The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast

In the one hundredth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are throwing a goodbye party! Friends, listeners, and past guests joined me for a little reminiscing and musing. I drank precisely one beer. The show is going on hiatus, exactly as I've been warning you for the past ten episodes or so.The feed will stay up indefinitely, and it's likely that I will be migrating the hosting to a free service to make that permanent online presence economical.I expect I will return to the show, though it will probably be years from now.再见！It has been a pleasure, pengyous. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/angus-stewart1/message

‘I wrote the asinine words ‘liquor is literature' and ‘people who are strangers to liquor are incapable of talking about literature' when I was good and drunk, and you must not take them to heart.'In the ninety ninth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we're taking a lengthy holiday with Mo Yan in The Republic of Wine, so get your visa stamped and your baijiu in hand. This time there are two discussions. First, sober, with returnees Dylan Levi King and Michelle Deeter. Then, drunk with DLK and poet/translator Martin Winter. Listen all the way through, comrade, to hear two of us curse then proclaim our love for a prominent figure in the field. This is the penultimate episode; the time for tomfoolery is almost over.-// NEWS ITEMS //Tongueless by Lau Yee-waHelen Wang interviews Sabina KnightMourning a Breast by Xi Xi-// WORD OF THE DAY //(酒量 – jiǔliàng – capacity for liquor)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //The Diary of a Madman - Lu XunLapvona - Ottessa Moshfegh // (plus her stories set in Yunnan, Xinjiang, and Jiangsu)UK's Eat Out to Help Out & Japanese govt's Sake Viva! driveCannibalism in Joyce and Mo YanPostsocialism and Cultural Politics

I supposed every last one of this country's 1.3 billion inhabitants all had their own obsessions with the giant germ cell.In the ninety eighth episode of the Translated Chinese fiction podcast I am joined by two fine fellows, Shi Yifeng and contributing translator Carson Ramsdell. All a-puff with imperial gusto, we leaf through The Book of Beijing to discuss three of the stories collected within: Han Song's Reunion ( 北京西站，春节之前 - běijīng xī zhàn, chūnjié zhīqián - tr. Ramsdell 先生), Xu Kun's Dogshit Football (狗日的足球 - gǒurì de zúqiú), and Mr Shi's own Is Mr Zhang Home? (张先生在家么 - zhāng xiānshēng zàijiā me). Prepare to shiver, to snicker, and to squeal – but not necessarily in that order.-// NEWS ITEMS //My Cat Hates Me bags gold graphic novel prize in the 2023 IBPA Benjamin Franklin AwardsTaiwanPlus News speaks to Jenna Tang about First Love ParadiseChengdu Worldcon happened – seems to have gone well!-// WORD OF THE DAY //(复杂 – fùzá – complexity)(壮美 – zhuàngměi – magnificent)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Parallel episode on Mu Ming's Express to Beijing West Railway StationShanghai's strange ‘foreign towns'Mark Fisher's The Weird and the Eerie-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘Starting to write a suicide note would be too melodramatic. If she wrote it, it would only contain one line: This love makes me so uncomfortable.'In the ninety seventh episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are passing the gates of Fang Si-Chi's First Love Paradise (房思琪的初戀樂園- fáng sī qí de chūliàn lèyuán), an all-too-real #MeToo novel by the late Lin Yi-han, centred around the titular girl and the cram school teacher who abused her all through her teens. Reflecting with me on the troubling nature of the text and the dark realities it holds a mirror to is its translator, Jenna Tang.-// NEWS ITEMS //A new fiendish rival? The China Books Review launchesCambria Press publishes translation Liu Na'ou's Urban ScenesAvant garde champion Can Xue doesn't get the Nobel Lit Prize… this timeREAD: Heart by Shuang Xuetao (tr. Jeremy Tiang)-// WORD OF THE DAY //(樂園 – lèyuán – paradise)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //The pedophile art teacher from Angus' secondary schoolBlack Box by Siori OtoThe Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas RijneveldLolita by Vladimir Nabokov-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘the man spun instinctively to face them, both hands covering his chest, looking almost sorrowful as blood glazed his fingers'In the ninety sixth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are entering into dialogue with bioscientist-turned-historical-fictioneer Chen Yao-chang and translator Chen Tung-jung to learn how they cultivated Puppet Flower: A Novel of 1867 Formosa (傀儡花 - kuǐlěi huā), to see if we can arrive at a peaceful settlement between the native people of southern Taiwan, their absentee Qing administrators, and the diverse Western powers creeping ever closer. Oh, and the other people on the island. You know – the Hakka, the Hokkien, the Han… have you lost count yet?-// NEWS ITEMS //Sinoist Books is hitting the road for a UK tourThe Book of Beijing is coming to ManchesterThe Little Red Podcast does a Chinese sci-fi episode-// WORDs OF THE DAY //(真 – zhēn – truth)(Formosa – 福尔摩沙 – Portuguese for ‘beautiful')-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //The Rover Incident and the Hengchun PeninsulaChen Yao-chang's place in stem cell historyThe efforts of Le Gendre and other westerners to map southern TaiwanThe TV adaptation: Seqalu: Formosa 1867-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM ⛰️ TWITTER ⛰️ DISCORD

Trembling hands seem to check for the forgotten secret language. Withered bodies, like finding some long-forgotten receipt. Where have you been all these years? The mountains echo again, spring's call is finally answered: I am the secret language you forgot. You are my lost credentials.In the ninety fifth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are embarking on My Travels in Ding Yi (我的丁一之旅 - wǒ de dīng yī zhīlǚ). This is one of the later works in the life of Shi Tiesheng, an idiosyncratic writer best remembered as being a ‘disabled writer' but better remembered as something far more multifaceted. Peer in from another mind, another world, as academic Chloë Starr and I confer with Christ and become embodied with Budda. Perhaps, somehow, we'll puzzle out our brief roles on the stage play of existence.-// NEWS ITEMS //New short Chen Qiufan interview on AIChi Ta-wei's The Membranes optioned for film adaptation(!)Intriguing academic book: Strange Tales from Edo by William D. Fleming-// WORD OF THE DAY //(心识不死 – xīn shì bùsǐ – the spirit never dies)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Chloë's paper: Shi Tiesheng and the Nature of the HumanThe Cultural Christian movement in ChinaWhat We Owe the Future by Willam McAskillLife on a String (1991, Chen Kaige) - an adaptation of Shi Tiesheng's 命若琴弦-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM ⛪ TWITTER ⛪ DISCORD

In the space marked ‘pregnant', the machine had quite clearly printed the word ‘no'In the ninety fourth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are entering election season. The heroine of Li Er novel Cherries on a Pomegranate Tree (石榴树上结樱桃 - shíliú shù shàng jié yīngtáo) is defending her seat, and that will mean enforcing various policies (including a certain one child policy) while keeping the people sweet. Canvassing with me on this one is the translator, spitting dog himself Dave Haysom.-// NEWS ITEMS //LISTICLE: Paul French's TrChFic beach readsWATCH: a one hour interview with Yan GeJOIN IN: help TrChFic (v1) end in style-// WORD OF THE DAY //(狗 - gǒu - dog)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Wen Zhen short story collection: Nothing but the NowJT's Li Er translation, ColoraturaPathlight magazineVillage elections-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘It's just life, right? One place is as good as another'In the ninety third episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are Running through Beijing (跑步穿过中关村 - pǎobù chuānguò zhōngguāncūn) in the loping style of 70后 hero Xu Zechen. At the fabled finishing line – observing us wryly, beer and chuan'er in hand – is the translator, Eric Abrahamsen of Paper Republic fame. Insert your porn DVD, stamp your hukou, and - most importantly – find somewhere to sleep tonight.-// NEWS ITEMS //WATCH: Two queens discuss their translation of Lu Min's Dinner for SixBORROW: University librarians take note: new tome incomingREAD: A Sailor on the Ferry

