This week, host Megan Cattel speaks to science fiction and fantasy translator, Emily Xueni Jin, on the art of translation and the rise of Chinese science fiction.
During the course of this discussion, Emily explains her process of translating work, and the special relationship she develops to writers who are bilingual themselves. The result is often a collaborative process, as Emily herself explains, “In a way, you basically develop a voice for them in the English language. Which they, in turn, being bilingual themselves, come to inhabit as well.”
Megan and Emily also discuss the essentialization of Chinese science fiction, where writers are often expected to answer questions on Chinese political issues completely unrelated to their work. As Emily points out in the discussion, her community of Chinese science fiction writers are usually just "sci-fi nerds," telling universal truths about the human condition.
This is a fascinating conversation about the power of language and the role of a translator, not merely to translate words, but as a mediator between cultures.
About Emily Xueni Jin: an essayist, science fiction and fantasy translator, translating both from Chinese to English and the other way around. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2017, and she is currently a PhD candidate in East Asian Languages and Literature at Yale University. Her most recent Chinese to English translations can be found in “The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories”, the first Chinese speculative fiction anthology in translation produced by female and non-binary creators, and “AI2041: Ten Visions for Our Future”, a collection of science fiction and essays cowritten by Dr. Kaifu Lee and Chen Qiufan. She’s currently a columnist for Sixth Tone.