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ABSTRACT
Literary translation is a major part of China’s present soft power push. Substantial attention and resources are for the first time being directed to the translation of Chinese literature into Arabic, in line with the geopolitical agenda of China’s Going Global ambitions and the Belt and Road Initiative. This article provides a historical overview of Chinese-to-Arabic translation of modern and contemporary literature, with a focus on the growth and transformation of translation in this language pair over the last decade. However, examination of the networks that have incentivized and produced this translation boom shows that the crucial element of soft power in this relationship is the performance of cultural exchange in service of the People’s Republic of China’s self-representation as benevolent and harmonious power, rather than any substantive cultural or literary interaction via translated texts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Jie Wang is a PhD student in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at The University of Cambridge. Her academic interests include modern and contemporary Sino-Arab relations, transnational demographic movement between China and the Arab world, and Libyan exile politics. She has conducted fieldwork in Egypt, Tunisia and Guangzhou, and published academic papers on the Chinese migrant community in pre-2011 Libya, Chinese multilingual practice in Cairo, and post-2011 Libyan exile politics.
Josh Stenberg is a Lecturer in Chinese Studies in the School of Languages and Cultures at The University of Sydney. He translates Chinese theatre, fiction, and poetry, and his research fields include xiqu (Chinese opera), overseas Chinese communities, and the translation of Chinese texts into foreign languages. He was a 2016 Henry Luce Chinese Poetry Translation Fellow at the Vermont Studio Center.
Notes
1 For a systematic account of how cultural soft power had been addressed officially in the PRC up to 2007, see M. Li (Citation2008). For the discourse under Xi Jinping, see Shambaugh (Citation2015).
2 As early as December 2003, Hu addressed the necessity of promoting Chinese cultural industries overseas, and of partaking actively in international cultural competition. By June 2004, the Chinese Ministry of Culture had organized a seminar about how Chinese cultural industries should go global. This event marked the first time that the cultural sector was officially confirmed as one facet of China’s Going Global strategy. At the 17th Party Congress in 2007 and the party’s Central Committee in 2011, Hu reiterated, respectively, the goals of increasing Chinese soft power, and of building the country into a socialist cultural superpower. The Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, PRC’s policy formulation and implementation body founded under the direct leadership of president Xi, promulgated two directives in November and December 2016, namely “Guidelines for the Further Strengthening and Amelioration of Work Related to Chinese Culture Going Global” and “Guidelines for Strengthening the Construction of ‘BRI’ Soft Power”. These guidelines represent the first time that Xi’s government has specifically issued directives for the cultural field.
3 Of course, Chinese officials and scholars perceive traditional Chinese culture as a key source of Chinese soft power – witness the naming of the soft power education institutes after Confucius – and the state has also put substantial resources into the translation of Chinese classical texts. China’s media presence has also expanded to the Arab countries, with the launch of China Central Television’s Arabic channel in 2009.
4 In its efforts to spread Chinese culture internationally through translation, the PRC had never overlooked the Third World readership. From 1949 to 1979, while a total number of 5544 titles had been introduced to the West through translations into one or more of 21 western languages, 3900 titles were introduced to the Third World through translations into one or more of 22 Asian or African languages. From 1980 to 2009, the figures are 6301 and 2231 (He Citation2016, 41–42). However, the total number of literary translations is small: 190 titles from 1949 to 1979 (He Citation2016, 9), and 993 titles from 1980 to 2009 (He Citation2016, 27).
5 The remaining 2% is shared among 62 Mainland Chinese publishing houses.
6 The rest, more than 85% of the total, is shared among sixty Mainland Chinese publishing houses.
7 The only exception is the 1988 publication of Shen Congwen’s The Border Town and Other Stories, published by both the FLP and Syria’s Dar Damascus for Publication, Distribution and Printing.
8 From 1949 to 1979, 25 out of a total number of 385 titles FLP translated into Arabic were literary works. From 1980 to 2009, 27 out of a total number of 420 titles FLP translated into Arabic were literary works.
9 The FLP also published lianhuan hua (“serial picture” books), colloquially known as xiaoren shu (“books for little people”), popular small-format books with captioned pictures (either illustrations or stills from movies) summarizing a narrative for children. Examples of these were adaptations of Sparkling Red Star (1974) and of Xu Guangyao’s Little Soldier Zhang Ga (1978).
10 Some of the works included are Jun Qing’s “Dawn of the River” and Li Zhun’s “Can’t Take that Road”.
11 Among the authors included were Yang Mo, Ru Zhijuan, Zhang Jie, Zhang Xin, Fang, Chi Li, etc.
12 Where there are no existing conventions, Arabic names have been transliterated into English according to the Arabic-to-English transliteration system provided by the International Journal of Middle East Studies.
13 Though the 1968 translations of Lin Yutang’s works by Mohammed Fatḥi Omar deserve mention (Zhang Citation2015, 24), they might not be considered translations of modern Chinese literature in a narrower sense, since Lin wrote many of his texts in English.
14 The publishers are Dār Nino (Syria), Dāral-Hilāllil-Thaqāfahwa-al-Nashr (Lebanon), Dār al-Madalil-Thaqāfahwa-al-Nashr (Syria), and al-Dār al-Arabiya lil-Oulūm (Arab Scientific Publishers, Lebanon). Unless otherwise stated, all translations from Chinese and Arabic are our own.
15 The word “classic” in the title is used in a broader sense, referring to any Chinese books of high quality and/or good reputation.
16 It is not clear from the materials available whether the money was granted to reprint the 1992 translation, or whether a new translation was made. Moreover, the grant was given for The Muslim’s Funeral in consecutive years (2011 and 2012), though it is not clear whether it was for the same, or for two different, projects.
17 For details of the main Chinese-Arabic mutual translation (huyi) projects, see Wang Xiulu (Citation2017).
18 This forum was renamed the China-Arab States Expo in 2013. So far, three events aimed at promoting international copyright trade with the Arab world have been organized since 2011 on a biannual basis: the International Copyright Trading Fair for Muslim Publishers, the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum of Publication and Copyright Trading Fair, and the China-Arab Copyright Trading Fair.
19 The International Copyright Exchange Center is a joint venture between the Copyright Protection Center of China, the China Equity Exchange and the Beijing Dongcheng District Government.
20 For example: Shen Congwen’s The Border Town, Mo Yan’s Frog, Liu Zhenyun’s Cell Phone, One Word Worth Ten Thousand Words and Back to 1942, Yu Hua’s To Live and Shouting in the Rain, Wang Anyi’s novellas Three Loves, Zhou Daxin’s Silver Ornament, Tsering Norbu’s Prayers in Wind, Li Peifu’s The Book of Life, Tie Ning’s collection How Long is Forever, Ma Yuan’s Under the Spell of the Gangtise Mountains, Can Xue’s “The Hut on the Hill” and Alai’s After the Dust Settled.
21 To illustrate, in A Companion to Modern Chinese Literature, Hui writers rate two paragraphs in the 571-page volume (Bender Citation2016, 267–268) and ten lines in the 473-page of The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature (Leenhouts Citation2016, 303).
22 The ten Ningxia writers are Shi Shuqing, Ma Zhiyao, Li Jinxiang, Cha Shun, Liao Yirong, Gu Yuan, Na Zhixiang, Ashe, Ping Yuan and Wang Zhengru.
23 Wisdom Palace’s Chinese name, zhihui gong, is a reference to Bayt al-Hikma, a Baghdad centre of learning in the eighth and ninth centuries.