‘I've never broken any rules, not even rules at school. Why would I blackmail someone?''In the ninety second episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are getting duped by Bad Kids (坏孩子 - huài háizi). Fleeing the proverbial orphanage with me is the book's translator, Michelle Deeter, here to mark a breadcrumb trail through the dark children's palace that author Zijin Chen has constructed for the benefit and perturbation of all.-// NEWS ITEMS //READ: 'The Sacred Clan': Liang Hong turns to fiction to explore rural ChinaREAD: The Bug Princess by Yang ShuangziVISIT: an exhibit on poet Su Shi at West Lake Museum in Hangzhou-// WORD OF THE DAY //(骄傲 – jiāo'ào – pride)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Children's palaces of China and the Soviet UnionThe Untouched Crime, also by Zijin ChenAmazon Crossing's translated Chinese titles-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘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 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.-// NEWS ITEMS //the Qiu Jin affair - a #namethetranslator incidentMachine Decision is Not Final - new theory-fiction sci-fi allstar texta Xu Xiaobin reading from Paper RepublicSinoist Books northern expedition incoming, keep your eyes peeled-// WORD OF THE DAY //(悟 – wù – understand, enlighten, awaken)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Dear Chrysanthemums: a novel in storiesIn Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural ChinaSunset Song by Lewis Grassic GibbonLi Juan, another rural writer-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘I felt that in action and in lore, one and all were far above me; that in spite of the majesty of my manliness, I could not, in point of fact, compare with these characters of the gentle sex'Share your feedback by email: thetranslatedchinesefictionpodcast@outlookAs this show draws only ten episodes short of its ascent to heavenly hiatus, let us call down from those lofty vapours a sad and beautiful tale, a story of a stone, The Dream of the Red Chamber. Musing with me in the aristocratic compound is another host: Annie Qu, a genuine Bilibili literati. Much like Cao Xueqin, I considered myself lucky to be in the presence of such a refined lady, as we discussed the continuing relevance of this classic of classics to ideas concerning high culture, gender norms, and all the frivolous imaginings we spend our brief lives upon.-// NEWS ITEMS //Zijin Chen's Bad Kids, translated by Michelle Deeter, gets a shortlist spotLu Xun short story Kong Yiji cited in PRC education/employment discussionsWatch: Jing Tsu's Asia society talk on Kingdom of Characters-// WORD OF THE DAY //(美 – měi – beauty/aesthetics)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //The Second Sex by Simone de BeauvoirXianqing Ou Ji and The Importance of LivingFamily by Ba Jinthe final 40 chapters controversyQing/Qi/Shu Hua: the four arts-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘The man in the bed looks at her. An enormous force seems to be pulling him into a world behind him, a world whose gates will soon be shut forever. She strokes his forehead gently.'In the eighty ninth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are enfolding ourselves within Cocoon, the dreamlike and sometimes upsetting dual-bildungsroman and return to realism by post-85 author Zhang Yueran. Lost with me (yet ever so far away) somewhere in the low-hanging fog is the book's translator, Jeremy Tiang. All time is one time, you poor thing; so join us, that we may better navigate it.-// NEWS ITEMS //Meta news: We're not blocked!(?)A new Condor Heroes film is in the worksREAD: an excerpt of Cloudland by Wu Ming-yi-// WORD OF THE DAY //(茧 – jiǎn – cocoon)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Scar literature - Cultural Revolution trauma writingChinese writers at the Iowa Writers' Workshop (a long history)The Crow Road & The Wasp Factory by Iain BanksThe Promise Bird by Zhang Yueran-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

How would I explain to my friend that my creations belonged to a totally different woman?In episode eighty eight of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are isolated in Hong Kong, experiencing Quarantine and all of the strange dreams that come with it. Are you me? Am I you? Do I wish I were you? Do you wish you were me, talking to Natascha Bruce, the razor-sharp translator of Dorothy Tse, about time, desire, and bottomless holes – is that your magic wish?-// NEWS ITEMS //Wang Xiaobo's Golden Age finally arrives in English translationTrChFic ep on Taipei People now fully transcribed – and all eps AI-transcribed!Liu Cixin speaks at the UN's Chinese Language Day celebrations – with an intro from Mingwei Song-// WORD OF THE DAY //(靜雞雞的 – jìng jī jī de – softly, chickenly)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Doubles and identity in Mulholland Drive & Lost HighwayUn Chien Andalou - Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel's 17 minutes of strangenessOwlish by Dorothy TseXi Xi and Can Xue - kindred spirits to Dorothy-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘This kind of “respect” can be a slow-acting poison. When a person gets used to being “respected”, that's when she is in danger'In the eighty seventh episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are undertaking hard Graft. Betraying little more than a glance askance, Li Peifu shows us how corporate, state, and personal interests fuse all too comfortably. Guanxi-grinding with me is humble translator and noted Sweeney-enjoyer, James Trapp.-// NEWS ITEMS //READ: Massachusetts Review publishes Chiou Charng-Ting's Raining Zebra FinchesWATCH: Book club discussion of Jia Pingwa's Backflow River 倒流河LISTEN: My nemesis tackles poetry from Dalian sex workers-// WORD OF THE DAY //(秀 – xiù – refined/ear of grain)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //90s -> 10s education policy on foreign language education in England80s & 90s corruption in ChinaJeffrey Kinkley's writing on corruption fictionAphantasia - the inability to form mental imagesZhang Ping - a notable anti-corruption fiction author-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

The U.S. fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf hadn't had time to react. Now it, too, was in flames.In the eighty sixth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are committing Quantum Genocide. Granting our 2019 chat a sequel, Chen Qiufan & I discuss the demonic wildcard of his 10 stories in AI 2041 (an idiosyncratic blend of fictional and non-fictional speculation co-authored alongside tech god Kai-fu Lee). California burns, the 1% are slaughtered like dogs, and a new dark age commences. Boot up, log in, and accelerate.-// NEWS ITEMS //Read: How does Chinese science fiction tell China's global strategy? Analysis by LSE China ForesightRead: Matt Turner's preface to his translation of Lu Xun's Weeds: what is the advantage of another translation?Listen: John Minford on four classics of Chinese literature that he believes best reveal the old civilisation and the heart & spirit of Chinese people today.Read: Emily Xueni Jin reviews the development of sci-fi in China and how a new generation of authors is domesticating the genre by focusing on traditionsEvent: Online book club meeting on Cherries on a Pomegranate Tree, written by Li Er and translated by Dave Haysom (& to be published on 27th February)-// WORD OF THE DAY //(缠 – chán – to be haunted/to be entangled)-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM ⚛️ TWITTER ⚛️ DISCORD

