The Bonny Prince Twan

‘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. 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.

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// 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

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// 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)

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// 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

• 多少恨 - the novella that Eileen Chang apparently based on Jane Eyre

• Can Xue and Kafka - here discussed by Stella Zhu