narrow selection of works where everybody either lead an extremely miserable existence or fight government oppression. 

[roddy]

It's a niche concern, yes. It's a niche video, from a niche event, featuring people who (hi guys!) work in a niche field. I'm sure any of us could come up with "The problem with XXXX" events from our own fields, despite said problems being entirely irrelevant to the rest of the planet. 

[Guest realmayo]

Roddy - OK I see, from a translator's point of view there's a problem: they get paid for translating only a narrow band of books, and they'd prefer there was a market for a broader range.

 

Perhaps my mistake was to think about it more from the reader's point of view and I'm not sure they really addressed who a potential reader of translated Chinese fiction might be, what they'd want to read and why.

 

If I remember right, Jianan Qian made the reasonable point that the reason people read Dostoevsky isn't simply because they want to learn about Russia. And Nicky Harman said she was disappointed that the reason her her friend liked a translated book was because of what it told her about contemporary China, rather than because it was a good book.

 

What that seems to suggest is that the market for Chinese fiction translated into English would ideally be mostly people with no particular interest in China (given that most people don't have a particular interest in China).

 

And my earlier question was basically asking - why? Why would a decentish number of English language readers want to read a book originally written in Chinese if they've no particular interest in China?

To which the obvious answer is: because it's a really really really good book - a likely bestseller and/or a classic.

 

Now, leaving classics aside (they will still be classics for a long time so translation can wait), what about bestsellers: are there scores of Chinese novels that would be bestsellers in the west if only they were translated into English?

 

If so, then yes it's weird that publishers are passing up this opportunity to make lots of money.

 

But if in fact the majority of books that the narrow circle of Chinese->English fiction translators would like to see in English:

 

- aren't likely to be bestsellers in English

- aren't likely to be Chinese classics 50 years from now

- aren't particularly illuminating from a "slice of life in China" point of view

... then what are we left with? Quite good novels. But given the fact that there are plenty of quite good novels in English, and those don't pay great, perhaps it's unrealistic to expect sales of a translated quite-good-novel to generate enough money to pay both translator and author.

 

Which makes me think that it's logical that the novels that might pay their way in translation would be those that are "slice of life in China today" books, or "OMG this Chinese author writes about people bonking" books, or, as @amytheorangutan said, books about Communism being not quite the thing.

 

So basically - exoticise the pitch as much as possible if you want people to read quite-good-novels from China! Right?

[amytheorangutan]

I got the time wrong yesterday and logged on just before they finished. Saw that lady from the China Institute. Were you there @Luxi ?