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Thread: Interview with Translators *UPDATED-Abhay*

  1. #41
    Senior Member dgfds01's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Han Solo View Post
    I actually would love to interview one of our translators in person as i'll currently in Malaysia and potentially Singapore for 3 weeks + (with ~ 1 week in China). If there's anyone in KL i.e. (?)Ian Liew etc who i can interview, pls give me your contact details.

    Han Solo
    Wow, you see to travel around quite a bit. NZ last year and Malaysia/Singapore/China this year. I'm envious.

    Enjoy Yunnan. It's a nice destination, though a bit too tourisy these days. Make sure you get round to Dali.

  2. #42
    Senior Member IcyFox's Avatar
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    If you drop by in SG we could try to meet up.

  3. #43
    Senior Member CC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Han Solo View Post
    I actually would love to interview one of our translators in person as i'll currently in Malaysia and potentially Singapore for 3 weeks + (with ~ 1 week in China). If there's anyone in KL i.e. (?)Ian Liew etc who i can interview, pls give me your contact details.

    Han Solo

    Interviews aside, if you want to meet up for a wuxia style drinking session when you are in Singapore, call me (drop me a PM).
    Its BIxie Jianfa Gawdammit you guys!!!!

  4. #44
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    The subject of this interview is Jean, who's currently the translator of GL's wonderful work "The Legendary Sibling."

    Her work has always been excellent and speedy, and i was forever grateful to her for continuing the work intially started by Athena and Bubeng.


    1) Would you like to introduce yourself? Age, photos!, etc.

    Hello! I'm 31, married, and my husband wonders why I do translations when I don't even get paid!

    I have 2 dogs, a 7 year old and a 6 month old golden retrievers at home. I'm a dog person, so start talking dog and I can go on and on.... I've even set up a blog for the dogs, and none for the humans.

    2) What do you do in RL?

    I took a break from working recently, sat at home for 6 months, and only recently started work in an office. There's only me and my boss in the department, and my boss is not in the office like 70% of the time, which accounts for why I have so much time to translate.

    3) What is your first exposure to wuxia literature, and which story is your favourite?

    First exposure would be through TVB adaptations. I've always liked period shows, doesn't matter if it's wuxia or fantasy (immortals and the such). I don't really have a favourite wuxia novel, but I find that I'm not really interested in those that are set in the later Qing dynasty, like the book and the sword.

    3) Can you describe your thoughts on your translations- how did you do it? and the joy/suffering of it? What makes you to first pick up the task of translating?

    Luckily Gu Long's writing style is quite simple. He doesn't have the habit of letting his characters sprout poems suddenly. Poems are a headache. I am doing subbing for some Jin Yong series and I hated the poems. Sometimes I need like 2 sentences just to explain 8 chinese words. Also, sometimes when they make reference to historical characters, I'll need to do some research into the background of the characters, in order to understand the context of the scene. But the fun part is growing with the story, and a sense of satisfaction from completing a chapter, and knowing that people are enjoying the stories as well.

    As for why I started translating, actually I was faithfully following the other's translations on Legendary Siblings, but due to commitments in their personal life, they had to take a break from the translation. I was hooked onto the story, and went to read the chinese version online (previously I was too lazy to read the chinses version, coz I can speed read in english but not chinese.). I found that GL's writing style is easy to understand, not too much descriptions involved, a lot of dialogue, and so thought I'd try a hand at translating. And the 'try out' just went on for months....


    4) Any favourite bits of wuxia fiction that you wish to share?

    Erm... actually, no. I'm pretty new to all these wuxia novels stuff. I have never finished an entire wuxia novel in chinese. I'll usually just read the beginning, then I'll read the last chapter to find out what happened, and skipped everything in between. Legenday Siblings is the longest I've read, and I only started reading from the part I started translating. And I'm still reading as I'm translating, so I don't know what happens in the next chapter as well.


    5) Which novel of GL do you like best? Jin Yong vs GL?

    Actually, Legenday Siblings is the only GL novel I've read. Maybe after I'm done with this one, I'll move on to other books. No preference between JY and GL.

    6) Whats your plan for the future?

    What plans? Career plans? Family plans? Translating plans? I don't really plan that far ahead. If you mean translation, it will depend on which book catches my fancy next.

    7) Thanks for the interview, Any shoutout?

