5 Well Translated Chinese Novels to Hibernate With This Winter

5 Well Translated Chinese Novels to Hibernate With This Winter
Dec 06, 2014 By Tobie Taljaard , eChinacities.com

The winter winds are nipping at our heels and snow fall is waiting around the mountain, which in our books (see what we did there?) makes it the perfect time to begin hibernation. Rather than spend the winter streaming TV shows after TV shows, how about heading to your nearest English language book store, or Amazon and picking up some Chinese novels. It can always be difficult to know where to start, so here is a list of five well translated Chinese novels that will provide you with a better understanding of the social, cultural, linguistic, and political landscapes through which the average Chinese has had to navigate, but more importantly, they are all just really great stories!


Hibernate this winter with books you just can’t put it down

1) To Live
Author: Yu Hua, first published 1993
Translator: Michael Berry

To Live is the perfect place to start your foray into the rich past of Chinese literature. After an inauspicious start by being banned in China, the powerful narrative of the story carried it to unimaginable heights. As you follow the journey of one man and his family you experience 20th century China in acute detail.   

The story’s antagonist, Fugui, began his life in a wonderfully wealthy family only to throw all his money away on betting and booze. Once reduced to nothing he was forced to become a farmer before being conscripted to serve in the Nationalist Army during the Civil War; afterwards, his life was further complicated through the emergence of Communist China.

Yu Hua said that he based this book on an American folk song titled Old Black Joe. The song tells the story of man who longs for his happy past and who has been humbled (“for my head is bending low”) by events that have taken place throughout his life; a changed man, the protagonist now wants to live out the rest of his life in simplicity.

2) A Dictionary of Maqiao
Author: Han Shaogong, first published 1996
Translator: Julia Lovell 

The Dictionary of Maqiao is a penetrating look into the life of a small village in Hunan through the eyes of a student who was ‘relocated’ there by the Mao Government when the ruling party was ‘combating urbanization’ by sending young city folk to rural areas for ‘farming education’.

Disguised as or dictionary, this novel by Han Shaogong gives us a portrayal of small village life which represents a little sample of a bigger whole. The use of the word dictionary in the title alludes to the way the author uses the language of the people to explain the sentiment in the village at the time. As such, it tells how language is a vehicle for emotion, culture and history.

A great read for the closet linguists, and lovers of the Chinese language and its origins.

3) Dream of Ding Village
Author: Yan Lianke, first published 2006
Translator: Cindy Carter 

Still banned in China today after all the first editions were sold out, Dream of Ding Village tells the story of the unregulated business of selling blood in China and its effect upon the local spread of HIV/Aids.

The exposé is told through the example of one family living in a village in Hunan and how their involvement in the blood-selling business affected each generation in different ways. Author Yan Lianke went undercover in order to garner the necessary information and went to great lengths to shine a light on the dark underworld of corrupt men who felt nothing for the repercussions of their actions.

The novel will leave you with a somber outlook on business life in China as it signifies the general recklessness caused by greed; as well going to great lengths to give a voice to the voiceless.

4) The Garlic Ballads
Author: Mo Yan, first published 1988
Translator: Howard Goldblatt

Mo Yan most well-known for his first novel, the epic Red Sorghum Clan, but then gained a much wider audience in 2012 after winning the Nobel Prize in literature. Mo Yan is known for his use of magical realism to illustrate the larger, often political, shortcomings of societies and the people who govern them. He, too, has had several of his publications banned for their negative portrayal of the ruling party.

If you haven’t read any Mo Yan yet, a great place to start is with The Garlic Ballads. This novel chronicles a time when the government forced several farmers to begin farming garlic only to abandon them when the surplus of garlic lead to the decimation of crops and the bankruptcy of the farmers. Interspersed with the political narrative are stories of love, friendship and mystical beings; as the book itself describes it: “a blind minstrel incites the masses to take the law into their own hands, and a riot of apocalyptic proportions follows with savage and unforgettable consequences.”

5) Wolf Totem
Author: Jing Rong (pseudonym), first published in 2004
Translator: Howard Goldblatt

Wolf Totem is based around Chen Zhen’s experiences when he volunteers to be relocated out of Beijing and to a small community in Inner Mongolia. There he discovers that the villagers and the wolves who threaten their livelihood exist within a balanced system which can only be viewed through the lens of tradition.

However, Zhen’s life, and the lives of the villagers, is thrown into a chaotic downward spiral after the ruling government sends in farmers from other parts of China with the aim of collectivizing the farms. The unspoken, mystical accord between the locals and the wolves is broken and the result is a severely damaged society and its surroundings.

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Keywords: translated Chinese Novels Chinese Cultural Revolution Chinese authors Chinese translated books

2 Comments

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puffudder

Wolf Totem is a great book. Another worth reading is 'Brothers' - Yu Hua

Dec 07, 2014 22:01 Report Abuse

bill8899

Or you could travel.

Dec 07, 2014 10:59 Report Abuse