Literary translation and language as resistance, with Anne Henochowicz

Today’s guest, Anne Henochowicz, works at the intersection of literature and human rights. She has translated leaked propaganda directives and subversive Weibo posts, investigative journalism and poetry. She is currently the translations coordinator at China Digital Times and a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel. She also leads the NüVoices chapter in Washington, D.C.

In this episode, Anne and Cindy Gao talk about the translator's relationship and responsibility to the original texts and their authors, the beauty and nuance of great translation, and the impact COVID-19 has had on the tone of online discourse and translated works.

Links to the translations mentioned in this interview:

Tang Danhong, “Tarim, My Uyghur Friend,” China Channel, Aug. 2020, https://chinachannel.org/2020/08/28/tarim-uyghur/He Xiaoxin, “How Far Can I Go? How Much Can I Do?” China Digital Times, Aug. 2015, https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/08/he-xiaoxin-how-far-can-i-go-and-how-much-can-i-do/Tang Danhong, “Chairman Mao Is Dead!” China Channel, Oct. 2017, https://chinachannel.org/2017/10/12/chairman-mao-dead/ republished Jul. 2019 in Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/42693/print),

 

Translated poetry:

Yu Xiuhua, “Mourning Li Wenliang,” China Digital Times, Feb. 2019, https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/02/translation-a-poem-for-dr-li-wenliang-and-a-call-for-free-speech/Meng Lang, “To China, to the Bystanders,” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Jul. 2019, https://www.asiancha.com/wp/article/to-china/Also, check out Yu Xinqiao’s bilingual book of poetry, The Last Lyric, translated by Yunte Huang, at https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9780998743837/the-last-lyric.aspx.

Some writing:

"Huang Xueqin: 'To Resist Tyranny, Start Small,'" China Digital Times, Dec. 2019, https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2019/12/huang-xueqin-to-resist-tyranny-start-small/"Of Rice Bunnies and Grass-Mud Horses," China Channel, Feb. 2018, https://chinachannel.org/2018/02/27/rice-bunnies-grass-mud-horses/"Finding a Common Thread: A History of Chinese Language," Los Angeles Review of Books, Aug. 2016, http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/chinablog/common-thread-history-chinese-dialects/

Finally, some links to works by the authors mentioned during the interview:

Yu Xinqiao: https://www.s