    Thanks to all those who has been faithfully following the story of XYE and HWQ, and the words of encouragement. And I need to thank Felix for helping me to check for spelling and grammer errors.
    Wuxiapedia

    Quote Originally Posted by bliss
    I think they're probably at the same level as or one level below Ah Qing, which is about the level of a 2nd or 3rd generation Quan Zhen disciple.
    Troll Control

  5. #45
    Junior Member hello me's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Han Solo View Post
    The people that you disrespected by singling out HSDS includes:
    1) Meh - who translated huge chunks of the Ruthless Sword Sentimental Swordsman (Xiao Li Fei Dao)
    2) FaQ - who started the translations of the Legend of the White Hair Demonesses
    3) Athena- who had completed the TSATE
    4) dgsd - who's even now doing the editing for LOCH
    5) huang rong - who had done a good job with her translation.

    All of our translators are treasured for sacrificing their time and energy for the sake of our reading enjoyment- they often have multi-translation projects, and outside interests.

    So please enjoy the translations, and stop this comparison nonsense.

    Han Solo


    Don't forget Noodles. Without him translating ROCH i won't be such a wuxia fanatic now.

    Also, i don't think it is fair of us to rank or judge these translators. They slave over these translations for our enjoyment. Shame on you aliderhamy!

  6. #46
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    I would like to rank all of the translators #1 - They are all doing something it would take me 10 years to be able to do even if I started trying to learn Chinese today. For that they have my respect.

    However I think a lot of times we tie our "favorite" translators to the stories we enjoy the most. This is what I hope was meant by the previous attempt to rank the translators. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a ranking based on their actual translating ability -- that would be lame and inappropriate.

  7. #47
    Senior Member IcyFox's Avatar
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    LATEST! INTERVIEW WITH HAN SOLO.


    This time it was MY turn to interview the Moderator here, Dr. Han Solo.


    1. How was your interest in Wuxia sparked?

    HAN : I grew up in the 80s when the family was watching TVB series so there always was the feeling of knowing the catchphrase of East weird, west poison. Being very young at that stage, i obviously don't remember watching it.

    When i started uni, the cable tv started to show rerun of the 90s TVB JY adaptation, with the shows that got me hooked being the SOD'96 Jackie Liu version, and then the DGSD'96. Those shows were great - then i started off going through all the 80s TVB adaptations that my uncle has in his collection. (with their toilet paper scenes).

    Finally, i stumbled onto the wuxia (winglin/cinple) site where i found that there are knowledgable ppl like Moin, Lanny, TigerWong, Ken Cheng, Triste etc and started to read Moin's various translation, and Lanny's works. So i started reading and asking questions.

    Around september 2002, due to frequent crashes at that site, i migrated here with a lot of other posters and the rest is history.


    2. The chapter/paragraph you feel you translated the best? Why?

    HAN : I only translated part of Chapter 39 of DGSD 2nd edition. That part is pretty boring- being the scenes where XZ has just fought off MRF and the 36 cave/72 island chieftians. He started to learn a bit more about TSTL and is going back to Shaolin.

    I did that as sort of a promise to CC to finish up the chapter prior to his translation of the XZ vs JMZ fight.

    My mandarin writing and reading skill is far far inferior to my ability to talk and listen. I attended a night school for 6 years in primary where i spend 2 hours a day on mandarin classes - but being young and stubborn, i rebelled against studying.

    So what i did was i got my friends to read out the text to me, and then i translated the text. It was very very time consuming- and having difficulty procuring enough friends to spend 2 hours to translate 2 pages- i quit halfway through.


    3. Any future translating plans? HSDS Maybe?

    HAN : Not until i can read the text independently. I still hold the wish to learn chinese again as an independent course after work, but i'll hold off until my part I exams.


    4. Style of translating?

    HAN : I try to get the meaning of the sentence correctly rather than a pure literal translation. At the same time, i also try to make my translated sentences fit the writing style of JY.


    5. Will your Moderator status help you as a translator? If so, how? If not, why?

    HAN : I applied to the moderating staff here to help to contribute to this site that i love. I'd hope that my role here is 2 fold:-
    1) Helping the forum by preventing spam, encourage a warm online environment for our translators
    2) I'd hope to be able to render any assistance to our translators either by acting as their coordinator, communicator or by directing them to various resources.


