Fan Hua gets 'lost in translation' at top French book fair

Chinese author Jin Yucheng won this year's Mao Dun Literature Award for his novel Fan Hua, which is acclaimed as one of the best novels on Shanghai.[Photo by Wang Xiaoxi/CFP]

Key features of the novel include the use of local Shanghai dialect for the narrative and focus on the characters' external responses to events rather than their psychological profiles.

To let readers understand the story, Jin, who regards Mandarin as his second language, revised the dialect and the novel more than 20 times.

"In the past 30 years that I've edited Chinese literature, I've seen many manuscripts become Westernized because Chinese writers are reading more foreign books, either translated works or in the original languages," he says. "But traditional writing in China presents intensive and concise depiction of settings and many characters just come and go."

Jin says he once came across a foreign translator who said that translating Chinese literature often didn't require a dictionary as many Chinese writers wrote using common expressions.

"It's too bad. Novelists need a rich vocabulary," Jin adds.

While language is the essence of literature, many foreign readers cannot read Chinese novels as they don't know Chinese. It is also easy to imagine the difficulties in finding a good translator as has been the case with Fan Hua.

But celebrated Chinese writers such as Mo Yan and Liu Cixin have been lucky in that aspect.

Mo Yan is a Nobel Prize winner and is known in the Western world, and Liu is a sci-fi writer who has received positive reviews for his books even in English-speaking markets, including the Hugo Award in August.

Mao Jingyan, the copyright manager for Fan Hua at Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, says: "According to my knowledge, Editions Philippe Picquier gave up because the translation work is expensive and they worry that the sales in the French market may not be able to cover the cost."

For instance, Changhen Ge (Song of regret) by Wang Anyi was also introduced by Editions Philippe Picquier to French readers.

The translation work took one and a half years, Jiefang Daily reported, and the publisher spent three years to complete the French edition of the book.

"But we have sold Fan Hua's copyright of the traditional Chinese edition to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. Also Humanist Publishing House from South Korea has purchased the copyright for the Korean edition," Mao says.

"Cultural difference is another barrier apart from language. In Asia, we have more in common when it comes to culture."