King Gesar: Tibetan Epic in Modern Chinese Prose
Chinese Books, English Reviews, Chinese Fiction, Interviews with Authors and Translators Add comments
The latest entry in Canongate’s Myth Series, King Gesar, has been launched in China (格萨尔王), and the firm has confirmed to me that it hopes to publish it in English within 2011. When it makes its appearance, it will join other creatively re-told tales commissioned by the UK publisher, including The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood’s take on Penelope of The Odyssey), Baba Yaga Laid an Egg (Baba Yaga as per Dubravka Ugresic), and Binu and the Great Wall (by China’s Su Tong).
I have just begun reading King Gesar in Chinese, and I wonder: Who is the author, Alai, and why was he commissioned to write the novel? Having grown up in Tibet under Chinese rule, has he had access to traditional Tibetan literature and the minstrels who transmitted the epic ballad down through the ages? How well does the book capture the spirit of this epic that is still deeply revered among Tibetans, Mongolians and various peoples of Central Asia?
To help answer these questions, I’ve translated the first two of the new items below and provide links to an interview with Alai, and a scholarly (but easily readable) piece on the roaming King Gesar story-tellers by a Tibetan, Zhambei Gyaltsho:
- News on marketing plans for King Gesar
- A book review of King Gesar
- Excerpts from a revealing interview with Alai in English (not my translation) and Chinese
- Bab Sgrung: Tibetan Epic Singers
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I’ve enjoyed Alai’s previous work, and I expect that this will be a readable novel however he ends up treating the original myth.
Is translation a sure thing? I know that Li Rui and Ye Zhaoyan both contributed novels to the world myth series (the legends of White Snake and Chang’e, respectively) that haven’t appeared in English. I wonder if the project generated novels in other languages that haven’t been translated?
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Good point. No, it is not a “sure thing” that King Gesar will ever make it from Chinese to English.
However:
*** It doesn’t make much sense for Canongate to commission works in Chinese and leave it at that. The Myths Series is all about sharing ethnic culture with the global village.
*** Su Tong’s Binu and the Great Wall is already out in English from Canongate.
*** Reporting from the Frankfurt Book Fair, the UK’s “The Independent” wrote that “Among those Chinese publications picked up for the overseas market were everything from a series of history books titled “Cultural China,” to the “Scientific and Technological Development Roadmap,” to Tibetan author Alai’s popular novel, “King Gesar.”
*** In an article entitled “Mission Royale” (Sep 7, 2009), “The China Daily” points out that a translator has not yet been found, but notes that while speaking at the Beijing Book Fair in September this year, famous translator Howard Goldblatt said “he has been urging Alai for a new book and that he would gladly take on the new task [of translating 'King Gesar'].”
In the meantime, I’ve sent an e-mail to Canongate and will update if I get a response.
In my personal opinion, “King of Gesar” will certainly be translated into English, even if the Chinese government has to subsidize it, because a foreign publisher’s commissioning of the book in Chinese — not in Tibetan, mind you — is quite a coup for China’s claim to its benign “stewardship” of Tibet and Tibetan culture.
November 27th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Canongate has now contacted me to say that it “hopes” to have “King Gesar” published within 2011.
November 27th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for the reading list!
December 9th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I think the Chinese has expanded their “branch” of the series with some works of their own. And there are other novels that haven’t been translated in English so far, from Polish, Portugese and Swedish, for instance.
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:03 pm
So far there are a few books in the series that are not (yet?) translated into English. Since English in this case, very much plays the part of transit language, this means that those novels are not translated at all. We’re talking about two Slovenian novels, one Slovakian novel, one Lithuanian novel, one Chzeck novel three Chinese novels (although, as you said, the rights to King Gesar have been sold to a copule of countries), one Polish novel and one Japanese novel. I have no idea if these books eventually will be published in English, but if you know anything about that or anything else about the series, please contact me!
Best,
Malin