    6. Favourite Wuxia character? Please explain.

    HAN : LHC and DY (2nd edition) always hold a place in my heart for their respective love and dedication to their partner. I also like the fact that they are both of a peaceable nature, and makes friends easily, and that they did not have carry the old standard wuxia grudges.


    7. Any other comments?

    HAN : I would like to extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to the various translators that had done any translations in this forum. Your work(s) had deeply enriched my life.

    I would also like to extend the forum's invitation to any budding translator out there to give translation a try- you brushed up on your language skills, and able to contribute to the enjoyment of many many people.


    8. Not a question. Just to fill up the Eight Trigrams.

    HAN : http://www.imperialtours.net/images/...mg_yi_jing.gif


    THANKS, DR. HAN!

  8. #48
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    Default Interview with Pokit

    The subject of the interview this time is pokit, who together with hhuang is responsible for the work of completing the translation of smiling proud wanderer.

    Below are some questions for the interview:-

    Hi Han Solo,

    Thanks for interviewing me. I've been having a lot of fun translating it too since SPW is my favourite JY story.
    1) Would you like to introduce yourself? Age, photos!, etc.

    I live in Sydney, Australia. I'll stay mysterious for the other things.
    2) What do you do in real life?

    I'm an engineer. Don't think you're interested in what I do everyday, even I find it boring sometimes.
    3) What is your first exposure to wuxia literature, and which story is your favourite?

    My first exposure to wuxia is the LOCH83. I actually tried watching it again just recently, but after reading the book, LOCH83 is like fan fiction. Don't like the Huang Rong there =P Watched the old SSRB too in the 80s. But my first wuxia literature exposure would be Lanny Lin's translation.
    3) Can you describe your thoughts on your translations- how did you do it? and the joy/suffering of it? What makes you to first pick up the task of translating?

    I picked up the translating because I want to know how SPW ends after reading Lanny Lin's translation. I can't read chinese fluently and it's a hard struggle to translate it actually, especially some characters with their ancient way of talking. In the beginning, it was just a matter of translating it accurately. But towards the end, I tried not to translate it too literally anymore. I tried more to make the English translation flows better while still preserving the author's intention. Dugu Nine Swords principle at work? lol

    It's been really fun translating this novel. The struggle has been the mountain of text when I first started. You did so much work and it's only a few paragraphs, with hundreds of paragraphs left in the novel. That was really discouraging.

    The fun part is thinking on how the English should be worded. This takes up much of my time. Re-reading the whole chapter again after I've translated it was also very satisfying.
    4) Any favourite bits of wuxia fiction that you wish to share?

    Hmm.. favourite bits. I have lots of favourite moments from SPW, the fight in the ruined temple between LHC and FBP, chapter 17, Plum Manor section, LHC as general trying to stop the nuns from going up the pass, and lots more from this novel. I can't remember moments from the other novels right now, there are some, but SPW is the freshest in my mind. I had to keep going back to previous chapters to find out what Lanny had translated some parts as because I want to keep it consistent. But when I went back to find out, I ended up reading the chapter again and spent like one two hours on it, instead of doing the translation. I blame Lanny for doing such a good translation.
    5) Which novel do you like best? Jin Yong vs GL?

    They are two different authors with their own styles of story telling. I enjoy reading them. No favourite between the two of them, each has his own strength and weak points.
    6) Tell us of the Hhuang/pokit team.

    I can honestly say, without Hhaung doing the editing, I'd probably stopped doing the translation somewhere in chapter 25. But being in a team kept me going. I usually translate a chapter and give it to her to edit. She's very meticulous and picks up some of my very weird sentences. Something to do with my hands having a mind of their own =)

    She convinced me to read the 'Song of Ice and Fire'. Great recommendation, it's a great series.

    Congratulations to Hhaung! She'll be a mother soon =)
    7) DG9J is the most rubbish kung fu ever vs DG9J is the most under-rated technique that is really superior to YG's heavy iron sword, and 6MSJ. Which view do you hold?

    I'm not into comparing which era or which technique is better. I'm more into the story.
    8) Whats your plan for the future?

    I have no plan for translating any other story. Was thinking of doing Wulin Waishi in spurts, but it seems someone is doing it right now. So I'll just enjoy the story being translated in the forums =)
    9) Thanks for the interview, Any shoutout?

