介绍:
Jin Yong might sound like an unassuming name to foreign audiences; yet in China, he has created "a cultural currency roughly equal to that of 'Harry Potter' and 'Star Wars' combined."
Born in 1924 into a scholarly family from east China's Zhejiang Province, Jin Yong, whose birth name is Cha Liangyong, has always been an avid reader and a rebellious free spirited individual since an early age. In 1946, he joined Ta Kung Pao, a Shanghai news agency as a journalist, and moved to its Hong Kong based division two years later. In 1955, he published his first martial arts novel: The Book and the Sword, or in Chinese, Shu Jian En Chou Lu.
"For me, writing fiction is pleasant while writing editorials is really painful. It's merely a job." Jin Yong once said.
From the mid-1950s to early 70s, Jin Yong has produced a total of 15 pieces, whose timelines stretch from the 6th century BC to the 18th century. Blurring the boundaries between fiction and real history, the writer has created an imaginary Jianghu, a marginalized part of society that follows its own code of conduct and reveres the power of martial arts.
Considered one of China's most beloved and best-selling authors still alive, Jing Yong is now 94 years old and lives in seclusion. Meanwhile, his books continue to inspire numerous TV shows, movies, comic books, anime and video games.
However, due to the complexity and ingeniousness of his writings, Jin Yong's novels have long been deemed as impossible to translate.
This year, "A Hero Born", the first installment of his legendary series "Legends of the Condor Heroes," widely known in China as "She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan", was released in English for the first time. This landmark publication also marks the first trade edition of any of Jin Yong's works in English.
"…and I think that although the setting and some of the details about these stories are obviously very Chinese and are deeply rooted in thousands of years of Chinese culture, the emotional world in these stories is very universal and easy to understand for a western reader. "
So in today's program, Shiyu talks with Anna Holmwood, a Chinese and Swedish into English literary translator to discuss Chinese martial arts fiction, as well as the universal appeal of Jin Yong's works in this genre. And as the translator of the Condor Heroes series, what drew her to this Chinese masterpiece?
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