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.
Here are links to some of Anne’s recent translations:
- 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/
- Tang Danhong, “Chairman Mao Is Dead!” China Channel, Oct. 2017 (forthcoming republication in Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing), https://chinachannel.org/2017/10/12/chairman-mao-dead/
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
- Tang Danhong, “Tarim, My Uyghur Friend,” China Channel, Aug. 2020, https://chinachannel.org/2020/
08/28/tarim-uyghur/ - 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),
- republished Jul. 2019 in Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/
- 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/