Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series, No. 40 ( Special Issue on Pai Hsien-yung)

Kuo-ch'ing Tu and Terence Russell(eds.)

白先勇,可以說是當代華文作家中,不論是在台灣、在中國、在東南亞、在其他各地的華人世界中,最負盛名、最受肯定的作家。他的文學活動、創作成就和作家地位,與台灣文學的關係,是一個值得探討的現象,也是本叢刊這一專輯譯介他的作品的主要原因和探討的主題。

這一專輯,由白先勇提供尚未翻譯成英文的小說,共五篇。其中收錄在《紐約客》中的有四篇:〈謫仙怨〉、〈骨灰〉、〈Danny Boy〉、〈Tea for Two〉。加上1971年作者與夏志清合譯的〈謫仙記〉,以及1980年作者與尹佩霞合譯的〈夜曲〉,《紐約客》一書中的六篇,以此完結。此外另有一篇近作,〈Silent Night〉,該是屬於《紐約客》系列,最初發表於《聯合報》「當代小說特區」(2015年12月24-25日)。

除了五篇小說之外,我們另外選譯了四篇散文,代表四個不同的題材,呈現在評論方面的不同面向:對《現代文學》當初創刊的回顧、五四以來中國小說缺乏藝術經營的問題、小說與電影的關係,以及一篇對新詩的評論。白先勇知道台灣詩壇壁壘分明,向來不涉及新詩的評論,這篇〈望帝春心的哀歌—讀杜國清的《心雲集》〉,也可以看出小說家與詩人對人生愛與哀的情感書寫,自有一份戚戚然的知音共鳴。

It could be said that Pai Hsien-yung is the most renowned and broadly recognized contemporary Chinese writer, whether in Taiwan, China, Southeast Asia, or any other region of the Chinese world. His literary activities, achievements, and status as an eminent writer within the context of Taiwan literature is a phenomenon worthy of study. Therefore, we dedicate an entire issue to exploring it.

【About the Editors】

Kuo-ch'ing Tu, born in Taichung, Taiwan. His research interests include Chinese literature, Chinese poetics and literary theories, comparative literature East and West, and world literatures of Chinese (Shi-Hua wenxue). He is the author of numerous books of poetry in Chinese, as well as translator of English, Japanese, and French works into Chinese.

Terence Russell is an Associate Professor in the Asian Studies Center at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His early research dealt with classical Chinese literature and religion but for the past few years his interest has turned to contemporary literature in Chinese, especially the literature of Taiwan's indigenous people. Dr. Russell has a strong interest in translation and translation theory.

Shu-ning Sciban is a professor of Chinese and teaches Chinese language and literature at the University of Calgary. Her research interests include modern and contemporary Chinese and Taiwanese fiction, writing by Chinese women, Chinese diaspora literature, narratology, rhetoric, stylistics, and Chinese language. She co-edited with Fred Edwards Dragonflies: Fiction by Chinese Women in the Twentieth Century (Cornell East Asia Program, 2003) and Endless War: Fiction and Essays by Wang Wen-hsing (Cornell East Asia Program, 2011), with Lai-hsin Kang and San-hui Hong on Mandu Wang Wen-hsing [Slow reading Wang Wen-hsing] (7 volumes) (National Taiwan UP, 2013), and co-edited with Ihor Pidhainy Reading Wang Wenxing: Critical Essays (Cornell East Asia Program, 2015).

【About the Translators】

John Balcom teaches translation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Recent translations include Stone Cell by Lo Fu (Zephyr) and Trees without Wind by Li Rui (Columbia University Press).

Howard Goldblatt has been translating Taiwanese literature for more than forty years. His work includes the translation of Pai Hsien-yung’s novel Niezi [Crystal Boys].

Yingtsih Hwang is an independent scholar and translator based in Monterey.

Linshan Jiang is a PhD student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her MA in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, China. Her research interests are modern and contemporary Chinese literature, interdisciplinary studies of memory and translation, and literary criticism. Her MA thesis is entitled“Intertextual Approach to Translating Anthroponomastic Allusions in Taipei People.”

Sylvia Li-chun Lin, a native of Tainan, Taiwan, was Associate Professor of Chinese at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Notre Dame, where she taught modern and contemporary Chinese literature, film, and culture.
Her book, Representing Atrocity in Taiwan: The 2/28 Incident and White Terror in Fiction and Film was published by Columbia University Press. In 2013, she resigned from Notre Dame to be a full time translator and writer. She has translated short stories and co-translated full-length novels from Taiwan and China, including Li Ang’s The Lost Garden (Columbia UP, 2015).

Christopher Lupke is Professor of Modern Chinese Cultural Studies and Chair of East Asian Studies at the University of Alberta. His recent book The Sinophone Cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien is a comprehensive treatment of this Taiwanese auteur’s complete oeuvre. In addition to writing on cinema and literature, Lupke is a long-time translator. His works have appeared in this journal, as well as New England Review, Michigan Quarterly, Epiphany, Free Verse, Five Points, Eleven Eleven, and several other literary journals.

Steven Riep is Associate Professor of Chinese and comparative literature at Brigham Young University. He teaches courses in modern and contemporary Chinese literature, cinema, culture,and advanced business language as well as comparative literature.
His research interests include disability studies; cultural production under authoritarian regimes; war, memory and literature and ecocriticism. He is currently working on a book manuscript analyzing how disability is depicted and used in contemporary Chinese fiction, poetry, essays and visual culture including film.

Terence Russell is Associate Professor of Chinese in the Asian Studies Centre at the University of Manitoba. He received his PhD in classical Chinese from Australian National University. More recently he has turned his attention to modern literature in Chinese, especially the literature of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples. His translations include the work of numerous Taiwanese writers, both Indigenous and ethnic Han, as well as two full-length novels by the Shandong writer Zhang Wei: Jiuyue yuyan [September Fable] and Mogu qizhong [Seven Kinds of Mushrooms]. He is currently co-editor of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series.

Bert M. Scruggs is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and author of Translingual Narration: Colonial and Postcolonial Taiwanese Fiction and Film.

Foreword to the Special Issue on Pai Hsien-yung
「白先勇專輯」卷頭語

Fiction
Tea for Two/Translated by Howard Goldblatt
Danny Boy/Translated by Sylvia Li-chun Lin
Silent Night/Translated by Terence Russell
Remains of the Dead 骨灰/Translated by Steven Riep
A Fallen Angel's Complaint 謫仙怨/Translated by Yingtsih Hwang

Essays
Social Consciousness and the Art of Fiction—Problems with
Chinese Fiction after May Fourth 社會意識與小說藝術—「五四」以來中國小說的幾個問題/Translated by Christopher Lupke
The Historical Background to the Founding of ModernLiterature and Its Spiritual Orientation—Foreword for theReissue of Modern Literature 《現代文學》創立的時代背景及其精神風貌—寫在《現代文學》重刊之前/Translated by Linshan Jiang
Novels and Movies 小說與電影/Translated by Bert Scruggs
Lament for Emperor Wang's Amorous Heart—on reading Tu Kuo-ch'ing's Clouds of the Heart 望帝春心的哀歌—讀杜國清的《心雲集》/Translated by John Balcom

About the Translators
About the Editors
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