A growing number of ethnic Chinese are translating Chinese novels, bringing them to the world. Photo: IC

Stanley Zhang, a 20-year-old Chinese-Canadian based in Vancouver, couldn't conceal his ecstasy when he read the news that the translation of Folding Beijing, a science fiction story by Beijing-based Chinese writer Hao Jingfang, won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novelette last week.



It was not because Zhang, who loves translating Chinese novels into English in his spare time, was a fan of Chinese sci-fi novels. What excited him was that the award-winning novelette, as well as the first part of The Three-body Problem trilogy by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, were both translated by Chinese-American Ken Liu.



This was encouraging for Zhang because he and Liu shares the identity of being huayi, ethnic Chinese living abroad, and the hobby of translating Chinese works into English.



"Though the number of ethnic Chinese who keep an eye on Chinese novels is still small, I can see the number is gradually increasing during the past few years," said Zhang.



Ethnic Chinese translators are catching the public's attention. An article titled "To reach a top status in the world literature stage, China needs more people like Ken Liu than Liu Cixin" went viral on the Chinese Internet, and was viewed hundreds of thousands of times within days.



According to Zhang, ethnic Chinese translators translate a number of genres including fantasy, wuxia (martial arts), xianxia (martial arts blended with Taoist magic), xuanhuan (fantasy featuring adventures and wars) and romance. Still a small community in the literature world, but a growing number of ethnic Chinese translators are promoting and sharing Chinese novels with the world.





Translating Chinese novels usually involves a lot of Chinese historical allusions, requiring translators to spend more time and energy on research before they start translating. Photo: IC

Cultural exposure



Zhang believes a solid understanding of Chinese culture is the foundation of translating Chinese literature works, ancient or modern.



"My grandmother started teaching me Chinese poetry from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Song Dynasty (960-1279) when I was five years old," he recalled. The childhood learning experience pays off when he tries to translate Chinese novels into English, since there are a lot of historical allusions or idioms in these works.



Meanwhile, translating can help you discover and learn about the differences between Eastern and Western cultures, said Zhang, who spends around 20 to 30 hours per week on translating.



Jenxi Seow, 32, is a Malaysian Chinese who translates wuxia novels into English as a hobby. Coming from a Mandarin-speaking family, he was exposed to Chinese novels at a young age. The first book that captured his attention was Xiaoao Jianghu (The Legendary Swordsman), a Chinese wuxia novel by Jin Yong, a master of the genre, in 1967.



"I understand the [Chinese wuxia] culture. It has a different feeling than English fantasy novels, which are usually based on Western medieval times," he said.



Seow is translating Tianlong Babu (The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils), another classical work of Jin Yong.



Seow has read the other English version of the novel before, however, he thought it was done poorly, with many mistranslations, including terms translated literally and obscure terms that were not well explained which made it hard to grasp the meaning.



It takes Seow a month to finish translating a chapter, and he is still working on it currently.



After receiving a lot of positive feedback for his finished chapters, he was happy to see a noticeable increase in the number of foreigners reading the translated wuxia novels. "They want to know the story, but they can't read Chinese. So they yearn for English translations as a window to the wonderful world of wuxia," said Seow.



Experience matters



Seow has worked with translators who are native Chinese speakers or native English speakers, and he realized that due to the fact that they are only fluent in one language, they are unable to fully convey the meanings in their translations.



"Being a native speaker of both languages, I'm able to understand the deeper meaning of the Chinese text, which makes the translation more accurate," he said, proud of his advantage of being an ethnic Chinese growing up in an English-speaking environment.



Zhang shares the same opinion. In his mind, lots of Chinese novels involve Chinese culture and if the translator does not understand the context meaning and its background culture, they may confuse readers.



"For example, when I translated qiuren deren, a quote from Confucius, I decided not to translate it directly as "seek benevolence and get benevolence" because I didn't think readers would understand. I chose to express it as 'are you satisfied to get what you wished for,'" he said.



Zhang also noted that Easterners and Westerners have different ways of thinking. "For example, Easterners prefer to explain something first and then show the result, however, Westerners prefer to have the result first and then explain why. Westerners will think the story is weird if I do not change the order of logic," he said.



Zhang suggests that people who plan to translate Chinese novels of any length should realize that it takes more perseverance than people think, which is why there are so many incomplete translation projects out there, such as Donggong (Eastern Palace), a popular romance story written by Ai Jingjing (also known as Feiwo Sicun).



Spreading the word



Lai Jingping, 30, is a Chinese-American who founded wuxiaworld.com, the largest Chinese Web novel translation forum in the world. He said that it is an honor that Liu, as a Chinese-American, showed up on the podium along with Hao for the Hugo award. "I admire that Ken Liu can bring Chinese sci-fi to the world, letting more and more people see Chinese modern culture, " he said.



Lai noted that after Nobel Prize for Literature winner Mo Yan, and the Chinese science fiction The Three-body Problem trilogy and Folding Beijing received literature prizes internationally, it shows that Chinese literature has obtained approval abroad; it also shows that more excellent Chinese novels are coming out, which will attract more translators to share them with the world.



"Along with new Chinese literature coming out, China's fine literature can attract the world's attention, and most of the readers are intellectuals. On the other hand, Chinese Web novels, including xuanhuan, xianxia and wuxia, are excellent and worth sharing as well. They attract more attention from the public," Lai said.



"Westerners have been reading Chinese novels more in the last two years. A popular title is the Chinese xuanhuan novel Coiling Dragon. Its background and plots are similar to the Western world, and it contains Chinese elements as well, gaining popularity among Westerners," said Lai.



Lai believes the number of Chinese novel readers and translators is growing every year. The forum wuxiaworld.com receives nearly 3.5 million page views every day, with over 300,000 viewers from around the world. "According to our statistics, 35 percent of viewers are from the US, 5 percent are from Canada, 20 percent are from Western Europe and 25 percent are from Southeast Asia," he said.



The forum now has 25 translators, among of whom 20 are ethnic Chinese, and the number is growing, according to Lai.



Lai was very glad to see that ethnic Chinese translators can share more Chinese novels with the world. "In the next five or 10 years, Chinese novels and other works like comics and cartoons will gain an international following," he said.



Lai now has a plan to further his translation works of Chinese novels by continuing to build his forum wuxiaworld.com. "We are cooperating with two Chinese Web novel reading websites, to translate their stories into English. We hope that we can publish them in English in the future," he said.