‘The final cut – the coup de grace – entered Qian's heart, from which black blood the colour and consistency of melted malt sugar slid down the knife blade'In the eighty fifth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are experiencing the lacerating pains of Sandalwood Death, as dealt to us by Nobel literature prizewinner Mo Yan. It's time to rip Shandong Province apart in a rebellion for the songbooks. Weapon in hand, the Sun Wukong to my Yue Fei is translator Stefan Rusinov. We laugh, we brood, we hallucinate, and we shake our fists at the craven villain Yuan Shikai, all the while pondering: is torture an artform?-// NEWS ITEMS //A Record of My Battle with the Virus by Han Song, translated by Michael BerryXi Xi: Can We Say // a special issue on the recently late writerGu Long's Blood Parrot, translated by DeathbladeSCMP takes a look at the new prequel to The Wandering Earth-// WORD OF THE DAY //(喵 – miāo – meow)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Gao Xingjian - another Han nobel lit prize winnerMo Yan's Life and Death Are Wearing Me OutJiaozhou, Imperial Germany's Shandong colonyStefan's previous TrChFic appearance, discussing Can Xue-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘Generation after generation, people have lived in this massive sick ward we call the universe 'In the eighty fourth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are lost deep inside Hospital, the first entry in an abyssal trilogy by show favourite Han Song. Old-time wardmates Michael Berry and Mingwei Song are here too, groaning in the darkness.-// NEWS ITEMS //Tencent's Three Body Problem series arrives… on Youtube!A podcast interview w/ Yan Ge & Jeremy Tiang on Strange Beasts of ChinaBookshop.org puts out a Lunar New Year reading list

‘I am clearly an exemplary specimen of a cat, but lately I've been pondering something: what does a human do to be regarded as exemplary?''In the eighty third episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are getting garfed on by My Cat Hates Me, the webcomic-turned print book by Bai Cha. Keeping the menagerie in line on this episode is Jemma Stafford, translator of the book and also quite a number of video games. So don your catboy ears, say ‘miaomiao~', and brace yourself for a heady dosage of internet animal culture.-// NEWS ITEMS //Translation of Eileen Chang's Written on Water to be republished by NYRBRiverhead Books appoints an editor to specialise in translated Chinese worksJourney Planet magazine publishes Chinese sci-fi issue-// WORD OF THE DAY //(不作不死 – bù zuò bù sǐ – no zuo no die, ie. one would not be in trouble had one not asked for it)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Anime Cafe Host reviews My Cat Hates MeBristol Translates, and their workshopsGujian 3 and Chinese PaladinZen Cats, a purrfect Buddhist text-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

‘If you lived in one of the lanes of Puxi, the moment you stepped out your door, you would find yourself in the thick of urban life in all its boisterous variety. You could go around wearing a blindfold and earplugs, and you still wouldn't be able to block out the sights and sounds of the city or shield yourself from the onslaught of knowledge.'' In the eighty second episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are paying a visit to The Sanctimonious Cobbler, a novella by Wang Anyi which can be read in By the River: Seven Contemporary Chinese Novellas. Wandering with me down the longtang to cast an eye across the little affairs and petites affaires of shopkeeper Shanghai is friend of the pod and Malta-based scholar Lehyla Heward. - // NEWS ITEMS // Sign up to Louise Law's Ark E Newsletter for updates on Hong Kong lit Durham University's Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies joins Twitter (at this late hour) Former Lu Xun haunt Uchiyama Bookstore reopens (Sources: Ting Guo, China Plus, Shine) Two Lines Press announces translation of Xu Zechen's Beijing Sprawl, plus a reissue of his Running Through Beijing - // WORD OF THE DAY // (中篇小说 - zhōngpiān xiǎoshuō - novella/novelette) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Kirk Denton's Modern Chinese Literary Thought the foreign graveyard in Jing'an & Xujiahui's Catholic history the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature One Evening in the Rainy Season by Shi Zhecun Comma Press' The Book of Shanghai and my episode on it The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic // The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM

A star's coming of age was the process of slowly getting uglier. In the eighty first episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, writer/researcher Yen Ooi and I are gazing up at The Stars We Raised (逃跑星辰 / táopǎo xīngchén), a short story by Xiu Xinyu featured in the all-women + nonbinary anthology The Way Spring Arrives. Once more, a Chinese science fiction story is taking us down to the countryside for melancholy reflections on the pains of growing up. Yen and I dig into the pains of publishing too, from gender to generation and from style to synthesis. - // NEWS ITEMS // I will be hosting Sinoist Books' November 2022 Book Club on Li Peifu's Graft Yan Ge's next book Elsewhere is incoming – and it's not a translation New academic anthology Readings in Chinese Women's Philosophical and Feminist Thought could make for a decent Christmas present, if you've got a spare £90 - // WORD OF THE DAY // (仁 - rén - human kind(ness)) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Yen's musical pairing: Debussy - Suite bergamasque, L. 75 - I. Prélude Angus' musical pairing: Breaking Benjamin - Had Enough (live, acoustic) Rén 仁 by Yen Ooi UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers The Beijing of Possibilities by Jonathan Tel We Could Not See the Stars by Elizabeth Wong Early publications of translated Chinese sci-fi: Han Song's The Wheel of Samsara & Zhao Haihong's Exuviation Chaohuan 超幻 articles: [The “Ultra-unreal” in Chinese Literature - China Channel] // [Modern China is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre - LitHub] // [Nine sci-fi subgenres to help you understand the future - Quartz] Brain Mill Press' Ab Terra series - joint-edited by Yen and featuring my short story Meta-Shanghai The Leeds Uni Chinese Genre Fiction Symposium & Essence of Wonder Chinese Sci-fi virtual event A Journey to the Narrative Design in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once' by Yen Ooi & Christy Deno China's (now somewhat kibosh-ed) 996 working hour system - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic // The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM

‘In the same spot where Father died, the dead body of a deer lay prostrate in the rain.' In the eightieth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, it's Raining Zebra Finches (斑胸草雀 / bān xiōng cǎo què). Blame for this troubling meteorological occurrence falls upon Taiwanese author Chiou Charng-Ting; it's her story. Under the weather with me is her translator, May Huang. In our discussion we'll be testing the limits of our earthly knowledge and dreaming of other philosophies. When nature stops hiding and springs the inexplicable upon us, where else is there to turn? - // NEWS ITEMS // Balestier Press publishes The Pidgin Warrior, David Hull's translation of a kung fu satire written in the 1930s by Zhang Tianyi A horror followup to Sinopticon, titled Sinophagia, is on the way Can Xue's Mystery Train published by Sublunary Editions on Oct 18th - // WORD OF THE DAY // (梅雨季 - méiyǔ jì - plum rain season) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Angus' musical pairing: The Alien from the Annihilation OST May's musical pairings: Ivy by Taylor Swift & Mother's Daughter by Miley Cyrus Fang Si-Chi's First Love Paradise by Lin Yi-Han Jeff Vandermeer's Area X/Southern Reach Trilogy Owlish by Dorothy Tse (tr. Natascha Bruce) Quantum entangled communication in His Dark Materials Plato's allegory of the cave - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic // The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM

