Online
Chinese Women Writers Speak Out: What Do We Hear?
Chinese Women Writers Speak Out: What Do We Hear?
We (translators Nicky Harman and Natascha Bruce) asked eighteen women authors what it’s like to write in China; this panel presents our responses, as well as our observations as translators.
China is increasingly repressive, and it takes courage to speak out. Most didn’t pull their punches and were astonishingly frank; others were unexpectedly traditionalist, forcing us to consider our own biases and to confront the myth of translator “neutrality” head on. We faced two challenges: first, how to communicate the nuances of their answers when, for example, there are three terms for feminism, each with different connotations. Second, we were conscious of our duty as go-betweens, presenting what our interviewees had to say, but inevitably having to choose what to cut, and how to present the material.
…
Moderator
Nicky Harman lives in the UK and translates full-time from Chinese. She also works on Paper-Republic.org, a nonprofit promoting Chinese literature in translation. She mentors new translators, gives workshops on translation, and judges translation competitions. She was co-Chair of the Translators Association (Society of Authors, UK) 2014 to 2017.
Presenter
Natascha Bruce translates fiction from Chinese. Her translations include Lonely Face by Yeng Pway Ngon (Balestier, 2019) and Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong (Two Lines, 2020). She received the 2016 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship for a Singaporean Language, working with mentor Jeremy Tiang.