--The NYT website again features large disaster photos of China on the opening page, the second or the third times in the past couple of months? What a "good" year 2008 has given us! I'm not religious, but would like to pray with all my heart that the quake-ridden families in Sichuan and the neighboring provinces can get the help they need as soon as possible!
--Last year when Prof G told me he would edit a special "China issue" of MQR for this spring, featuring writings/interviews of Yiyun Li, Ha Jin, Gao Xingjian, etc., I hadn't realized how the 2008 Beijing Olympics would affect culture and media at this side of the Pacific so greatly. Then in the past few months, it became increasingly clear that anything--simply anything-- about China would cause buzz this year. The New Yorker printed Ha Jin's "The House behind a Weeping Cherry" last month and this month gave Yiyun Li's "A Man like Him".
Both these two New Yorker stories are captivating. If Ha Jin's can be predictable in a sense with its description of Chinatown prostitutes' miserable life, Li's is not without surprises in terms of plot, set in contemporary China centering around an old bachelor art teacher. Yet while reading them I can't help wondering if they're translatable, or more specifically if the writing will remain equally good when translated into Chinese. I've always liked Ha Jin and am starting to read more by Yiyun Li after hearing endless praises of her from Americans. But deep inside, I seem to doubt if the stories can appear as interesting in Chinese as in English. Why so? What aspects of the writing make me think so? I've yet to read more closely to put my intuition into reasonable argument. No task for now. or, for ever--what's the point of taking the trouble to prove something is not as good as it appears?
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