‘History is nothing more than a complex construction of records and observations' In the seventy ninth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction podcast, we're riding the Express to Beijing West Railway Station, and I'll be buying my ticket from none other than the author herself, Mu Ming. En route we'll be passing by the scenic works of William Blake and Christopher Nolan, and pondering whether Shakespeare and Lu Xun would make good Netflix writers. Long-time TrChFic listeners will also already know all-too-well: you're going to hear me enthuse about trains. Sorry. - // NEWS ITEMS // WATCH: Qiufan Chen on How Chinese Science Fiction Imagines Our Future WATCH: Gloria S Tseng on Biblical Imagery in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Literature READ: a new issue of Chinese Literature and Thought Today with a newly translated Han Song story & an essay on Little Smarty Travels to the Future - // WORD OF THE DAY // (想象力 - xiǎngxiànglì - imagination) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Mu Ming's musial pairing: The Grandmaster OST Angus' musical pairing: The End Where We Start by The Black Queen The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard Hemming The Dragon by Ray Bradbury Good Hunting by Ken Liu The Serpentine Band 宛转环 by Mu Ming herself The Snow of Jinyang 晋阳三尺雪 by Zhang Ran Vital: The Future of Healthcare - a sci fi anthology Kaili Blues 路边野餐 (2015, dir Bi Gan) - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic // The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM

‘Then each Boxer lad who loves fighting and fun, let him follow the bonnets of bonnie Prince Tuan' In the seventy eighth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are riding to war behind Bonnie Prince Tuan, a poem by a Chinese Scotiaphile that draws a parallel between two sets of rebels: the Jacobites of the Scottish highlands and the Boxers of northern China. There's no point denying it – this is some pretty weird stuff. Here to lend some Boxer brawn to my Jacobean jesting is Lee Moore of the Chinese Literature Podcast – a show that has already devoted an episode to this madness. - // NEWS ITEMS // Bad Kids by Chen Zijin, a new Michelle Deeter translation, is out! Shaanxi Opera by Jia Pingawa, a new Nicky Harman + Dylan Levi King translation, is out! Found in Translation - Nicky Harman considers the state of translated Chinese lit Why do China books all look the same? - an article from The China Project (formerly SupChina) A third translation of Lu Xun's Wild Grass enters the world - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (廣記不如淡墨  - guǎng jì bùrú dàn mò - the best memory is not as good as the palest ink) (雅各布派 - yǎ gè bù pài - Jacobite) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Angus' musical pairings: Wolves of Winter by Biffy Clyro, and I'm Shipping up to Boston by Dropkick Murphyd Lee's musical pairing: Ride my Monster by Enter the Haggis My episode with Sinoist Books' Daniel Lee on A Looking-Glass World The Jacobite risings led by Bonnie Dundee and Bonnie Prince Charles The Boxer rebellions of 1899-1901 Mo Yan's Sandalwood Death Can Xue and Kafka - here discussed by Stella Zhu The Hook - Richard Stark AKA Donald Westlake - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic // The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM

“You can give me your empty words if you like; I've come to fill out the forms permitting us to withdraw from society.” In the seventy seventh episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are turning our cheek to Lenin's Kisses (受活 / shòu huó) by Yan Lianke. Yes, I'm finally dealing with him – and not alone. Piotr Machajek is here to show me how to Liven, as we look into the pros and cons of entering and retreating from a society that just cannot leave things be.  - // NEWS ITEMS // Wang Xiaobo's Golden Age gets a retranslation & a spot in the NYT Mildly interesting: a 2005 poll comparing expert & popular rankings of Chinese authors Wang Shuo appears to enter Twitter and announce a new book Paper Republic profiles Fujianese poet Wu Ang - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (狗带 - gǒu dài  - go die) (入世，出世 - rùshì, chūshì - enter society, withdraw from society) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Angus' musical pairing - Nevergreen by Emancipator Piotr's musical pairing - The Perfect Revival Plan by Zhang Ling - 我是老张BIG JOHN Jiayang Fan in the New Yorker: Yan Lianke's Forbidden Satires of China the concept of ‘habitus' in Bordieu's thought the concept of ‘biopolitics' in Focault's thought Karl Marx's thoughts on division of labour Reference News - a heritage PRC newspaper covering ‘the outside world' the commodification of Mao Zedong & Maoism Recommended readings: Dream of Ding Village & Happy Dreams & Death Fugue & Northern Girls - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic // The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM ⛰️ TWITTER ⛰️ DISCORD ⛰️ HOMEPAGE

“Unmasking a universally accepted lie or overturning an irreplaceable idol will produce something akin to a mental collapse.” In the seventy sixth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are hitting Zero (零 / líng). Joining me on deck are The Hugonauts, as we navigate a dystopian world that might be a postmodern riff on 1984 by amorphous author Huang Fan, or might be something far more sinister. All seasoned rebels know: sometimes you crash the system, and sometimes the system crashes you. - // NEWS ITEMS // READ: Cao Kou's The Wall Builder, translated by a pair of familiar names Can Xue's Mystery Train now available for preorder in the US Yan Ge nears the end of draft 1 of a new (in a sense) Chinese language novel  SFRA publishes Xi Liu's Stories on Sexual Violence as “Thought Experiments”: Post-1990s Chinese Science Fiction as an Example East Asian astroturf: a flood of “books” on Taiwan, China, and Nancy Pelosi hits Amazon - // WORD OF THE DAY // (理 - lǐ  - reason) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Angus' musical pairing: Way out of Here by Porcupine Tree The ‘four industrial revolutions' theory The PRC's blocking of Wikipedia and efforts to ‘delete' Tiananmen 1989 from collective memory Postwar Taiwan as a US-backed, far-right dictatorship Hao Jingfang's Folding Beijing and its win at The Hugo Awards - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic // The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM 0️⃣ TWITTER 0️⃣ DISCORD 0️⃣ HOMEPAGE

“Are you going to let your son die for nothing?” In the seventy fifth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are surviving The Curse (杨村的一则诅咒 / yáng cūn de yī zé zǔzhòu). My partner for this investigation is literary Sinologist Jeffrey Kinkley. What exactly are we dealing with here? A tale of a backfiring curse, or a backfiring society? For realist writing to penetrate our often nightmarish world and scratch The Real, does it have to get weird first? Detective K and I are on the case. Don't expect comforting answers. - // NEWS ITEMS // Next London Chinese Sci-fi Group meeting on July 31st: The Strange Girl by Xiu Xinyu, tr Emily Jin Caroline Jortay announces publication date for HK Lit anthology from Editions Jentayu Chinese woman wrote her own alternate history of Russia on Wikipedia - // WORD OF THE DAY // (游离 - yóulí  - to disassociate) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Rudolph Wagner on Chinese Scifi as Lobby Literature The Woodpecker, the Chinese justice ministry's literary journal L'Étranger, by Albert Camus Two Lives - a recent A Yi short story collection Jeffrey's own Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic // The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM

There is a saying that accurately describes Young Master Zhou's state of mind: “Willing to die beneath the flower and linger as an amorous ghost” In the seventy fourth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are dallying with The Fox Spirit of Bluestone Mountain (狐狸緣全傳 / yúlí yuán quánchuán). Arriving just in time to save us from the spirit's wiles is translator Timothy Gouldthorp. Straighten your tails, grab a Taoist 不可以色色 bonk stick, and line up for battle as the creatures of the forest (rabbits included) take on the gods! - // NEWS ITEMS // See Angus in the (pixelated) flesh in a recording of Sinoist's Empires of Dust book club meeting Fragments of Bogna Konoir's writing on Three Body Theory buried as Easter Eggs in a spooky virtual exhibition Sheng Keyi's The Wombs of China in I Know What's Best For You All Over the World The 8th Bai Meigui Translation Competition is now open! - // WORD OF THE DAY // (缘分 - yuánfèn - karmic affinity) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Journey to the West and its various adaptations  Dracula and his kind's fiendish predilections Also from Camphor Press: The Flock of Ba-Hui and Other Stories The Fujian/Taiwan/LGBT rabbit cult - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM

