The global afterlife: Sino-French literature and the politics of translation

Abstract

Following the critical acclaim of Sino-French literature in recent years, an increasing number of Chinese presses have solicited translations of prize-winning novels written in French by authors of Chinese descent. Yet as the work of authors like François Cheng, Shan Sa, Ya Ding and Dai Sijie travels from French into Chinese, it also undergoes a transformation via the politics of translation and publication in China. This essay exposes the inner workings of translation between French and Chinese, as well as the politics that colour its publication and reception between France and China. The act of translating these works back into their authors’ native tongue signals a return to the national paradigms the writers initially sought to evade by writing in French. Translation here functions as a form of aggression, a forced return home that ultimately breaks with the poetic ethos that animates the original creative works.