As I anticipate my chicken curry and lemon bars, I’ll mention some of the gifts that have come my way. There was a group of movies, for some reason all Asian: two by Tsai Ming-Liang (Rebels of the Neon God and Vive L’amour), Mother by Bong Joon-ho (I loved his Parasite and Memories of Murder), and the new 2-Blu-ray Criterion edition of Seven Samurai (replacing my ancient DVD), one of my favorite movies (I last watched it in conjunction with a reread of The Last Samurai and am due for another viewing). Oh, and I almost forgot Gimme Shelter, one of the greatest and most troubling of rock movies. My lovely and generous wife gave me this Mingus box set (7 CDs!). And I got a book of great Hattic interest: Taiwan Travelogue: A Novel, by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ (her name has the tone marks on the cover, the first time I remember seeing that). The NY Times review by Shahnaz Habib (archived) gives an idea of what I mean about its interest:
Aoyama Chizuko, a Japanese novelist, is traveling around Taiwan with O Chizuru, a brilliant translator with deep knowledge of the island’s layers of culture. Having received an official invitation to conduct a lecture series, Chizuko plans to spend a year on the island writing travel articles for Japanese publications. […]
Who better to answer these questions than a translator, adept in the language and culture of the colony and the colonizer? Translation, after all, can be both a capitulation and an act of resistance to the soft power of an empire. Having mastered the master’s toolbox, the translator understands precisely how cultural domination works.
Perhaps this is why Yang fashions “Taiwan Travelogue” as a nesting doll of translations. Richly detailed conversations about food, for example, serve as code for the growing erotic tension between Chizuko and Chizuru, which remains unspoken.
Beyond this, the book itself is presented as a fictional translation of a Japanese novel written by Chizuko years after she returns to Nagasaki. According to this framing device, the novel was published in Japan in 1954, and translated into Mandarin twice, first by Chizuru, and then decades later by Yang. There are multiple afterwords and many footnotes from both fictional and real translators. It all amounts to a virtuosic performance of literary polyphony.
In her disorientingly convincing afterword, Yang, writing as the book’s fictional translator, recounts how she discovered Chizuko’s novel by following a breadcrumb trail of archival material. (To complicate matters further, Yang Shuang-zi is actually a pseudonym, but, for your sanity and mine, I refer to her as the author in this review.)
A few pages later, the novel’s English-language translator, Lin King, writes in her own (real) afterword that she consulted the Japanese translation of “Taiwan Travelogue” for help with certain terms, noting the irony of turning to “the Japanese translation of a Taiwanese novel that claims to be a Taiwanese translation of a Japanese novel.”
I imagine I’ll be posting about it in due course.
Update. A couple of later-arriving novels: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward and A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar.
Van harte gefeliciteerd!
Naa, Azupibiga! Bareka nɛ fʋ du’am daar di’ema!
Mingus box set … Richly detailed conversations about food
Ah Um and yum yum! Yumptious Birthday wishes.
Thanks! (We discussed the Latin origin of Mingus Ah Um last year.)
Many happy returns! (I’d never actually considered the meaning of this standard greeting until now. Ah, the insights of age.)
Kívánjuk, hogy legyen még sok ilyen szép napod!
What a haul — enjoy! 🎂
ביז הונדערט צװאַנציק!
¡Qué disfrutes, chavaluco!
!מזל טוב, ותתחדש
Hjarteleg til lukke med dagen!
Palju õnne sünnipäevaks!
Cento di questi giorni!
i’m so excited to hear what you think of Olondria!
生日快樂!
I’ve been reading both the original and the translation of Taiwan Travelogue (comparing them), and I’ll be interested in what you think, of course!
I’ve been reading both the original and the translation of Taiwan Travelogue (comparing them), and I’ll be interested in what you think, of course!
Wow, I envy you! I just started it, and am already fascinated — my head is spinning (in a good way). Do you think it’s a good translation?
Presumably O Chizuru is supposed to be a Taiwanese lady of non-Japanese ethnicity despite the Japanese name. Some Taiwanese did take Japanese names during the period of Japanese colonial rule, although one source i just googled up said that official pressure to do so didn’t really ramp up until 1940 under wartime conditions.
I am curious as to whether that character *also* has a Chinese name that’s given in parallel in the narrative – in many cases the Japanified names were just as it were calques, using the Japanese family name that traditionally went with the same kanji as the Chinese family name. In that regard Japanese O = 王 = Wang. So, e.g., the legendary home-run king Sadaharu Oh (Ō Sadaharu) is also Wang Chen-chih.
My related curiosity is whether given the tendency in Japanese as in Western cultures for given names especially female ones to undergo historical churn the name Chizuru (千鶴) is period-appropriate or an anachronism. I was struck with wikipedia’s admittedly short English-language list of notable Chizurus having no one on it born before 1971 (and that one is a stage name; the earliest-born one with it as a birth name was born 1978). A 1962 issue of Life magazine reports (in a story on Japanese nightlife) a then-19-year-old striptease artiste named Chizuru, but that lady would presumably be a full generation younger than the fictional-translator in the novel.
