China
Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009 "If you would like to
have a new exclusive contribution on a desired topic, please contact me
via email (martin@woesler.de). At present I am interviewing Chinese
authors. So far I have published about 900 articles in newspapers and
magazines. "Exerpts online."
Activities
2009/06/27 Symposium
„Chinesische Literatur in deutscher
Übersetzung“ (Chinese Literature in German Translation)
2008/05 Francfurt: Interview
"Die Stunde
der Jungen" in the Börsenblatt des Deutschen Buchhandels
2008/04/29 translators' pitch "Rotes Kornfeld",
Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels, Frankfurt
2009/04/22 Speech of Prof. Kautz at the Confucius
Institute Hamburg: Contemporary Chinese literature on the book market -
chances and problems
2009/04/22 Speech of Prof. Dr. Wang
Hongtu
王宏图, Vice President of the Confucius Institute Hamburg, "Contemporary
Chinese Literature:
>From Westernization to Chineseness"
2008/05 "List of recommendation of contemporary Chinese
literature“ of the Book Information Center (BIC) Beijing, China
2008/07/07-14 "German-Chinese shop for literary translation"
Künstlerhaus Edenkoben (Robert Bosch Foundation)
Books written by Chinese
authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009
The following books could possibly be considered
"best-sellers":
Xu Zechen: Im Laufschritt durch Peking
(Vagabond literature, realistic narration from the point of view of a
farm-worker, who tries his luck with selling forged documents and DVDs)
Mian Mian: Panda Sex
(controversial novel, prohibited in China but well-known due to pirate
copies, considered "trash" by the German Sinologist Wolfgang Kubin
in 2006, published in China in Febuary 2009 and sold out
immediately)
Liu Zhenyun: Taschendiebe (master story teller, thriller
about a usb stick with information about corruption)
Yu Hua: Brüder (master story teller)
Cao Xueqin: Der Traum
der Roten Kammer (most famous Chinese novel,
classic, last Chinese piece of world literature, 250 years old but
still up to date, first full translation into German, also available as
paper back)
Authors on their reading journey
through Germany:
Except for BI Shumin (women's literature, 2007 Chinese best-selling
list, ranked number 14) and A Lai/Alai (Tibetan
author), neither one of the 15 authors that come from
the delegation of the "Allchinesischen
Schriftstellerverband" (Chinese PEN, All Chinese
Association of Authors) are known/represented with important works in
China or at the
Fankfurt Book Fair: ZHANG Yueran,
QIN Wenjun, CHI Zijian, GONG Pengcheng, DAI Lai. In
Bavaria at the end of April: DAI Lai und TAN Xudong, in May QIN Wenjun
und GUO
Xuebo. For the Book Fair, 20 authors have been selected and they will
participate in about 35 events.
Contemporate
best-selling authors in China Guo Jingming:
Tränen gegen den Strom (ranked as number 1 best-selling novel in 2007);
Han
Han:
Drei Tore, Tage des Ruhms, Sein Land (ranked as number 1
best-selling novel at the beginning of 2009).
In China other books are read by now: Best-selling books
in China 2007. The books in Frankfurt in average are already more
than 5 years old
in China. Some German publishing companies simply published new
editions of
old books. Another reason for the incorrect representation of Chinese
literature is the funding of selected translations by the Chinese
Government.
Trends in contemporary Chinese
literature
Vagabond literature (Xu Zechen: Im Laufschritt durch Peking),
women's literature, master story tellers (Liu
Zhenyun: Taschendiebe, Mo Yan: Der Überdruss), cult literature,
literature of mental emergency (Mo Yan: Die Sandelholzstrafe): Trends in contemporary Chinese
literature
Governmental exertion of influence and
consideration of governmental interests In China there doesn't exist an independent sponsorship, only a
sponsorship by the Chinese Administration of propaganda and censorship,
officially called "General
Administration of Press and Publications" (GAPP).
Their selection of government-aided
new publications on the Frankfurt book fair
appears to be highly selective - even unsuspicious titles for whom an
aid was filed were not supported. However other titles which had
already been translated were granted an aid for translation. The aid
for some books did not arrive at the translators' hands (who ought to
receive
the aid) but at the publishing companies' hands. This seems to be
non-transparent and random. Certain critical titles did not receive aid
and even the "Book Information Center (BIC)" in Beijing advised against
the
petition of funding for critical books. Therefore, this cannot be
merely considered as arbitrariness, but purposeful manipulation. This
method should not be supported by anyone. It is a matter of decency
whether to accept money from an administration that is responsible for
the prohibition of critical books. There should be more independent
translation aids coming from truly independent literary foundations.
This would be a first important step. The German Book Information
Center in Beijing cooperates with the "General
Administration of Press and Publications" and calls the censors
"critics", publishes in cooperation with them books (Unterwegs.
Literatur-Gegenwart China. Zehn
Kurzgeschichten) and advises against
filings for support for books that do not have a chance to be granted
an aid by the GAPP, because they are not true to party lines.