    To all the readers who has been following and posting on the threads, without you guys, the translation wouldn't have been completed. So thank you very much for your words of encouragement. I have finished translating SPW, and everything will be posted.

    To all the translators out there, thank you all for translating. Keep up the good work! And I don't know how Foxs keeps on translating, he must have Energizer installed.
    Wuxiapedia

    Quote Originally Posted by bliss
    I think they're probably at the same level as or one level below Ah Qing, which is about the level of a 2nd or 3rd generation Quan Zhen disciple.
    Troll Control

  9. #49
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    Default Interview with foxs_

    Foxs_ is the main driving force behind the amazing team that had finished up the translation of LOCH and ROCH. He barely needs introduction, but is there more to foxs_ than has been revealed so far? Read on.

    I apologize for the delay. I did not mean to take this much time to answer your questions. I was reminded to finish this up after reading your interview with Pokit.
    1) Would you like to introduce yourself? Age, photos!, etc.

    I have never seen any picture of any translator in this forum, so I am not going to start a trend. I am old enough to have two small boys. My interest, other than translating wuxia, is music. I play a couple of woodwind instruments and used to play in a local orchestra and at church.
    2) What do you do in real life?

    I am an engineer, mechanical, to be precise. I used to deal with fluid mechanics, but now I am more involved in mechanical design and solid modeling. (Not that you would be interested, but I figure there are engineering students among the readers, so I’d like to encourage them to persevere in this grueling subject.)

    (I added this after reading Pokit’s interview: true, engineering can be boring, but it can be fun too! Especially when you see your design in real life, i.e. the prototype or the products. Now at least I know 3 engineers in this forum, James, our editor, is the other; and I am sure there are a lot more out there.)
    3) What is your first exposure to wuxia literature, and which story is your favourite?

    For as long as I can remember, reading was always one of my greatest enjoyments. Growing up in Southeast Asia I was exposed to many, many stories, wuxia or otherwise, local and regional; for example: the epic Mahabharata from India and the Three Kingdom from China. I do not remember exactly which particular wuxia started it. As for picking up a favorite, it’s another difficult task for me; I like different things from different story, and I can’t say for sure which one I liked most. I am involved in translating the Condor Trilogy, so I have to read and reread the story, yet I do not feel bored. So I guess I would have to say this trilogy is one of my favorites.
    4) Can you describe your thoughts on your translations- how did you do it? and the joy/suffering of it? What makes you to first pick up the task of translating?

    As I mentioned before (in the forum), my knowledge in Chinese is not enough to read the novel, let alone translating it. My first encounter with spcnet was from my quest of English translation of this trilogy. Quite by accident I found an old catalog of English translations of Chinese textbooks (mostly medical texts). I contacted the publisher and although they said such work did not exist, but I was given the proper pinyin spelling of Jin Yong. FYI, when I first learned Chinese, we did not use pinyin, but a different way of spelling. (I don’t know the proper English name of it; perhaps the old timers out there can help me identifying this kind of spelling? It did not use latin characters like in pinyin, but a series of strokes to denote certain ‘sound’.)

    How did I do it? I am using an online dictionary, mdbg.net. A superb web site; but be forewarned that you’ll have to have a basic knowledge of the language; their translator is powered by Altavista Babelfish, so it won’t help you much. At first it was painstakingly slow, but now, although it still consumes a lot of my time, it is not so ‘painful’ anymore.

    What makes me want to pick up the task? I should say Noodles. He single-handedly translated more than 20 chapters of RoCH. (Please note that I do not discount the other translators who finished the entire novel; it’s just that at that particular time I was looking for Jin Yong’s work.) I felt indebted to this forum and wanted to contribute something. Initially I only wanted to finish up a chapter, then the readers encouraged me to do some more (yes, I know that their motivation was a selfish one, i.e. they wanted to read more ; but, hey, why not? I enjoyed doing it, and what’s wrong with spreading a little bit of joy to other fellow wuxia lovers?)

    As for the joy/suffering; I should say the joy is in knowing that someone out there is enjoying my work. The suffering? Why would I suffer if I enjoy doing what I am doing?
    4) Any favourite bits of wuxia fiction that you wish to share?

    Nope. I have too many ‘bits’ that I like; I would be hard pressed to mention only one.
    5) Which novel do you like best? Jin Yong vs GL?

