The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast

‘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 Life11th Chinese Nebula Awards Winners – list shared in English by LocusNEA 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-yungLGBT rights in Taiwan‘Addiction’ webseries‘Lala/lazi’ slang for ‘lesbian’-// Handy TrChFic Links //Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFicINSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD

‘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-DimensionallyPREORDER: Vessel - a memoir by Cai ChongdaUPCOMING: 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 layerchickens with teethqueer parenting in Taiwan-// Episode Sponsor //Buy Paul French’s Destination Peking here:https://www.blacksmithbooks.com/books/destination-peking/-// Handy TrChFic Links //Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFicINSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD

‘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 wayYang 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 GlahnTransforming Monkey by Hongmei SunThe Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel by Andrew PlaksCultural Syncretism (in a silly video game)(Breaking the) rules of fantasy fiction-// Handy TrChFic Links //Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFicINSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD

'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 ChannelVector Magazine issue on Chinese SFDing 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 - NYTChina 'to let thousands of ethnic Kazakhs leave Xinjiang' - The GuardianWolf Totem by Jiang RongLei Diansheng’s ‘completionist’ trek around the borders-// Handy TrChFic Links //Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFicINSTAGRAM // TWITTER // DISCORD

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

'One morning, Salinger was woken from sleep by deafening noises. Dazed, he gazed outside the window and saw a row of gleaming Baekdu bulldozers, which had been modified from Chonma-ho battle tanks, bearing down on his cabin.'In the forty ninth episode we continue our megacrossover, this time tackling modern literature. Once more unto the jazz hall, dear friends, once more, as we tackle: lamppost sexuality, mantou typography, disposable(?) wuxia, and the philosophy of chicken nuggets. No, really. I'm not joking. Wait, come back!!!- // NEWS ITEMS //Taiwan Year at the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing - Egoyan Zheng ExcerptJeremy Tiang - The World Is Not Enough - is world literature just a ‘spice rack’ for lazy Westerners?Lost in Translation: What’s the Problem with Chinese Literature in the West? - Zoom talk w/ Jianan Qian, Nicky Harman, and Eric AbrahamsenReading "The Story of the Stone" with 白先勇 Pai Hsien-Yung and 陳毓賢 Susan Chan Egan - a superstar Zoom talk!- // PODCASTERS & THEIR CHOSEN STORIES //Rob and Lee of The Chinese Literature Podcast chose Sealed Off by Eileen ChangWilliam and Kevin of Rereading the Stone chose Shanghai Foxtrot by Mu ShiyingYifan of 文化土豆 Culture Potato chose A Bond Undone, Chapter 1 by Jin Yongand your host Angus chose Salinger and the Koreans by Han Song- // Episode Sponsor //Buy Jeremy Bai AKA Deathblade's The Heretic Peacekeeper here:Amazon: http://mybook.to/9h10eTHPKobo, Nook, etc: https://books2read.com/u/mgzxxx- // Handy TrChFic Links //Episode TranscriptsHelp Support TrChFic

'What sort of a fiend are you that you dare change into my appearance, take my descendants captive, occupy my immortal cave, and assume such airs?'In the forty eighth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are doing something a little different! In this episode half of a small army of Chinese lit podcasters join me to discuss their favourite stories from dynastic China.-// NEWS ITEMS //The TrChFic Mailing ListDistant Sunflower Fields - OUT NOWMa Jian on China's Efforts to Extinguish Memory-// PODCASTERS & THEIR CHOSEN STORIES //Mason of the Plum Forest Podcast chose 'The Thunder God', from Strange Tales from a Chinese StudioJohn of Chinese Lore chose Chapter 2 of The Outlaws of the Marsh, tr. Sidney ShapiroYang of The Chinese Mythology Podcast chose 'Weaver Shi Meets a Friend at the Strand from Stories to Awaken the World (醒世恒言) by Feng Menglong, tr. Ted Wang and Chen ChenTianqi of Stories from a Chinese Studio chose ‘Two Monkeys’, from Journey to the West tr. Anthony C Yu-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Breakfast with Socratesthe translator Herbert Gilesthe 1986 TV adaptation of Journey to the West and the 1978 Japanese adaptation'Sworn brothers' and other kinds of kindship in Chinathe dark 'Fake Wukong' theorythe author Feng Menglong

When you've stared at the past for so long that time dissolves, you'll be able to wake from your slumberIn the forty seventh episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are falling into Beijing Coma (肉之土 / Ròu Zhī Tǔ). Avid Ma Jian reader Ronald Torrance is here to guide me from perimeter to epicentre of this colossal novel, and the weighty events it reckons with. Even without politics, stakes are high here: life/death, time/memory, flesh/history, and the intimate bonds that can exist between translators and writers.-// NEWS ITEMS //Pen FairyLost in Translation: The World of Chinese Literature in English‘The atmosphere has become abnormal’: Han Chinese views from Xinjiang-// WORD OF THE DAY //(地标 - Dìbiāo - Landmark)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //The People's Republic of Amnesia by Louisa LimBeijing from Below by Harriet EvansDo Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeline ThienWhat Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear by BaoshuPrisoner of the State by Zhao ZiyangDeath Fugue by Sheng KeyiThe loneliness of Yan LiankeMo Yan & censorshipHow China's censors are taught about 'restricted topics'Meng Po and her memory-erasing soupCui Jian, rock, and socialist/patriotic anthems at Tiananmen

If anyone is reading this notebook — don’t come looking for me. Don’t.In the forty sixth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are undergoing black initiation into The Flock of Ba Hui (巴虺的牧群 / Bāhuī de Mùqún). Returning to the show to rescue me from the abyss - or hurl me into it - is the extremely online Dylan Levi King. We have quite a beast to wrestle with this episode. Lovecraftian fiction, from the Chinese internet, curated, translated and packaged in paratexts by two particularly unorthodox individuals.-// NEWS ITEMS //Women Writing China: Female Authors and Chinese LiteratureHow a Music Streaming Site Became a Safe Space for Leftist ListenersPeking Noir with Paul French-// WORD OF THE DAY //(邪神呼唤 - Xiéshén Hūhuàn - the call of Cthulhu)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //the Cthulhu mythosthe Ring of Wonderthe Yi PeopleWestern Xia as 'lost civilisation'Yi Izzy Yu & John Branscum on Ji Yun's weird fictionRacism in Lovecraft's writing'Neoreaction' and the fantasy/horror genre-// Handy TrChFic Links //Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFicINSTAGRAM 🐙 TWITTER 🐙 DISCORD

In bars like this, on nights like this, the people of Yong'an would talk of deathIn the forty fifth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are hunting for the Strange Beasts of China (异兽志 - Yì Shòu Zhì). Two very special guests are joining me this time - the book's author Yan Ge and its translator Jeremy Tiang. If I sound a little off-kilter this episode, it's because I'm star struck!-// NEWS ITEMS //Faraway by Lo Yi-Chin - coming out this SeptemberHow Lin Qi's Poisoning Death Shocked China - A suspected murder by poisoning related to the Three Body Netflix adaptationRound up, Round up - News #1 - Paper Republic now has its own news roundup!-// WORD OF THE DAY //(异 - Yì - strange/different)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //The ShanhaijingBestiary by K-Ming ChangFifty Sounds by Polly BartonAttrib by Eley WilliamsI am the Messenger by Markus Zusakthe mighty 小儿赶牛 - red bull & ergoutou baijiuthe seven sages of the bamboo groveThe 'san xian/third line' industrialisation plan-// Handy TrChFic Links //Episode Transcripts // Help Support TrChFicINSTAGRAM 👹 TWITTER 👹 DISCORD