I feel like avoiding anachronistic names for characters in novels with “period” settings is a skill that not all English-language novelists are equally good at, and I imagine the same might be true elsewhere.
I am curious as to whether that character *also* has a Chinese name that’s given in parallel in the narrative
From the introduction:
I think you can take for granted that the author has done her homework.
@hat: Thanks. What does “Mainland” mean in context? Usually in the context of Taiwan it means the Communist-bandit-occupied parts of China, but here does it mean Honshu? Note also that the “Ms.” is rather anachronistic as applied to the world of either 1954 or fifteen years prior thereto.
I read that the grandfather of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (currently facing criminal charges for alleged corruption which his supporters claim are trumped up by his political opponents) was an Aoyama for a while in the 1940’s. Until the KMT arrived on the scene and it seemed more politic to revert to being a Ke.
What does “Mainland” mean in context?
Japan; this is the 1930s we’re talking about.
@hat: yes, that was my guess from context. I think I’ve come across “Home Islands” or phrases like that as English equivalents of “naichi” but not “Mainland,” but obviously the title of this wiki article is what it is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainland_Japan
Here’s a later passage about the name:
The footnote says “En is Japanese for the Mandarin yuán, the Buddhist concept that translates roughly to fated connections or coincidences between people.”
Until the KMT arrived
Taiwan was ruled by Japan for half a century. Plenty of time for the Japanese posted there to start a family and put down roots. Japan was in chaos in 1945. So better to return to a ‘home’ you never knew or to stay put and keep your head down?
former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (currently facing criminal charges for alleged corruption which his supporters claim are trumped up by his political opponents)
You’re missing the key detail that when his mayoralty term ended, he set up a new national political party (allegedly centrist), which now has a small but significant presence in the parliament, where neither of the main large parties command a majority. So both sides of the previous status quo have reason to discredit him.
OTOH even if he wasn’t himself actually criminal, several of those around him during his mayoralty clearly were corrupt, and dragged his name into their schemes to gain credibility. He’s at least ‘guilty’ of negligence/insufficient attention to detail. You might get away with that as mayor [**] — which is more of a ceremonial position — but not in national politics. (BoJo anyone?)
[**] Most mayors of large cities in Taiwan have dirty hands. The current leader of the KMT in the parliament was formerly mayor of Kaohsiung, and got biffed out for going AWOL. Mayor of Taichung has a ‘constant companion’/adviser entirely unelected. The Ko allegations are as nothing to the married (or are they) couple running Hualien County.
But if the electorate keeps re-electing convicted criminals, what is a democracy to do?
I just picked up Taiwan Travelogue (English translation) from the library and started reading. It is certainly interesting so far, but I’m not yet sure if I am going to love it (or even like it).
I remember a previous discussion here about whether to translate engawa as “veranda” or “corridor” (in Swedish). Taiwan Travelogue‘s translator uses “engawa veranda”. There is a diagram of the floorplan of the house which shows precisely which rooms the “engawa veranda” connects corridor-like.
Yes! I was going to mention that, but you got there first. I pumped my fist when I saw that!
It is certainly interesting so far, but I’m not yet sure if I am going to love it (or even like it).
Having read several chapters, I’m somewhat disillusioned — it turns out to be basically a Young Adult novel with a breathless adolescent narrator much like the one in A Memory Called Empire (see this post), with a great many descriptions of local food. I’m still enjoying the detailed account of life in Taiwan (where I spent a memorable year), and I like the framing device, but it’s not the literary novel I had expected.
However, there are many bits of interest; here’s one where the translator is explaining the local linguistic situation:
The original Chinese, for those who can read it:
it turns out to be basically a Young Adult novel with a breathless adolescent narrator
And I just came across this line, clearly a wink to the reader:
Original:
So it’s admittedly a shōjo novel, and not directed at the likes of me.
Separately, I hope hat enjoys the Mingus box set. I recently relistened to the _Changes One_* album incorporated therein, and it has held up very very well. (I think that may have been the first Mingus album I ever heard, before I had gotten to _Ah Um_ and etc etc.?) That particular moment (and of course _Changes Two_ came from the same recording sessions) was a late-career high point for Mingus. I am grateful to have had the opportunity in my own life to see everyone other than Mingus himself who played on those records perform live (Pullen/Adams/Richmond all together sometime in the mid-late ’80’s**; Jack Walrath, who’s the only one of the quintet who is still alive, more recently than that).
*Whether this title influenced the title of the ChangesOneBowie greatest-hits compilation released a year later or whether it’s sheer coincidence is a discographical-history mystery I have thus far been unable to solve
**With Cameron Brown as the “ringer” playing bass; I’ve separately seen him play sometime in the last decade or thereabouts.