‘This cartoon will never end' In the seventy third episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, Eero Suoranta and I are saying Farewell, Doraemon (再见，哆啦A梦 / zàijiàn, duōlaAmèng). This is the second time a story by A Que has appeared on the show, and I feel that I now know the writer's soul: tender in spirit, thoughtful in action, of limpid and eerie atmosphere, and shy about everything except postmodern intertextual showmanship. Pass with us through a loop in time hidden in a lonely river, to drown in nostalgia (from the Greek nostos ‘return home' + algos ‘pain'). - // NEWS ITEMS // READ: a review of Zhang Yueran's Cocoon, tr. Jeremy Tiang WATCH: Ma Yuan: The Chinese Avant-garde, Metafiction and Post-postmodernism ATTEND: the Festival of Chinese Translation at Aberdeen Uni META NEWS: I'll be hosting an event on Empires of Dust - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (动画 - dònghuà - animation ) (90后 - jiǔ líng hòu - 90s kids) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Eero's musical pairing: Moonmin Took My Head by Ritual Angus' musical pairing: Roads by Portishead Video CDs Cara Healey's theory of generic hybridity Flower of the Other Shore Ye Yonglie's Little Smarty Finnconn 2022 Sadan aaveen öinen paraati - Xia Jia's A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight, in Finnish - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

‘Because of sleepwalking, over one billion Chinese people have awakened' In the seventy second episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast I'm facing down a bleak reality: My Country Does Not Dream (韩松 我的祖国不要做梦 / wǒde zǔguó bù zuò mèng). But I'm not doing it alone! The London Chinese Science Fiction Group have deployed a team of Han Song aficionados (and one critic) to console my exhausted brain as the daytime hours fall away, revealing a sombre somnambulant city behind the city: Beijing. - // NEWS ITEMS // Article in Sixth Tone: Infinite Scroll: The Making of China's Web Fiction Epics Words from Shen Yang in Telegraph article: What life's really like in locked-down Shanghai Short story Meta-Shanghai by Angus himself is published in Ab Terra 2021 Watch/Listen as Jack Hargreaves reads from Chen Chuncheng's Submarines in the Night - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (梦游 - mèngyóu - sleepwalking) (吊儿郎当 - diào'er lángdāng - sloppiness) (躺平 - tǎngpíng - lie flat, as resistance to the 996 work system) (闭眼 - bì yǎn - eyes closed) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Jin's musical pairing: Space - Just Blue (1978) (the theme tune from CCTV's Animal World 动物世界) Scarlet's musical pairing: 我们走在大路上 - We Walk on the Great Road [Cultural Revolution version]  Terminator (Danny C remix) from Mark Fisher's accelerationism mix New wave scifi, and emergence of the New Weird in the 90s Guangzhao's writeup of his group's event on this story 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep by Jonathan Crary The forthcoming English translations of Han Song's Hospital trilogy China 2185: Liu Cixin's cyberpunk novel - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

All the magic lay within their own bodies In the seventy first episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are stepping into A Looking Glass World (单筒望远镜 / Dāntǒng Wàngyuǎnjìng). This is our second encounter with Tianjin's bard Feng Jicai, and our first (sort of!) with his publisher-in-translation, Daniel Li of Sinoist Books. - // NEWS ITEMS // Generations of Voices in Chinese Literature: a panel hosted by The World of Chinese New Sino-SF just dropped: New Voices in Chinese Science Fiction Shenyang in translation: Rouge Street by Shaung Xuetao tr. JT himself - // WORD OF THE DAY // (庚子年 - gēng zi nián - gengzi year AKA the year of the metal rat) (from the 60 year cycle of the Chinese calendar) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Skedaddle - a font with Victorian hotel vibes Sinoist Books' new subscription package Paul Richardson & Chu Xiaoying's 2015 market report on Chinese publishing the post cultural-revolution scar literature movement the Feng Jicai institute 天津大学冯骥才文学艺术研究院 - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

‘There is never anything so difficult that it cannot be resolved' In the seventieth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are taking part in The Adventures of Ma Suzhen (马素贞复仇记 / Mǎ Sùzhēn Fùchóu Jì). From the backwaters of Shandong to the criminal dens of Shanghai, stout man of Oxford Paul Bevan leads me on a quest for vengeance that is little known in the west, yet part of an entire extended universe of Sinophone multimedia culture. - // NEWS ITEMS // PODCAST: Sabina Knight on Daoism, Confucianism & Anti- War Poetry INTERVIEW: My Crime, Being Born Illegal - Shen Yang in Conversation with Nicky Harman FICTION: The Old Cicada by Can Xue - now readable online, for free EVENT: Hard Roads an Cauld Hairst Winds: translations from Ancient China with Brian - // WORD OF THE DAY // (女 - nv - woman) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Paul's musical pairing: Mulian Rescues his Mother from Hell Angus' musial pairings: Shit Can Happen - D12 and The Round Sun and Crescent Moon in the Sky - Kronos Quartet The much-derided Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies literary genre Ma Yongzhen, a real life Shandong badass Wuxia and Jin Yong Central Shanghai's artsy street: Fuzhou Lu Cai Guoqiang 蔡国强 - Fujian firework artist - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

You couldn't get to grips with fate, but the enemy you could see and touch was your own body In the sixty ninth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are riding with The Women, the Camels, and the Dholes, one of the stories contained within the Selected Stories of Xue Mo (雪漠小说精选 / Xuěmò Xiǎoshuō Jīngxuǎn). Two women are joining me on this trek: audiobook producer Nicola Clayton and voice actor Sarah Lam. In this tale we get material, we get Buddhist, we get into self-help, we get really close to death, and we take up a rifle loaded with... weirdly sentient bullets. It will make sense when we explain it… maybe… - // NEWS ITEMS // BUY: The Paper Republic Guide to Chinese Literature LISTEN: Craig Clunas on Sigmund Freud's Chinese Collection LISTEN/WATCH: Jing Tsu & Dan Russell on Kingdom of Characters READ: Ecocriticism and Chinese Literature: Imagined Landscapes and Real Lived Spaces - // WORD OF THE DAY // (生存 - shēng cún - to exist, to survive) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Nicola's cinematic pairings: All is Lost (2013, dir. JC Chandor) and Tracks (2013, dir. John Curran) Angus' musical pairing: 万物生 Alive - 萨顶顶 Sa Dingding Gansu - Xue Mo's home province The Holy Monk and the Spirit Woman - the book Xue Mo wrote about a figure from Tibetan history who inspired him. Note that this link leads to a page on Xue Mo's own website The Inspector Chen Mysteries - the BBC Radio 4 series featuring Sarah! The Leeds Centre January 2022 Author of the Month (it's our guy XM) Xue Mo's: Twitter, and Instagram, and Pinterest, and his entry on Paper Republic - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

