Collaboration and the Modern Chinese-language Self-translator

Abstract

This article examines how Chinese-language self-translators have worked with co-translators and collaborators over the last century. The first study of its kind, it surveys a vast terrain, including mainland China and Taiwan, and places further afield. From the analysis of bibliographical sources, published works and their paratexts, letters, and written testimonies, this article details first the complex theoretical and methodological issues to be negotiated when researching these phenomena. It then explores the marked prevalence of collaborative authorship in the self-translation of literary texts in Chinese, noting the visibility or disclosure of the collaborators’ work in each instance and across periods generally, giving also an account of their motivations. It explores in depth the case of the Chinese writer, self-translator and Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian, finding that Gao’s work challenges a number of received ideas about author-translator collaboration, such as the assumption that the author’s involvement necessarily restricts the translator’s freedom. By discussing how diverse cases exhibit the various modes of writing in which different parties engage during translation and revision, and how such types of collaboration are disclosed or effaced in the published work, this article seeks to establish clear theoretical terms for the study of collaboration and co-translation in instances of self-translation.