    Each has his own interesting points. A lot of GL’s works are darker, tend to be on the suspense/thriller side, and he killed his characters quite easily. Some novels are good, yet I do not want to re-read it. Once is enough. Other novels, after a while you still want to re-read it. You know what I mean? I found GL has more novels of the first category than JY. I am not saying that JY is better than GL; I simply say that some of his works are not what we call ‘light reading’.
    6) Now that we completed LOCH and ROCH, what is the plan regarding HSDS? Can you share the plan?

    To my shame, I don’t have any. You see, I started a new job this past August. In my previous job I had more extra time (for various reasons). I do not want to make any commitment like I did in LoCH. I'd like to finish the trilogy, but I am going to translate it one chapter at a time and see how far we’ll get.
    7) Of the team effort in translating LOCH and ROCH, what is your best and most bitter-sweet memory? Best editor- eliza vs James??

    Oh, no, I won’t fall into your trap. Eliza was (and still is, since we are working on HSDS) my first line of defense. She lends me her eyes to catch the obvious and blatant mistakes I made, and suggested some improvement or clarification. James, on the other hand, leads a team of nitpickers so that the final copy for publishing in the spcnet reading room and wuxiapedia is as free of errors, as as consistent (in terms of names: people, places, stances, etc.) as possible. They play different roles here, and they are both important.

    I would be lying if I say I do not have any memory (be it best or worst) working in a team. But suffice it to say that we all made contribution to the completion of this trilogy.
    8) Whats your plan for the future?

    Translation plan? See item 6 above. I would be really happy IF I can finish the last novel of the Trilogy. Not an impossibility; just more difficult.
    9) Thanks for the interview, Any shoutout?

    Not particularly. I’ve said enough. But my wish is this: That someday, somehow, someone would publish the English translations of the wuxia stories we love. Oh, I understand from the previous discussions in this forum the difficulties of publishing fan translations. But I do hope someone would find a way to preserve and popularize this genre. I used to think that only Chinese love wuxia, therefore, you need to know Chinese to enjoy it. But I was dead wrong. First, millions of overseas Chinese do not read Chinese. Second, I met so many non-Chinese wuxia lovers in this forum. I know there is no money to be made (otherwise, some big publisher would have already done it), but I do hope we can do it just for wuxia’s sake. I have done my part (God willing, I am still doing my part). I am challenging others to do their parts.

    In closing: I would like to applaud your effort in being the moderator of Wuxia Translation forum. I think you are doing a great job.

    Regards,
    Foxs
    Last edited by Han Solo; 09-25-07 at 08:55 PM.
    Wuxiapedia

    Quote Originally Posted by bliss
    I think they're probably at the same level as or one level below Ah Qing, which is about the level of a 2nd or 3rd generation Quan Zhen disciple.
    Troll Control

  10. #50
    Senior Member overjoy71's Avatar
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    Foxs_, as diplomatic as always!! I love it! hahaa

  11. #51
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    I think it's time that fastclock should be interviewed. He had single-handedly translate flying eagle in the ninth month!

  12. #52
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by previah View Post
    I think it's time that fastclock should be interviewed. He had single-handedly translate flying eagle in the ninth month!
    Absolutely, he is one of my heroes as well. Will pm him when i'm next free.

    Han Solo
    Wuxiapedia

    Quote Originally Posted by bliss
    I think they're probably at the same level as or one level below Ah Qing, which is about the level of a 2nd or 3rd generation Quan Zhen disciple.
    Troll Control

  13. #53
    Senior Member yeongwee's Avatar
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    Default I love this thread!

    Hi guys,

    I've been reading all your translations for years. My appreciations to everyone of you. Over time, many of you have become "legends", kind of larger than life. Its really great that we can know more about you from these interviews. Thanks Han Solo for starting it.

    JTG
    Man is glue. You are man. How then can you step away from glue?

  14. #54
    Senior Member foxs's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by overjoy71 View Post
    Foxs_, as diplomatic as always!! I love it! hahaa
    Mate, I did not mean to be diplomatic ... . It was just that I really do not have certain writer or novel as the 'clear winner'. I am just hard to please, I guess. As for JY vs GL, some of JY's work is just too slow-pacing, whereas GL is kind of more exciting; yet as I mentioned it before, some GL works were just too dark, too much violence, it's depressing to read them, although I must say that the story itself is not bad. I guess it was the portrayal of GL's own life.

    All kidding aside, you are one of those 'active' members. Keep it up!

