Translating Hong Kong and Taiwan: A Conversation between May Huang and Jenna Tang
Jenna Tang, left, and May Huang.
In this interview, translators Jenna Tang and May Huang discuss their experiences translating contemporary literature in Chinese from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Their conversation touches on the diversity within the Chinese language, translating work that resists compartmentalization, publishing houses in the US and in East Asia, and breaking into the translation world as BIPOC women. Below the interview is a list of resources they’ve compiled for emerging translators working with Taiwan and Hong Kong literature.
May Huang (MH): Hi, Jenna! Thank you for inviting me to be in conversation with you. As emerging translators from Taiwan working in the US, we have a lot in common. We also both got into literary translation in college and received translation mentorships from ALTA. So to kick us off, I wanted to ask: what were your first translation experiences, and how d
In Lina Meruaneâs New Novel, Writerâs Block Is a Symptom of Migrant Trauma
The Chilean novelist Lina Meruane does not draw a firm line between the living and the dead.Credit.Lorena Palavecino
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By Azareen Van Der Viet Oloomi
May 18, 2021
Translated by Megan McDowell
There are verses in Mahmoud Darwishâs âMural,â one of the great Palestinian poetâs late works, that perfectly describe the uncanny disorientation of collective exile and disappearance. To capture the layers of such loss, Darwish nests one verse within another like Russian dolls, so that as the language accumulates it also recedes into eternity:
Opening lines: How the six books shortlisted for the International Booker Prize begin
The winner will be announced on June 2, 2021. The 2021 shortlist. | Courtesy The Booker Prizes.
According to the Booker Prize website, “[r]evolutionary in form, in content and in point of view, the books on this year’s shortlist are all urgent, energetic and wildly original works of literature. The stories told include: terrifying tales of unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women set in contemporary Argentina; the historical account of two Senegalese soldiers fighting for France during the first world war; the lives of the crew working on the Six-Thousand Ship in the 22nd century; stories of the defining moments from the history of science; the exploration of cultural and personal memory, using the author’s Jewish family in Russia as the basis; and a tale of rebellion against power and privilege set during the Protestant Reformation in 16th-
âI love the work of Elizabeth Strout â she can build characters with nothingâ: Samanta Schweblin in Kreuzberg, Berlin, last month. Photograph: Steffen Roth/The Observer
âI love the work of Elizabeth Strout â she can build characters with nothingâ: Samanta Schweblin in Kreuzberg, Berlin, last month. Photograph: Steffen Roth/The Observer
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