Congratulations, Professor Ng, on the appearance of your book on Li Jieren, an overlooked and under appreciated cultural figure.
I wonder if anyone on the list has read the new English-language translation of Li Jieren’s best-known novel, Sishui weilan 死水微瀾, published by Merwin Asia as Ripple on Stagnant Water. The translators, Bret Sparling and Yin Chi, have made use of what I gather is a sort of Scottish brogue to represent the Sichuanhua speech of the characters such as the “Gowned Brother” leader 羅歪嘴 (he is called “Cambuel Luo” in the new translation, whereas his name is rendered “Skewmouth Luo” in the Panda Books translation of 1990). I’d be interested to know what people think of the translation.
If anyone has some spare time in Chengdu, Li Jieren’s house-museum in the vicinity of Sichuan Normal University, is charming and worth a visit.
Kristin Stapleton <kstaple@buffalo.edu>
University at Buffalo, SUNY