As a translator and publisher of Chinese literature, I found these articles absolutely fascinating. I am all too familiar with the case of publishers hiring whi

As a translator and publisher of Chinese literature, I found these articles absolutely fascinating. I am all too familiar with the case of publishers hiring whichever translator they've heard of before, with apparently little or no actual review of that translator's previews works, and then publishing a translation that even a non-translating, non-Chinese-speaking reader could tell was poor. Everyone assumes that readers don't care, but they absolutely do. Yan Lianke went from unknown in France to a bit of a sensation, mostly because his publisher switched translators. "Hey, you're a pretty good writer!" they told him, in surprise. In English, try comparing "Lenin's Kisses" to "Dream of Ding Village". Mo Yan gets a big shrug from most readers, and that's largely because his translator simply doesn't have a literary flair in English. Lost opportunities indeed.