In-your-face. I want more in-your-face, if you please. In the sixty eighth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are being Raised by Wolves (狼養的 / Láng Yǎng De), just like Amang and her translator Steve Bradbury. Revel in trash. Bound down a mountain. Take a ride on a nuclear sub. Argue furiously in favour of your preferred adverb. Do all these things, and you will channel the spirit of the wolf. - // NEWS ITEMS // READ: Tiffany Troy talks to author Sheng Keyi about Death Fugue LISTEN: Sinica's Kaiser Kuo interviews author Megan Walsh about ‘what China is reading' MY FIENDISH RIVALS… are running an amazing Lu Xun series, with awesome guests META-NEWS: I have restored a VPN-off option for listeners in the PRC - // WORD OF THE DAY // (狼養 - láng yǎng de - raised by wolves) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Steve's music choice: Lisa Rose - Hook and Eye - (w/ music video by Amang herself!) Angus' music choice: Potty Mouth - The Gap New Directions - publishers of poetry Hong Hong - a poet Alastair Reid - a translator Ezra Pound - a Tim Budong Vermont - a poetry fortress Trident - London govt's nukes, in Scotland - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

Maybe I would only begin to understand these things when I became fatherless too, having no-one to lean on, the bitter solitude of not knowing what you ought to say before the world In the sixty seventh of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are going Faraway (遠方 / Yuǎnfāng) with Lo Yi-Chin. Lighting lamps with me as time, memory, and family dissolve into an indistinct fog is the writer, translator, and mega-linguist Jenna Tang. - // NEWS ITEMS // Paul French is back on British radio with A Chinese Odyssey: Artists, Poets and Exiles in Interwar London - streaming online for 1 year+ Sinoist Books' Longevity Park bags a spot in the Dublin Literary Award Runlist Sinoist Books announce lineup of 4 new titles Chinese language podcast Loud Murmurs goes dark Jennifer Feeley translates Xi Xi's concrete poem Thicket of Green Grass for the new Tiger Year - // WORD OF THE DAY // (遠方 - yuǎnfāng - far away (or should it be ‘faraway'?) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Wintry Night 寒夜 by Li Qiao 李喬 Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu 1988: I Want to Talk with the World by Han Han Bo Ke Lai 博客來 - International Taiwanese bookstore 海外專館 Taiwanese writers Jian Zheng 簡媜 and Qi Jun 琦君 - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

The rocking of the boat created the illusion that all the lights were moving In the sixty sixth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are adrift in Hong Kong Nights (香港之夜 / Xiāng Gǎng Zhīyè), as fleetingly recollected by Sichuan's long-surviving left-anarchist writer, Ba Jin. Joining me in the constellations is fellow Sino-lit podcaster Luo Tianqi – here to talk about revolution, regret, and responsibility. Grab a seat on deck, comrade, brush up on your Bakunin, and let go of your transient identity as sights become sounds, and sounds become sights. - // NEWS ITEMS // Lu Xun's The True Story of Ah Q to broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on January 26 The Sons of Red Lake and Chinese Elemental Philosophy - Sinoist Books' blog The Way Spring Arrives gets a beautiful Chinese edition A dialogue between past and future show guests Mike Fu and Jenna Tang KakaoEntertainment buys Wuxiaworld - plus thoughts from the translators - // WORD OF THE DAY // (家 - jiā - home/family) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Tianqi's podcast Various translated Ba Jin essays available on Anarchy Archives Tianqi's musical pairing: Hong Kong Nights 香港之夜 by Teresa Teng 鄧麗君 Angus' musical pairing: Hieroglyph by Cynic Dissenting from Ba Jin by Geremie Barmé // Available on DOUBAN and GDOCS Family by Ba Jin (trans by Sidney Shapiro) Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez Social Class in the 21st Century by Mike Savage The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction by Terry Eagleton - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

The best attributes of anyone or anything usually reside on the surface, which is where, in fact, all of us live out our lives In the sixty fifth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are swathing ourselves in The Invisibility Cloak (隐身衣 / Yǐnshēn Yī). Languishing with me in the peace and pain of relative obscurity are Giray Fidan and Rauno Sainio, two translators of the book's author: Ge Fei, an imperceptible fabulist and three-time subject of this very show. I still haven't figured him out, and I'm sure he'd be glad of it. - // NEWS ITEMS // ACA Publishing/Sinoist Books bags an English PEN translation grant for The Sacred Clan by Liang Hong New book: The Artisans by Shen Fuyu, translated by Jeremy Tiang Chinese student writes Marxism dissertation on Warhammer 40K Lemony Snicket's new book has a cameo from Pu Songling and John Minford - // PHRASES OF THE DAY // (太阳还好端端的在天上挂着呢! - Tàiyáng hái hǎoduānduān dì zài tiānshàng guà zhene - And the sun is still hanging right up there in the sky!) (安居乐业 - Ānjūlèyè - To live in peace, and work happily) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // I Found My Mind in Connecticut - Cage La Follia - Vivaldi Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tampinar Naked CEO Grant Horsfield and his Moganshan resort The Altaic language family and its syntax - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

‘Suppose the universe is a program. Everything that we can observe is the result of the machine-executable code. But the cosmic microwave background can be understood as the record of some earlier version of the source code.' In the sixty forth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we bear witness to the Coming of the Light (开光 / Kāiguāng), penned by the shaman-consulting Google graduate himself; it's Stan, it's the man, it's Chen Qiufan. And hark – what's this? Waves and photons in the shape of noted publisher Francesco Verso surge from the underscreen to puncture my cybernetic solipsism, but will our agile enterprise decode the universe before its unravelling, or are all digital startups nought but the initiation of the end? - // NEWS ITEMS // READ: A Ramble Through the Heart: A Semi-Coherent Attempt at Self-Justification by Chua Chim Kang, tr Tan Dan Feng, from Renditions Issue 96 LISTEN: My Scandinavian nemesis strikes again - Owlish and Other Translated Languages with Natascha Bruce ROUNDTABLE: Can Chinese Science Fiction Transcend Binary Thinking? REVIEW: TrChFic named ‘Shiver-Worthy Runner-Up' in: {Scary's Voices} Sound Bites for November 26th - // WORD OF THE DAY // (云 - yún - cloud) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Ether by Zhang Ran - Francesco's recommendation Chan/Zen Buddhism Zhongguancun - the Silicon Valley of Beijing duang - a rather old meme - and here it is in a That's Shanghai meme review Solarpunk - according to the BBC Wired's article on Silicon Valley Buddhism And…Wired's brilliant article on Chen Qiufan - some more evidence of his interest in the shamans of China's periphery the PRC's internet/gaming addiction camps - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM

In my innocent youth, I was a paragon of virtue, but after wandering for so long in the red dust of this world I had joined the forces of evil In the sixty third episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction we are Dancing Through Red Dust (原谅我红尘颠倒 / Yuánliàng Wǒ Hóngchén Diāndǎo), a nightmarish lurch through the PRC (il)legal system dreamed up by the Shandong webnovelist-turned-dissident Murong Xuecun. Presiding over the court with me is Murong's esteemed translator, editor, publisher, and friend: Harvey Tomlinson. What have judges to do with the Jinpingmei? What has loss to do with licentiousness? How does Buddhism end up parceled in with backhand business? You shut up and listen. We'll deliver the verdict. - // NEWS ITEMS // Strange Beasts of China lands a spot on the NYT's 100 Notable Books of 2021 How an American fell in love with China and Chinese - Great SCMP article on/by translator/Mr Paper Republic, Eric Abrahamsen New & queued TrChFic Patreon episodes: 2046, The Road Home, Taiwan symposium, Faraway, and a kehuan battle royale Sinoist Books have upgraded their website - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (晚 & 碗 - wǎn & wǎn - ‘evening' and ‘bowl') (色 - sè - here meaning ‘carnality') - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Leave Me Alone by Murong Xuecun himself The Strike - Harvey's experimental syntax novel Red dust 红尘 - a Sino-Buddhist concept The Plum in the Golden Vase and a horrible Jin Ping Mei anime doll Running Around Beijing by Xu Zechen Northern Girls by Sheng Keyi Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Faraway by Lo Yi-chin - // Handy TrChFic Links // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

