Alternatively, we can respond to Yu Hua’s implicit challenge by attempting to make sense of these texts in allegori-cal terms: what do they tell us about history, politics, culture, contemporary Chinese literature, China in the 1990s?
All these responses are valid. But it is only when we ask what reading these difficult and beautiful stories means to us on an ethical, and ultimately human, level that they come into their own.
a note on the translation
“To translate,” the conventional wisdom reads, is
inevitably “to betray” the original. Translators are inexorably trapped between the demands of fidelity and readability, between the tasks of conveying the literal sense of a literary work and capturing its essence. Early on in the project, I asked Yu Hua what sort of translation he felt would be most suited to his work. His response was short and simple: “If you can get the images and the rhythm of my language down on paper, everything else will follow.” While these instructions may well have been overly optimistic, I have tried my best to reduplicate in English something of the experience of reading Yu Hua’s fiction in the original Chinese, to create a rough analogue of his utterly distinctive style, without sacrificing its sense. Experience, of course, is necessarily subjective. And, in this sense, my translations can never aspire to represent a perfect or authoritative representation of Yu Hua’s fiction. They are, instead, interpretations springing from my own encounters with these complex and illuminating stories.
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acknowledgments
This book would never have reached its readers
without the cooperation and assistance of many friends and colleagues. Li Tuo, one of the earliest and most influential supporters of experimental fiction in China, first inspired me to read and write about Yu Hua’s work when he was a visiting professor at Berkeley. Yu Hua willingly and enthu-siastically entrusted his work to the hands of a young and inexperienced translator. I am grateful for his faith in me and in this project. Howard Goldblatt helped make sure that my translations would reach their intended audience.
Cherry Chan provided the space in which I could successfully complete the project. Sharon Yamamoto, finally, was an extraordinarily thoughtful and unfailingly helpful editor.
Many others – including Lydia Liu, Jing Wang, Chris Hamm, Franka Jones, and the two anonymous readers for the Press – read sections of the manuscript and offered en-couragement, criticism, and suggestions for improvement.
Many of my original mistakes and misinterpretations have been weeded out thanks to their help. Those that remain are entirely my own responsibility.
Translator’s Postscript 273
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EDNOTE Page 275 Thursday, January 24, 2002 2:50 PM
Editor’s Note
The stories in this collection were originally published in Chinese in literary journals and subsequently were antholo-gized in different collections both in Taiwan and mainland China.
Literary journals. —— “On the Road at Eighteen” (Shiba sui chumen yuanxing); “The Past and the Punishments”
(Wangshi yu xingfa); and “Classical Love” (Gudian aiqing) first appeared in Beijing wenxue (Beijing literature), 1:1987, 2:1989, and 12:1988, respectively. “Blood and Plum Blossoms” (Xianxue meihua) and “Predestination” (Mingzhong zhuding) first appeared in Renmin wenxue (People’s literature), 3:1989 and 7:1993. “1986” (Yijiu baliu nian) and
“World Like Mist” (Shishi ru yan) first appeared in Shouhuo (Harvest literary magazine), 6:1987 and 5:1988. “The Death of a Landlord” (Yige dizhu de si) first appeared in Zhongshan (Bell mountain), 6:1992.
Anthologies. —— On the Road at Eighteen (Taipei: Yuanliu, 1991) includes “On the Road at Eighteen” and “1986.”
World Like Mist (Taipei: Yuanliu, 1991) includes “World Like Mist” and “Classical Love.” Summer Typhoon [Xiaji taifeng] (Taipei: Yuanliu, 1993) includes “Blood and Plum Blossoms” and “The Past and the Punishments.” Shudder
[Zhanli] (Hong Kong: Boyi chubanshe, 1995) includes
“Predestination” and “The Death of a Landlord.” In addition, all of the stories are included in a comprehensive three-volume collection of Yu Hua’s short fiction entitled Yu Hua’s Collected Works (Yu Hua zuopin ji), Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1994.
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The English translation of “On the Road at Eighteen”
appeared in slightly different form in The Columbia Anthol-ogy of Modern Chinese Literature, edited by Joseph S. M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt (Columbia University Press, 1995).
The English translation of “The Past and the Punishments”
appeared in slightly different form in Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused, edited by Howard Goldblatt (Grove Press, 1995).
276 editor’s note
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About the Translator
andrew f. jones is the author of Like a Knife: Ideology and Genre in Contemporary Chinese Popular Music. His writings on Chinese literature and popular culture have appeared in the journals Modern Chinese Literature and positions: east asia cultures critique as well as in Spin Magazine. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in East Asian Languages at UC Berkeley.
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SERIES Page 278 Thursday, January 24, 2002 2:50 PM
Also available in the series
The Three-Inch Golden Lotus
by f e n g j i c a i
Translated by David Wakefield
The Remote Country of Women
by b a i h u a
Thomas O. Beebee
Chaos and All That
by l i u s o l a
Translated by Richard King
Family Catastrophe
by w a n g w e n - h s i n g
Translated by Susan Wan Dolling
Imperfect Paradise
by s h e n c o n g w e n
Edited by Jeffrey Kinkley
Virgin Widows
by g u h u a
Translated by Howard Goldblatt
PROD Page 280 Thursday, January 24, 2002 2:50 PM
Production Notes
Composition and paging were done in
FrameMaker software on an AccuSet
Postscript Imagesetter by the design
and production staff of University
of Hawai‘i Press.
The text and display typeface is Garamond 3.
Offset presswork and binding were done by
The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group.
Text paper is Glatfelter Smooth Antique,
basis 50.
Document Outline
Contents
On the Road at Eighteen
Classical Love
World Like Mist
The Past and the Punishments
Blood and Plum Blossoms
The Death of a Landlord
Predestination
Translator’s Postscript
Editor’s Note
About the Translator