Separately, I hope hat enjoys the Mingus box set.
Very much so! I’ve been listening to a CD per day (it’s a very nice package — each CD reproduces the original LP cover art and liner notes), and I enthusiastically agree about Changes One and Changes Two — I had fears that my memory might have gilded them (I used to play the LPs a lot), but they were just as good as I remembered; as you say, a late-career high point. The other CDs are not as magnificent, but they’re still good Mingus, and I’m very happy.
i’m glad to know the box set is as good as it sounded like it oughta be! i’ll have to try to get my hands on a copy.
the one time i’ve gotten to see jack walrath (probably more than 20 years back, already) he was in fine form (and quite sweet, if a bit nonplussed, at being asked about whatever obscure tune of his i was obsessed with at the time).
Sorry, been working on an editing project; deadlines, you know. My opinion of the novel itself is very close to Hat’s, so I won’t say too much more, except that I’m disappointed. The translation is good, though. Both the author and the translator have done their homework.
Hat’s quote above from the novel about Taiwan’s linguistic situation at the time is a good example of another problem with the novel: The young interpreter seems to be far too knowledgeable about many things. It’s not impossible, but rather unlikely that such a person would have been able to deliver such a summary (in such a modern tolerant tone) in 1938. It seems that the novel is pitched to/for current international interest in Taiwan, with the added spice of being “a queer novel with no sex,” as the author or translator (can’t remember which one) put it in a joint interview. For me, a lot of the informational stuff comes off as propaganda, as I often already know it (except for a lot of the food details). Even with the food, it seems a bit much that the young translator not only knows about, but can make, practically every kind of Taiwanese food that the narrator mentions.
About Japanese in Taiwan at the end of WWII, it seems that only about 1,300 stayed. The incoming KMT and their followers would have been in general extremely unfriendly to them. See the Taiwan FactCheck Center, for example: https://en.tfc-taiwan.org.tw/who-are-japanese-taiwanese-the-chinese-disinformation-that-fixated-on-the-ties-between-taiwan-and-japan/
Taiwan FactCheck Center
Hmm. I appreciate the FactCheck is trying to counter CCP propaganda. Never the less, the numbers aren’t adding up [**]. I suspect we’re seeing counter-propaganda propaganda. Specifically the 1,300 figure [per Note 2 ***] and “Japanese, approximately 320,000, were sent back to Japan”.
At the end of the War, total population estimated at 6.5m. (The Japanese hadn’t taken their usual 5-yearly census.) Of which half a million were Japanese.
Half a million less 320,000 gives a number two orders of magnitude adrift from 1,300. Does it mean 130,000?
Indubitably the KMT tried to erase all evidence of Japanese rule. For example (nearly) all Shinto shrines were destroyed — the few that survive/at least some remains survive are now noted in tourist brochures.
Then yes the KMT would have been unfriendly to any remainers. My “keep your head down” might include deciding you were not Japanese. Beyond that presumption, all I can see is anecdotal. So my own anecdotal evidence: what are the chances that a random New Zealander would happen upon a Taiwan family with a Japanese parent who, already married, had stayed on after 1945?
[**] And/or further evidence that Google AI overview can’t do math. I’ve tried to find cited numbers for all of the above. How reliable would any numbers be in the fog of war?
[***] I can’t get the text of the doco cited, and anyway I suspect it’s in Chinese.
The young interpreter seems to be far too knowledgeable about many things.
Well, yes; she’s not an actual character (plausible human being), she’s a combination crush-object (batting eyes, mysterious smiles, blushes) and omniscient provider of infodumps (further infodumps provided by the many footnotes). I’m tempted to tear out and throw away the chapters (containing the YA plot) and just keep the forewords and afterwords (with the metafictional stuff).
I just discovered that Peter Tosh recorded a version of “Johnny B. Goode.” I wasn’t sure what to expect before I listened to it, but it is pretty much what you might imagine Tosh performing Berry would be like. I had a number of thoughts about it, but none that I considered particularly deep. It did remind me, however, that a friend of a friend expressed surprise a couple weeks ago when we feel into an extended conversation about music over lunch. I don’t think I am that knowledgeable about music in general (although there are areas, like American folk and the string orchestra repertoire, that I do think I am reasonably well informed about), but it turns out that with a good memory and even a very brief stint as a semi-professional musician, one picks up a lot of odd facts.
@Hat
Don’t forget her dimples–which appear even more often in the original.
Oh god, the dimples. Happily, I’ve finished it, and I’ve now started A Stranger in Olondria (which also has a map — I love maps).
Herzlichen Glückwunsch nachträglich!
(I’m on vacation in Almaty, and while I enjoy the reunions with family and friends after not being in Kazakhstan fir 9 years, and showing the city and surroundings to our prospective son-in-law, this makes it difficult to keep up with LH 😉 )
I resumed the tradition of giving a presentation on our birthday. It was a relatively cool summer day in Cracow.