  15. #55
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    Default Interview with fastclock

    Fastclock shares how he translates the longevity sword and flying eagle in the ninth month.

    1) Please introduce yourself to the readers. Age, sex, job?

    I think it's kind of appropriate that I'm following fox_s. He did a lot of things that was similar to what I did while translating.
    .... I'm older than most of the readers here, I already have a small family living in the US :-).
    2) Your work in translating GL's works in the seven weapon series- longevity sword, and also Flying Eagle in the Ninth Month - what is your feeling when you finally finished the translation?

    Satisfied, of course. Longevity sword was relatively short, and I just felt it was okay to finish the translation and find out the end of the story.

    Flying Eagle was very satisfying that I actually could finish it. I struggled quite a bit in the beginning, but after a while, I found a pace that would not exhaust me. I never expected to finish it in the first place, so it was a major internal victory that I could get it done.
    3) I recall that you used Babelfish or similar programme, and then try to correct it line by line. Do you use the original chinese text? How difficult is it using the babelfish programme?

    I use Systran (same engine as Babelfish). Then, I put the translated names back into pinyin, and edit the machine-translated text into readable English. The Chinese text is available online. While the online text is somewhat suspect (missing paragraphs here and there), they are very useful as I can just dump them into Systran and get the translation for the whole novel. Using Babelfish is not that difficult, once you know the quirkiness of how it translates the Chinese text, you pretty much know what the English text should be.

    With “Longevity Sword”, there were a couple of people before who had started the translation for the first 1.5 chapters. So, I had some idea about the story, that help me a lot in deciphering the names, the places and the overall gist of the story.

    I’ve read Flying Eagle translation a couple of times before. However, the printing was bad, and there were missing pages all over the story. So, re-reading the story was a pleasure for me, and Gu Long did a pretty good job here in tying up the loose ends.
    4) The stash of partially edited material at your website is a hidden gem to many. Can you please provide the link again? Any plan to tidy them up or did anyone contact you to do so?
    http://haddjo.freehostia.com/
    No plan to tidy it up at the moment
    A couple of people contacted me about translating the half-baked stuff, but I think they expected me to help quite a bit. I don’t mind setting people up, but don’t expect me to devote a lot of time or start understanding Chinese fluently all of a sudden
    5) What is your initial exposure to wuxia? What do you like the most about it?
    Initially it was an incomplete reading of LOCH and a dose of Tian Can Bian TV series. Norman Tsui was really awesome in the beginning. It really was disappointing when they changed the cast and the story went downhill.
    6) Favourite hero? Favourite text? Favourite writer?
    I like Jin Yong’s HSDS and Gu Long’s Flying Eagle. A rather perfect hero is kind of cool
    7) Any plan to be a proffesional translator? (i know of at least one other previous translator who is a freelance professional translator now)
    Well, definitely no.
    8) Any shoutout? Messages for aspiring translators? and for your fans?
    It’s relatively easy to continue the half-baked translations, so anyone with some spare time can do it. You don’t need a lot of Chinese skill, but it does need a very good English skill.

    It’s kind of interesting that to be able to finish the translation of a novel, it’s probably very important that you can’t read Chinese fluently. Enough to translate, but not enough to enjoy reading the novel in Chinese. Probably only the curiousity of finding out the end of the story would encourage a voluntary translator to finish it.

    Thanks, fastclock
    Wuxiapedia

    Quote Originally Posted by bliss
    I think they're probably at the same level as or one level below Ah Qing, which is about the level of a 2nd or 3rd generation Quan Zhen disciple.
    Troll Control

  16. #56
    Senior Member Yon's Avatar
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    Thank you Han Solo!
    Please email me with questions. Do not use PM here.

  17. #57
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yon View Post
    Thank you Han Solo!
    Thanks yon.

    I got your kiddie photo from Lanny!

    When can i interview you?

    Han Solo
    Wuxiapedia

    Quote Originally Posted by bliss
    I think they're probably at the same level as or one level below Ah Qing, which is about the level of a 2nd or 3rd generation Quan Zhen disciple.
    Troll Control

  18. #58
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    Default Interview with Yu Feng- translator of Flower Guarding Bell

    Yu Feng is the translator of GL's Flower Guarding Bell, which he has published and is available online.

    I'd bought the book when it was first published, and hope that it will be the start of many of published translation in the future.


