TRANSLATORS at Northwest University, Xi’an, recently finished the first draft of an English version of a controversial Chinese novel. They are now looking for overseas publishers.

    “Fei Du (The Abandoned Capital)” was the first novel by Jia Pingwa, originally published 20 years ago. It was quickly banned for its explicit sexual content and “vulgar style.” It was reissued in 2009.

    Hu Zongfeng, vice dean of the school of foreign languages, and his colleague Robin Gilbank spent three years working on the translation.

    “Robin has gone back to Britain and is looking for an international publisher,” Hu said. “We hope to publish the English version of the book by the end of this year.”

    “Fei Du” has already been translated into many languages including Russian, French, Japanese and Vietnamese. The French version by Genevieve Imbot-Bichet won the Prix Femina Etranger, a French literature prize, in 1997.

    Before this English version of “Fei Du,” only one of Jia’s novels had been translated into English. “Fuzao (Turbulence),” translated by American sinologist Howard Goldblatt, won the Pegasus Prize for Literature in the United States in 1991.

    Set in Xi’an, “Fei Du” portrays the life of Zhuang Zhidie, an idle intellectual living during the 1980s as China begins to reform and open up.

    “The novel reflects the psychology of Chinese people during this special period, especially intellectuals,” said Hu.

    The translators kept nearly all the text of the original work intact, as Jia had asked them to retain every single sentence of his novel.

    Hu and Gilbank had difficulty in translating some of the obscure idioms and local dialect in the original novel, but as far as possible they retained the intended meaning while making the texts readable.

    “We translated the protagonist’s name Zhuang Zhidie into Butterfly Zhuang, with an explanatory note on the proposition by ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zi,” Hu said.

    Many domestic publishers have contacted them with offers to publish the work, but according to Hu, they’d prefer a prominent foreign publisher as the target readership is overseas.

    “‘Fei Du’ caused quite a stir when first published. Though 20 years have gone by, I still find it incisively sees through humanity, and its perception of society has stood the test of time,” said Raymond Zhou, a book critic and columnist.

    “The translation of ‘Fei Du’ will help popularize Chinese literature overseas,” Zhou added.

    “Translation of successful novels will help Chinese literature win a place among international competitors and gain international readership and reputation,” Zhou said.

    “For example, the works of Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature, have been translated and published in English, French, Swedish, Spanish, German, Italian and Japanese.”

    Zhang Yiwu, Chinese literature professor at Peking University, believes that since Chinese literature has an important role to play in the world, the number and quality of translations must be increased.

    Zhang suggests that China learns from other countries and invests in support for translators who know the international market and understand Chinese culture.

    “As an increasing number of foreigners are interested in China, more excellent Chinese literature is expected to be translated and go global,” Zhang said. (SD-Agencies)