Speed Book Club with Paper Republic is back at Guanghwa Bookshop! Join us for virtual discussions with three award-winning Chinese literature translators: Emily Jones, Jack Hargreaves, and Nicky Harman!

At the book club, our translators will share three short stories from their favorite Chinese authors.

Together with Nicky Harman, we explore a Chinese girl’s world of growing up and look back on our own childhood:

Good Kids, Bad Kids (an excerpt from I Want to Be Good by Huang Beijia, tr. by Nicky Harman, to be published soon)

Following Jack Hargreaves, we join a Chinese woman’s unique journey with a family of Kazakh herders in the winter pasture in northwestern China:

What I’m Experiencing (an excerpt from Winter Pasture: One Woman’s Journey with China’s Kazakh Herders by Li Juan, tr. by Jack Hargreaves and Yan Yan, published by Astra House)

Guided by Emily Jones, we look into how lives of Chinese writers have been impacted by this epidemic:

A Message Held to the Flame by A Yi, tr. by Dylan Levi King (an essay from Read Paper Republic's Epidemic Series)

How to read the stories in advance

Before the event, you can visit the links given for the stories and read them in advance. Please note, for the first two stories, Good Kids, Bad Kids and What I’m Experiencing, you will only be able to access the files with a password which will only be given to those who registered. The password will be given to you in your order confirmation.

Translators of the day:

Nicky Harman is a prolific translator and a Trustee of Paper Republic. She was also co-Chair of the Translators Association (Society of Authors) between 2014 and 2017. Her most recent translation works include I Want to Be Good (by Huang Beijia), Broken Wings (by Jia Pingwa), White Horse (by Yan Ge) and Our Stories (by Rao Pingru).

Jack Hargreaves is a Chinese-English translator from East Yorkshire, who worked with Li Juan to translate Winter Pasture into English, published by Astra House (New York). His work has appeared in Asymptote Journal, Read Paper Republic and LA Review of Books China Channel. Recent and forthcoming translations include Yang Dian’s flash fiction collection A Contrarian’s Tales, and A History of Chinese Philosophical Thought by Zhang Xianghao. Jack is ALTA’s 2021 Emerging Translator Mentee for Literature from Singapore.

Emily Jones is a Trustee of Paper Repbulic and was the recipient of a BCLT mentorship in translation in 2011. Her publications include her translation of He Jiahong’s crime novel Black Holes as well as samples, short stories, poetry, fiction and non-fiction for various publishers.

What is Speed Book Club?

Speed Book Club is a special book club event initiated by Paper Republic, in an aim to promote Chinese literature to the English public. Led by some of the country’s best sinologists and translators, the event brings attendees first-hand insights into Chinese literature, its authors and translators.

Who is Paper Republic?

Paper Republic is a registered UK charity (registration number 1182259) aiming at promoting Chinese literature in English translation. It focuses on new writing from contemporary Chinese writers.

Paper Republic accepts donations. You can donate to them here.