I have a new CNF piece on Carte Blanche‘s blog. Thanks so much to editor Jen Ferguson for working with me on this, and to Carte Blanche for giving this piece a home.
Here’s the beginning of the piece:
A Xiákè in Jiānghú: Wǔxiá Fiction, Translations, and #RacismInCanLit
“I’m writing a novel in English that’s inspired by wǔxiá fiction.”
As I finished speaking in Mandarin, forty middle school students stared back at me with stunned eyes. It was as if I had suddenly transformed into a xiákè, a wandering warrior, who had stepped out of the pages of a wǔxiá novel and into their classroom in Chóngqìng, China. In reality, I was only a visiting writer and translator, with no martial arts skills or supernatural powers, recently returned to visit the land of my birth.
Gasps and questions continued, becoming louder and louder.
Mrs. Hé shushed her students and turned to me with awe. “Wǔxiá fiction is so rooted in traditional Chinese literature and culture. How can you write wǔxiá in English?”
I smiled and launched into a more detailed explanation. “ is currently being translated into English. Other wǔxiá novels have been translated too. Some Anglophone writers already draw on wǔxiá traditions.”
Wǔxiá, which I translated as martial arts fantasy, is often considered quintessentially Chinese. The stories feature xiákè, whether a hero or outlaw or someone in between, who journeys through an unknown, violent, and often romanticized jiānghú world. The genre shares similarities with warrior tales from many cultures. But it is full of lyrical names for characters, clans, and martial arts moves that sound awkward and wordy in English translation. On top of this, the genre relies on countless literary, historical, philosophical and religious allusions.
My shoulders sank, overwhelmed. After sharing this, I had no energy to mention the even wider chasms that existed. Many wǔxiá-inspired fantasy novels in English have been written by white authors who had Orientalist obsessions with ancient China, resulting in stereotypes, assumptions, and misunderstanding. Mysterious kung-fu fighting monks. Hidden magic. Exotic foods. Depictions of foreignness, even when all the characters are Chinese.
And beyond that, there was the male gaze. The oldest wǔxiá folktale with a martial arts heroine, “The Sword of the Yue Maiden,” dates all the way back to the Spring and Autumn period (771 to 475 BCE), and it’s followed by many other tales like “Niè Yǐnniáng” and “The Woman in the Carriage.” But these stories were mostly written and continue to be told by straight, cisgender men.
Mrs. Hé interrupted my thoughts. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
I quickly pulled myself together, grinning at her and the students. “I’m fine. It’s going to be a long road, but I’m excited.”
When I was eleven, around these students’ age, I immigrated overseas to join my mother in Canada. Alone in a new land and not quite fluent in English, I spent many hours on a forum for Chinese middle schoolers. In cyberspace, we role-played xiákè characters, making up virtual martial arts “clans” with names like Misty Dream Pavilion and Mystical Rose Palace. The fictional clans we formed were a common trope in wǔxiá novels. Later, as I grew older and adjusted to life in Canada, I left the forums, but my love of wǔxiá remained.
No matter the difficulties, I shall persist, for eleven-year-old Yilin, and for those like her.”
To read the whole piece, please go here: http://carte-blanche.org/xiake-jianghu-wuxia-fiction-translations-racismincanlit/.
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I also recently finished doing some Chinese-to-English translation and Chinese archival research work for Sara Wylie, a Canadian filmmaker and producer. It was my first time helping a filmmaker do research and I found the process fascinating. I would love to help with more film projects in the future, whether in terms of research, translating, or subtitling.
Sara has given me a lovely testimonial:
“I highly recommend the research and translation services of Yilin Wang. I hired her to do online archival research for a documentary film, which included finding news articles, academic articles, and photographs. She did an exceptional job at tracking down hard-to-find material and was also very helpful in translating both nonfiction articles and poetry, as well a providing literary/cultural context in relation to the project.”
– Sara Wylie, Filmmaker and Producer
