Translation Zones in Modern China: Authoritarian Command Versus G ...

Politically motivated translation might also be initiated by publishers. In China, the Foreign Languages Press was for some three decades the prime example of literary translation for political purposes. Two works critical of China that were translated into English and published in 1978, written in both cases by writers who managed to leave China towards the end of the Cultural Revolution, are Chen Ruoxi’s The Execution of Mayor Yin and Xia Zhiyan’s The Coldest Winter in Peking. It could be argued, however, that the former work, published by Indiana University Press, deserved publication on the grounds of its literary merit, whereas the latter, published by Doubleday in New York and W. Allen in London, had little to recommend it apart from its sensational revelations.¹⁴

Personal translations were initiated by the writer or the translator on the basis of a personal relationship. These translations were not commissioned or authorized by a third party and were not necessarily profitable to either writer or translator. Although the two parties’ goals for the translated works might differ, the personal satisfaction of one or both was a primary function. The eventual publication of the translations could be made by academic, commercial, or political publishers, depending on what organization happened to be available and convenient. The example I am most familiar with is, of course, my own translations of poetry by the once-underground and later unofficial writer Zhao Zhenkai (1949–), better known by his penname, Bei Dao.¹⁵

The differences between the four kinds of transactions were not absolute, and this was even more the case for publications that were made outside of China.Political interests could overlap with commercial and academic interests, as in the case of short stories by Chen Jo-hsi (Chen Ruoxi) translated by Nancy Ing and Howard Goldblatt and published as The Execution of Mayor Yin by Indiana University Press in 1978. My English translations of Bei Dao’s poems were published in book form first by Cornell University Press in 1983 and later by Anvil Press Poetry in London (1988) and New Directions in New York (1990).

In any of these transactions, the relationship between the writer and the translator could be long lasting or fleeting; it could be successful in career or financial terms, or it could yield nothing more than personal