    1) Would you like to introduce yourself? Age, photos!, etc.
    I'm 30, feeling old!

    2) What do you do in real life?
    I work as a Product Engineer/Product Specialist in real life. And is also a game designer for the Iapetus Fantasy Role Playing Game Project.

    3) What is your first exposure to wuxia literature, and which story is your favourite?
    Old wuxia films like the Killer Butteries, One-armed swordsman, Chu Liu xiang series, Lu Xiaofeng. During the early 80s mid 80s was actually the golden age of wuxia, so many Gu long, Jin Yong, Liang Yusheng and lots of others. I could not actually remember their names since they are not the stars since i was young. Only Bruce-lee and Chen long made a lasting impression on me.

    4) Can you describe your thoughts on your translations- how did you do it? and the joy/suffering of it? What makes you to first pick up the task of translating?
    I translate for the fun of it...

    5) Any favourite bits of wuxia fiction that you wish to share?
    When Xiao Longnu wielded 72 swords at the same time, it was truly impressive. I thought back then she can probably massacre everyone in JY universe in a single combat. If she were not distracted by so many
    opponents, then poor Jinlun and then there would not be a 16 years thereafter story.

    6) Which novel do you like best? Jin Yong vs GL?
    I got like 100 over favorite novels, I cant decide. Mostly fantasy, sci-fic novels, history books, weiqi books and even comics...

    I like Jin Yong in the past till I picked out a GL novel. I was stunned by the number of real life applications and research in his books. It was truly insightful and can only be revealed if the reader knows extensive. For example, Eagles were used to be the sails for a bamboo raft in the desert. Eagles are the strongest bird in the world and they can even fly into the heart of a hurricane. It no wonder the US picked the Eagle as its national icon. I can go extensive into eagles (laugh). Another scene when Xiaoshiyilang and another man fell into down the cliff, they were badly injured and didnt die. GL even go into detail to explain the mud below cumulatived by thousands of years of herbs and natural minerals acted as a
    fast healing medicine. Either GL is a visionary like Issac Asimov or during the 1970s, there are another such knowledge. It was only back in the 1990s that i have heard that the Amazon Basic mud can work miraclous healing. What took months to heal, heal only in a few days and that made spa so famous nowadays - cos of the soothing and health effects. I also like the Sun Zi theory of duel in GL novel, when top fighters when they are at their peak, require certain conditions like terrain, timing, mental strength and other conditions to win. In real life it is like this, no one can win against the same opponent constantly especially. There are many others too...

    7) Now that you had published Flower guarding bell, what is next? There was obviously some concern about this publication with respect to the original author's consent and copyright issues- what is happening with it?
    Tianxia publishing is the publicating house that owns the rights to print Gu Long novels. They allowed me to print The Flower Guarding Bells as a promo book as long as no publishing house is associated with it. I have talked to the owner about the abridged version of the Flower Guarding Bells and he says it is alright to do so. So The Flower Guarding Bells is 99% true to the original. Luckily, the owner allows the abridged version to stand, which is good.

    All I need now is to find a Publishing House (That knows chinese because the owner is from Taiwan) and Tianxia will endose it. However due to the high costs of subsidy printing, I am unable to do so as all the publishing houses are afraid to take the risks and incurred losses. So I am still patiently waiting for a publishing house to print the Flower Guarding Bells free of charge. I thought of delivering the good news to the wuxia community but however after months of occasionally looking for a publisher, all are reluctant to print free or disinterested.

    8) Share with us, your experiences in the translation community in the [URL="http://wuxiasociety.org/"].
    I translated from time to time if I am not so buzy. Thanks all!

    9) Whats your plan for the future? Congrats on your marriage btw- any little xi men chui xie in plan?
    I maybe getting officially married next year.

    10) Thanks for the interview, Any shoutout?
    Thanks for all the fan support. Please forgive me for delaying the actual printout of the Flower Guarding Bells.
    Wuxiapedia

    Quote Originally Posted by bliss
    I think they're probably at the same level as or one level below Ah Qing, which is about the level of a 2nd or 3rd generation Quan Zhen disciple.
    Troll Control

  19. #59
    Senior Member Han Solo's Avatar
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    Default translation with Hoju

    The subject of this interview which is Hoju, who kindy shares some information about herself and her translation. (Bet most of you do not know that she is a girl! ). Hoju has been a great part of the forum with wonderful translation of the funny and witty GL novel - A happy hero, and also occasionally the Wulin Wai Shi story with Shen Lang. enjoy. Han solo Feb 2008/.