Before us stood the long abandoned skyscrapers of Manhattan, the Sun's weak light casting their long shadows across the quiet ice of the New York Harbor. In my tipsy haze, tears began to gush down my cheeks.  In the sixty second episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are setting sail on The Wandering Earth (流浪地球 / Liúlàng Dìqiú), drawn up and captained by Liu Cixin himself. Calling into the show from the Peruvian Engine Bunker is Jairo Morales. We get deep into postnationalism, censorship, cultural transmission, and the sublime spectacle of the utter annihilation of our planet's fragile surface. Goodbye solarpunk, hello solardoom. - // NEWS ITEMS // The Tyranny of Neutrality - Virginia L Conn reviews AI 2041  TrChFic Meta News: The Leeds Centre Taiwan Literature Symposium HKKH interviews Dorothy Tse Announced by Tweet: Amazon Crossing will publish a translation of Han Song's Hospital Trilogy - // WORD OF THE DAY // (短暂的 - Duǎnzànde - ephemeral/efimero) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Jairo's musical pairings: Gymnopédie No 1 by Erik Satie & 消愁 - Xiao Chou (Drown One's Sorrows) by Mao Buyi 毛不易 Angus' musical pairing: Black Light Machine by Frost Magical realism from Latin America The Emerging Japanese Superstate by Herman Kahn - 70s think tank guy does a yellow peril, history buries him Chuang article: The Wandering Earth: A Reflection of the Chinese New Right 200 Drones Fall Out Of The Sky In China's Zhengzhou Ken Liu's anthology of Chinese sci-fi: Invisible Planets The Cultural Revolution as ‘partially denouncable' - // Handy TrChFic Links // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

I loathe reason. Reason is the sort of rubbish you can indulge in when life is sweet, like love and honour. I totally reject it. In the sixty first episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction we are opening The Book of Sins (冒犯书 / Màofàn Shū), by edgelord-with-a-conscience Chen Xiwo. Playing common-sense counterpoint to my doom-laden interpretations of the text is its translator, Nicky Harman. Here's what we deal with: pain, incest, and the political uses of shock, horror, and offensiveness. Are you sure about this? You can delete this episode now. Do you choose to hit play? - // NEWS ITEMS // The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet by Bogna Konoir - applies Liu Cixin's logic to cyberspace Sense of Place - new issue of Pathlight Magazine Gei Fei's Peach Blossom Paradise bags spot in translated literature finalist list for US 2021 National Book Awards TOR announces full contents of The Way Spring Arrives - // WORD OF THE DAY // (痛 - tòng - pain) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Nicky's musical pairing: Stride la Vampa from Il Trovatore Angus' musical pairing: God's Away on Business by Tom Waits Chen Xiwo's speech on literary censorship in the PRC, given at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club in 2010 A Banned Take on Contemporary China: Wall Street Journal review of The Book of Sins Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik Thomas Ligotti, anhedonic pessimist horror writer Lit by Mary Karr, a considerably more functional individual Various edgy Chinese novels: Playing for Thrills … 1988: I Want to Talk with the World … Dancing Through Red Dust … Shanghai Baby … A Perfect Crime - // Handy TrChFic Links // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

Just as Nga-Yee thought everything was going back to normal, Siu-Man stepped from the window of their twenty-second-story flat In the sixtieth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are solving the case of Second Sister (網內人 / Wǎng Nèi Rén), penned by crime connoisseur Chan Ho-kei. Logged on with guest-level access and ready to follow the trail wherever it leads is 3-time visitor to the show Michelle Deeter. In the events that follow we hack into moral frameworks, digital archives, memory glitches, and urban navigation. Switch off your VPN (we're in Hong Kong this time), take a quick glance over your shoulder, and enjoy! - // NEWS ITEMS // Gŵyl Haf & Borderless Book Club - International Translation Day event with Sinoist Books, Nicky Harman, and Jun Liu on an upcoming Jia Pingwa translation AI 2041: Why the Future is Already Here, with Kai-Fu Lee - Chen Qiufan's co-author gets interviewed by the Intelligence Squared podcastChen Qiufan does an animated TED video to help promote AI 2041 a TrChFic 80 minute breakdown of ChQF's Coming of the Light Dark as a Boy - read an excerpt of Ho Fok Song's Maze Carpet, translated by Natascha Bruce - // WORD OF THE DAY // (人肉搜索引擎 - rénròu sōusuǒ yǐnqíng - human flesh search engine) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Stress in Hong Kong Social engineering within hacking Ad Infinitum by Oh the CIty  - Michelle's musical pairing Mr Robot Season 1 OST by Mac Quayle - Angus' musical pairing Jung's concept of the persona Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction by Stephen Knight The Untouched Crime by Zijin Chen A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan Metazoa: Animal Minds and the Birth of Human Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith The Oxford Bar - Ian Rankin's local - // Handy TrChFic Links // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

It is a long and painful process to see oneself clearly, as is the process of returning to one's childhood. In the fifty ninth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are talking with someone who is More Than One Child (隐形小孩 / Yǐnxíng Xiǎohái), a woman as friendly as she is fearless: Shen Yang. She's here on this episode, and so is her translator, friend-of-the-pod, and returnee guest Nicky Harman. The book is forthcoming from the excellent publisher Balestier Press. - // NEWS ITEMS // From July 2nd: PEN Translates awards announced, including two titles from the PRC Dylan Levi King tries out movie commentary for Obsession 疯狂的代价 (1988) New book from Astra House: Yu Xiuhua's Moonlight Rests on My Left Palm Publisher's Weekly shares a Spotlight on Six Contemporary Chinese Fiction Writers - // WORD OF THE DAY // (葳蕤 - wēi ruí - lush, burgeoning foliage) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // '琵琶語 Pipa Yu' by 林海 Lin Hai - Shen Yang's musical pairing When Everything Is Green by Julie Christmas & All The World is Green by Tom Waits - Angus' musical pairings The One Child Policy The Liar's Club by Mary Karr Our Story: A Memoir of Love and Life in China  by Rao Pingru, trans. Nicky Harman Leftover in China: The Women Shaping the World's Next Superpower by Roseann Lake Robert Winston's BBC program on memory… sadly it's not streaming anywhere - // Handy TrChFic Links // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

The moment I was bitten, I died and became another thing. Now I am loitering on the other shore of the Styx, listening to the past from beyond its waves. In the fifty eighth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are picking Flower of the Other Shore (彼岸花 / Bǐ'àn Huā), a romantic(!) zombie short story by A Que. Here to help me find sympathy for the undead is the tale's translator, Xueting Ni. The story will feature in her anthology of translated Chinese sci-fi: Sinopticon. - // NEWS ITEMS // Hao Jingfang's Vagabonds shortlisted for the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing launches new journal & calls for papers TrChFIc Meta News: Ximalaya feed censored, stoopid Lu Xun meme blows up - // WORD OF THE DAY // (丧尸 - sàngshī - zombie) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Intertextuality - big word for a simple concept World War Z - the book & the film Xueting's From Kuan Yin to Chairman Mao: The Essential Guide to Chinese Deities The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science Fiction Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse - // Handy TrChFic Links // Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

