According to Kingsbury, American readers are less accustomed to international literature than their British peers. In addition, some Sino-American writers have drawn their Chinese experiences and culture into the American literary sphere. Consequently, few translations are profitable enough to support one's livelihood. "So a literary translator has to find other ways to earn a living," said Kingsbury.
The second reason is that literary translation requires not only proficiency in two languages, but also a feeling for the voices and styles of various cultures' literature, Kingsbury said. High requirements exclude many translators who are not oriented toward literature.
The good news is that the pool of literary translators is getting larger and translated literary publications are increasing. According to Paper-republic.org, the number of Chinese-to-English literary translations published in the English world increased from 24 in 2012 to 44 in 2015. Some of the translations have won literary prizes in the United States. For example, The Three-Body Problem written by Liu Cixin and translated by Chinese American writer and translator Ken Liu, won the 2015 Hugo Awards, one of the most prestigious U.S. science fiction awards.
In order to further globalize Chinese literature, Kingsbury suggests that the content and style of Chinese literary works should be tailored for an international audience from a perspective that is rooted in Chinese experiences. Chinese writers who wish to reach international audiences should figure out what kind of international audience they want to reach and what those people want to read about. In a perfect world, she said, a writer should be able to visit a variety of places and stay long enough to know about the lives of their target audience.
"Literary translations are windows into Chinese culture. If what readers see in that window doesn't attract them, they won't go any further," Kingsbury explained.
"Internationalized publishing and distribution channels are vital to the globalization of Chinese literature," said Huang Youyi, Vice President of the China Academy of Translation. It is therefore imperative that China's publishers collaborate with their international counterparts, who are more familiar with the chosen target demographic, to present excellently translated literary works for international audiences.
Profile
Karen S. Kingsbury, 55, was born in California, the United States. A graduate of Whitman College and Columbia University, she is a professor of Asian studies and world literature at Pittsburgh's Chatham University. Before settling down in Pittsburgh, she taught languages and literature at Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing, southwest China, for one year and at Tunghai University in Taiwan for nearly 14 years. She has rendered into English a number of fictions written by Chinese writer Eileen Chang.