    :
    Would you like to introduce yourself? Age, photos!, etc.
    Hi! I'm a Canadian. I love dogs, diving, baking, and travelling. Dear Han, don't you know that you should never ask a girl for her age? I am on the wiser side of the mid-20s.
    What do you do in real life?
    I'm an engineer. I realized from the other interviews that there are quite a few of us in this forum. Must be something about our brains and wuxia.

    What is your first exposure to wuxia literature, and which story is your favourite?
    As a kid, my parents rented tons of TVB ancient serials so that my siblings and I could learn the Chinese language and traditional Chinese values. My earliest recollections are of LOCH82. As I got older and realized that these dramas I loved were actually written novels, I asked my relatives to send me all of JY's novels. LOCH holds a special place in my heart because that's the first one I picked up to start reading. I started out knowing only a handful of Chinese characters, so I didn't understand what I was trying to read and only stubbornness made me keep going. But after starting to pick up a few more words (the characters for 'Guo Jing' and 'Huang Rong' become pretty obvious after seeing those words 100x), the story really started to unfold, and the excitement that I felt then is indescribable.

    Can you describe your thoughts on your translations- how did you do it? and the joy/suffering of it? What makes you to first pick up the task of translating?
    During the summer, I was looking for something new and different to read. Somewhere online, someone had mentioned that "A Happy Hero" was a good, easy read by GL. At about the same time, I stumbled into this translations forum and saw that a great translation had been started by Tiger Wong. I decided to pick up the translation as I was reading the novel as a way to improve my Chinese.

    I have been translating a line at a time with a few online C/E dictionaries open. The suffering: when I read a sentence, I may understand what it says, but the difficulty for me is finding the appropriate English words that best fit as literally as possible while maintaining the author's style and not sounding too silly in English. I have hummed and hawed for hours over a single sentence. The joy is in the sense of accomplishment after a significant portion has been done, and the feedback of the readers to know that there is someone out there that is following your work.

    Any favourite bits of wuxia fiction that you wish to share?
    I have tons. I have read the 2nd Mt. Hua Tournament in LOCH over and over again. I am a hopeless romantic, and I think the scenes in SPW of LHC/RYY are so well described.

    Which novel do you like best?
    Like I had mentioned earlier, LOCH is held dear to me, not necessarily because it is the most well written, but because it feels very much like a classic to me and brings back fond memories. I also really like Sword Stained with Royal Blood, which I know is not heralded as one of JY's sophisticated or best works, but something about its simplicity charms me.

    You had been tagged as one of the master of cliff-hanger here. Comments pls.
    Oh no. That title should definitely be given to Jean. She is the shifu [teacher]; I am merely the tudi [student] that she never knew she had.

    Any favourite translator on the forum? Who inspires you in this area?
    The translators that have contributed here are amazing. It is because I happened across their translations and saw how well done they are that I was motivated to give translating a try myself. And I still frequent their translations, especially when I'm stuck on a Chinese wuxia term that I, still a relative newbie, don't know how to describe in English.

    Whats your plan for the future?
    In terms of translations? I hope I have the perseverance to finish A Happy Hero. I move back home later in the year, where life is a much faster pace, so I can't promise any future projects yet. As for personal, I'm hoping to plan a trip to dive Asia for a month, but that's more wishful thinking than reality right now.

    Thanks for the interview, Any shoutout?
    Thanks to all readers and those who have posted comments and encouragement. Kudos to all the other translators out there.
    $this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/images/statusicon/user_offline.gif')
    Last edited by Han Solo; 02-25-08 at 10:29 PM.
    Wuxiapedia

    Quote Originally Posted by bliss
    I think they're probably at the same level as or one level below Ah Qing, which is about the level of a 2nd or 3rd generation Quan Zhen disciple.
    Troll Control

  20. #60
    Senior Member overjoy71's Avatar
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    Melbourne, AU
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    Default

    WHAT!! Hoju! is a girl!!?? hahaa.. Well Hoju! all i can say is that!! You may think you are a newbie.. but your translations deserves two thumbs up!!! And if I had anymore thumbs, I would put them up for you as well!! :-)

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