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A review by greyreads
Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror by Xueting Christine Ni
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Oh boy.
So, as a known lover of both horror and Chinese literature, I was really excited for this collection. Unfortunately, it seems to be less a collection of Chinese horror in translation and more an attempt for the editor to position herself as the gatekeeper and lone voice fighting to bring it to an English-speaking audience.
My rating of 2 (revised down from 2.5 after several weeks of consideration) is only as high as it is because of the stories. Some I enjoyed more, some I enjoyed less, but I felt the breadth of the collection gave me a decent overview of the contemporary Chinese horror scene.
The editing and translation, however, is what lets this collection down to the extent that I feel truly awful for the writers, particularly as the editor repeatedly stressed how difficult she found persuading Chinese authors to trust her with their stories and how they would be presented to an outside audience. They were right to worry: the editing and translation were so inconsistent that it felt at points as if multiple translations from multiple translators—none of them with access to the same style guide—had been combined into a single final draft. The same Mandarin word would be in italics in one paragraph, then Roman, then italics again. Diacritics were used equally inconsistently. Some phrases would be translated in the text of the story, while other translations would be given as footnotes. The vast majority of untranslated Mandarin in the body of the stories was written in pinyin, with very few instances of the actual Chinese characters appearing instead. Again, why this choice was made in these few cases and not others is completely opaque to the reader.
What was translated also seemed to depend entirely on the unstated whim of the editor. "Da'ge" earnt itself two separate footnotes in two separate stories, while a theme that recurred in several—hukou (or huji), the Chinese system of household registration that has a huge impact on social mobility and internal migration—was never mentioned by name or explained at all, despite being referenced clearly by multiple authors. For a collection that specifically claims to want to examine the difference between urban and rural Chinese horror, this is a huge oversight and one that frankly makes me question the editor's capacity to present the topic in a meaningful way.
Lastly, every story was accompanied by an ending note that was ostensibly meant to be about the author and their background, as well as some more context for the story. However, the editor frequently used these to discuss herself and her own life, despite doing the same in the foreword already. I frankly don't pick up short story collections to learn about the person editing them, and it only added to the impression that this book is primarily about sharing the stories with a wider audience specifically so the editor will retroactively be positioned as a visionary pioneer should Chinese horror enjoy a boom in the west as Chinese sci-fi has.
Hugely disappointing. I hope to read more Chinese horror in translation in the future; I equally hope it will be translated and edited in a way where the story is allowed to be the star of the show—as it should be.
So, as a known lover of both horror and Chinese literature, I was really excited for this collection. Unfortunately, it seems to be less a collection of Chinese horror in translation and more an attempt for the editor to position herself as the gatekeeper and lone voice fighting to bring it to an English-speaking audience.
My rating of 2 (revised down from 2.5 after several weeks of consideration) is only as high as it is because of the stories. Some I enjoyed more, some I enjoyed less, but I felt the breadth of the collection gave me a decent overview of the contemporary Chinese horror scene.
The editing and translation, however, is what lets this collection down to the extent that I feel truly awful for the writers, particularly as the editor repeatedly stressed how difficult she found persuading Chinese authors to trust her with their stories and how they would be presented to an outside audience. They were right to worry: the editing and translation were so inconsistent that it felt at points as if multiple translations from multiple translators—none of them with access to the same style guide—had been combined into a single final draft. The same Mandarin word would be in italics in one paragraph, then Roman, then italics again. Diacritics were used equally inconsistently. Some phrases would be translated in the text of the story, while other translations would be given as footnotes. The vast majority of untranslated Mandarin in the body of the stories was written in pinyin, with very few instances of the actual Chinese characters appearing instead. Again, why this choice was made in these few cases and not others is completely opaque to the reader.
What was translated also seemed to depend entirely on the unstated whim of the editor. "Da'ge" earnt itself two separate footnotes in two separate stories, while a theme that recurred in several—hukou (or huji), the Chinese system of household registration that has a huge impact on social mobility and internal migration—was never mentioned by name or explained at all, despite being referenced clearly by multiple authors. For a collection that specifically claims to want to examine the difference between urban and rural Chinese horror, this is a huge oversight and one that frankly makes me question the editor's capacity to present the topic in a meaningful way.
Lastly, every story was accompanied by an ending note that was ostensibly meant to be about the author and their background, as well as some more context for the story. However, the editor frequently used these to discuss herself and her own life, despite doing the same in the foreword already. I frankly don't pick up short story collections to learn about the person editing them, and it only added to the impression that this book is primarily about sharing the stories with a wider audience specifically so the editor will retroactively be positioned as a visionary pioneer should Chinese horror enjoy a boom in the west as Chinese sci-fi has.
Hugely disappointing. I hope to read more Chinese horror in translation in the future; I equally hope it will be translated and edited in a way where the story is allowed to be the star of the show—as it should be.