Career Talk: Bringing Taiwanese Literature and Scholarship Across Languages

The Centre of Taiwan Studies is delighted to bring together Dr Aoife Cantrill and Kiera Johnson to share their experiences working with Taiwanese literature and scholarship.

In their talks, they will each reflect on the creative, intellectual, and professional paths that connect languages and cultures through translation.

Aoife Cantrill's talk

Multilingualism and the complexities of cultural specificity can present challenges for Anglophone translators working with contemporary Taiwanese writing. Homophone-based word play, non-linear storytelling and the popularity of the literary essay form (sanwen) equally contribute to a perception of Taiwanese literature as complex, and thereby difficult to translate – literally and figuratively – to English-speaking audiences. However, the growth of Taiwan’s global and regional legibility over the past decade has remained closely tied to translation and literary festivals, whether in Prague or in Seoul. Contrary to perceptions of Taiwan’s marginality, literary translation is one area that has helped to forge new comparisons and connections with Taiwan’s modern history and contemporary society across the globe.

This talk draws on the translation of works by contemporary Taiwanese authors and artists including Dondon Hounwn, Yang Shuang-zi and Ma Yi-han to discuss the politics of queer, multilingual visibility in English, alongside the opportunity for creative translation when working with contemporary Taiwanese texts. It will also consider the complementary relationship between research and translation, spotlighting how translators often undertake forms of research distinct from other writers.

Kiera Johnson's talk

Literary translation can be a daunting career to break into, especially for first-time translators without prior publishing experience. This short talk aims to demystify what working as a literary translator can look like in practice, discuss the challenges and joys of working between languages in this career, and share some resources that can help prospective translators get started in their translation careers.

I will speak in detail about the two non-fiction articles I translated for the National Museum of Taiwan Literature nature writing volume, including the challenges of translating culturally specific concepts and the precision required for non-fiction translation work in particular. I will then move on to speak briefly and more generally about working as a literary translator and discuss aspects that can seem particularly opaque or intimidating for first-time translators, such as how to find potential publishers and submit your work to them, and what the timeline for getting a translation published can actually look like.