‘Chopin always reminds me of being lovelorn in Penang' [ this is episode 5 of our Taiwan Season ] In the fifty seventh episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are suffering from Home Sickness (匿逃者 / Nì Táo Zhě), a short story collection by Chih-ying Lay. Here to ease this terrible affliction is the book's translator: reformed Buddhist and agile herper Darryl Sterk. - // NEWS ITEMS // Healing with Poisons - a book on the interwining of classical Chinese medicine & poison Ketamine and the Return of the Party-State - DLK's political history of ket vs the CCP A&Qs on 'Sinofuturisms' - compiled in Verge: Global Asias by Virginia L Con & 胡子哥 TrChFic bags a spot in the Feedspot Literature Podcasts list - // WORD OF THE DAY // (亲源关系 - qīnyuán guānxì - phylogenetic relationship) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Herping - not a word I'd heard before!  Small publishers Honford Star, Balestier Press, and Linda Leith 航向愛爾蘭: 葉慈與塞爾特想像 (Sailing to Ireland: Essays on W. B. Yeats and the Celtic Renaissance) Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale - film about an anti-Japanese indigenous uprising in 30s Taiwan Lessons in Essence by Dana Standridge The Mystery Religions of Gladovia: A Novel by Bradley Winterton Kant's noumena & the Buddhist concept of ‘convenient means' - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

‘According to the ancient precepts, grief supersedes all formalities' [ this is episode 4 of our Taiwan Season ] In the fifty sixth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are introducing ourselves to the Taipei People (台北人 / Táiběi Rén), as written by Pai Hsien-yung. Joining me to question the merits of nostalgia and muse aimlessly on umbrellas and the like is a genuine Taibei ren; the effortlessly hip Nadia Ho. - // NEWS ITEMS // Alain Charles Asia seeking publishing production freelancers - contact daniel.li@alaincharlesasia.com Issue One of ‘Jintian' - the legendary Chinese lit magazine READ: The Killer  撞死了一只羊 by Tsering Norbu Two Poems by Bei Dao - commemorating June 4th - // WORD OF THE DAY // (夢 - màng - dream) pls note I've used the character's traditional form and local Taiwanese pronunciation here! - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // The Taste of Apples by Huang Chun-Ming tr. Howard Goldblatt Dubliners by James Joyce Kun opera - Mr Pai's favourite style The May 4th Movement & Battle of Tsingtao The Paramount Ballroom in Shanghai - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

‘Only if you go to places nobody's ever been can you see the colours nobody's ever seen' [ this is episode 3 of our Taiwan Season ] In the fifty fifth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are meeting The Man with the Compound Eyes (复眼人 / Fùyǎn Rén). Brace yourself for the impact of an ecological, apocalyptic, and internationalist vortex of literary weirdness. Joining me to weather this storm at the limits of anthropoid cognition is Sinophone-sci-fi-studier Cara Healey. - // NEWS ITEMS // The Secret Talker by Geling Yan Queer Taiwanese Literature: A Reader By Howard Chiang The Rainbow of Time by Jimmy Liao - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (涡流 - wōliú - vortex, whirlpool) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan the Indigenous people of Taiwan David Mitchell and impending doom The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science Fiction - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

‘Some desires, once formed, are impossible to fulfil, so they become frustrations instead. That's the problem with going forth into new worlds' [ this is episode 2 of our Taiwan Season ] In the fifty fourth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are thumbing through the Notes of a Crocodile (鳄鱼手记 / Èyú Shǒujì). Joining me on the lookout for the shy and elusive reptiloid is Conor Stuart. - // NEWS ITEMS // How a Polish Master Brought Lu Xun's Madness to Life 11th Chinese Nebula Awards Winners – list shared in English by Locus NEA Big Read 2021: China's Literary Giants: The Legacy of Yu Hua - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (三八 - Sānbā - usually derogatory adjective used to describe ‘frivolous' women) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Crystal Boys by Pai Hsien-yung LGBT rights in Taiwan ‘Addiction' webseries ‘Lala/lazi' slang for ‘lesbian' - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

‘Two peach trees, two entirely different universes.' [ this is episode 1 of our Taiwan Season ] In the fifty third episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are peeling back The Membranes (膜 / Mó). Joining me at their respective computer terminals in the ocean floor biodome are its author Chi Ta-wei and translator Ari Larissa Heinrich.  - // NEWS ITEMS // PANEL: Exploring Chinese Science Fiction Multi-Dimensionally PREORDER: Vessel - a memoir by Cai Chongda UPCOMING: The London Chinese Science Fiction Group to have Han Song on as a guest  - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (赞 - zàn - ‘like', as in Facebook, Wechat etc) (情 - qíng - emotion, affection, sentiment) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // 80s & 90s sci-fi and cyberpunk: should it be left behind? the hole in the ozone layer chickens with teeth queer parenting in Taiwan - // Episode Sponsor // Buy Paul French's Destination Peking here: https://www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/destination-peking/ - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map

‘An unruly monkey like you has to be restrained somehow, otherwise you'll never reform' In the fifty second episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are departing from the Tang Empire on a haphazard Journey to the West (西游记 / Xī Yóu Jì). Talking me through the transformations is Julia Lovell, translator of JttW's latest, extremely readable English translation. - // NEWS ITEMS // A new Can Xue translation is on the way Yang Lian and Brian Holton win first Sarah Maguire Prize ‘Jia Pingwa: Master Storyteller of Rural China' event, Fri 9 Apr - // WORD OF THE DAY // (游 - yóu - journey) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Can't Get You Out of My Head,  (Dir. Adam Curtis, 2021) The Sinister Way by Richard von Glahn Transforming Monkey by Hongmei Sun The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel by Andrew Plaks Cultural Syncretism (in a silly video game) (Breaking the) rules of fantasy fiction - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Transcript for this episode More episode transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

'I stand alone on the earth, unable to bring the show to an end' In the 51st episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we're heading into the far west to come face-to-face with Li Juan, a Han Chinese writer who has found some degree of fame writing soulfully about her experiences living among the Kazakh herders of Xinjiang Province. Braving the frontier with me are two of her translators, TrChFic returnee Christopher Payne and friend-of-the-pod Jack Hargreaves. The former translated Li Juan's Distant Sunflower Fields and the latter is one of the two co-translators of her Winter Pasture. - // NEWS ITEMS // Closing the China Channel Vector Magazine issue on Chinese SF Ding Ling, Boiling Milk | prchistory.org - // WORDS OF THE DAY // (“Koychy!” - a versatile Kazakh exclamation, often meaning “no way,” “no thanks,” “get out,” “leave it out” ) ( 荒野 - huāngyě- wilderness) - // MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE // Opinion | The Real Censors of China - NYT China 'to let thousands of ethnic Kazakhs leave Xinjiang' - The Guardian Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong Lei Diansheng's ‘completionist' trek around the borders - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE

Starting a podcast is not a dinner party In the fiftieth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, I put my feet up and have a beer! Woohoo! - // NEWS ITEMS // Beijing Lights Archives | Spittoon Sci-Fi Writer or Prophet? The Hyperreal Life of Chen Qiufan Mither Tongue: Jidi Majia's poetry in 3 Scots dialects - // Handy TrChFic Links // The TrChFic mailing list Episode Transcripts Help Support TrChFic The TrChFic Map INSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD // HOMEPAGE