Call for Papers
Sino Queer Translation: Sexualities across Languages, Cultures, and Media
Edited by Hongwei Bao and Yahia Ma
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of scholarly works examining the relationship between queerness and translation, including the translation of queer texts in different languages and the development of non-normative strategies in translation. Much of the existing work primarily focuses on translations of/between English and Indo-European languages, literatures, and cultures, including Queer Theory and Translation Studies (Brian James Baer, 2021), Queering Translation, Translating the Queer: Theory, Practice, Activism (edited by Brian James Baer and Klaus Kaindl, 2018), and Queer in Translation (edited by B. J. Epstein and Robert Gillett, 2017), Queering Modernist Translation: The Poetics of Race, Gender and Queerness (Christian Bancroft, 2021).
Despite the dominance of scholarship on translations between Indo-European languages in the field, there are some scholarly works looking at queer aspects of Chinese literature in English translation and queer translation in the context of the Sinosphere. For example, James St. Andre’s book Translating China as Cross-Identity Performance (2018) looks at the translation of Chinese texts into English and French from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries from the perspective of cross-identity performance, using queer metaphors such as drag; Ting Guo and Jonathan Evans’ work focuses on translational and transnational queer fandom in China and queer female teen dramas in translation (Guo and Evans, 2020, 2024). Other examples include the discussion of how the concept of queer has been translated, circulated, and received in Chinese and Sinophone contexts (Song Hwee Lim 2008, 2018; Andrea Bachner 2017; Hongwei Bao 2020, 2024; Wangtaolue Guo 2021), Leo Tak-Hung Chan’s (2018) study of parodic Japanese manga versions of the Chinese classic Xiyouji 西遊記 (The Journey to the West), and Yahia Ma and Tets Kimura’s (2024) analysis of Li Kotomi’s queer novel Hitorimai /獨舞 (Solo Dance) in three languages from the perspective of self-translation, rewriting, and translingual address.
This edited volume focuses on the translation of Chinese-language literature into English and other languages. These literary and translated texts portray multi-dimensional aspects of gender, sexuality, desire, identity, and lifestyle. We hope to open a dialogical space at the intersection of queer studies, translation studies, as well as China and Sinophone Studies, one that acknowledges the linguistic and sexual dissidences in the Sinosphere, taking these differences seriously for scholarly and critical enquiry.
This volume will explore Chinese-language queer literature translingually, underscoring the multiple and flexible ways in which queer translation and Chinese-language literature encounter, intersect, and interplay textually, culturally, spatially, and temporally. We understand both the term ‘queer’ and ‘literature’ broadly, including but not limited to LGBTQIA+ identities and published texts. ‘Queer literature’, as such, encompasses literary works that are queer-themed, or written by queer-identifying authors, or embodying queer sensibilities, or generating queer readings. We invite empirically based, theoretically informed, and critically oriented contributions on translations in English and other languages of Chinese-language literature as well as Chinese translations of queer literature from other languages.
We particularly seek contributions that 1) examine the translation of Chinese-language texts in less-represented languages and the Chinese translation of queer texts in less-represented languages; 2) highlight less-represented queer texts from the Sinosphere, especially the texts that depict marginal and intersectional queer and trans experiences; (3) interrogate queer, trans, and non-normative translational strategies and theorise queer translation as a creative and critical practice that goes beyond the mimetic and representational mode of analysis.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Translation (in English and other languages) of Chinese-language literature focusing on sex, gender, sexuality, and desire
- Chinese translation of queer literature from other languages (including English) focusing on sex, gender, sexuality and desire
- Translation of queer themes, sensibilities and affects in literature
- Translators’ treatment of queerness in relation to gender, sexuality, and desire in translating queer literature
- Translators’ queer identities, subjectivities, and experiences in shaping translation practices
- Translingualism and transculturalism in Chinese-language queer literature
- Translation of Chinese-language queer literature across formats, genres, and platforms
- Sociological and ethnographic studies of queer translation in the Sinosphere
- Queer translational strategies and theories in the Sinosphere
- Media and technology in the context of Chinese-language queer literature
Abstract Submission
To submit proposals that have NOT been submitted or published elsewhere, please send a 300-word abstract (outlining the topic, arguments and primary materials for analysis) with a 100-word bio note to the editors by 31 January 2025. Please use ‘Sino Queer Translation: abstract submission’ for the heading of your Email. Decisions on chapter proposals will be notified within a month’s time after receipt of a proposal. Early submissions are encouraged.
Chapters from accepted contributors should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words in Chicago notes and bibliography style. Questions regarding the edited volume and submissions should be sent to Dr Hongwei Bao at hongwei.bao@nottingham.ac.uk and Yahia Ma at yahia.ma1@outlook.com
The manuscript of this edited volume will be submitted to Bloomsbury’s ‘Queering China: Transnational Genders and Sexualities’ book series for consideration. Readers are encouraged to read a title from the series, especially the recently published Queer Literature in the Sinosphere (also edited by Hongwei Bao and Yahia Ma, 2024), to get an idea of the style and expectation of the book.
Timeline:
Abstract due: 31 January 2025 (a 300-word abstract and a 100-word bio note)
Decision about abstracts: 28 February 2025
Submission of book chapter: 20 September 2025
About the editors:
Hongwei Bao is Associate Professor in Media Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Tongzhi Activism in Postsocialist China (NIAS Press, 2018), Queer China: Lesbian and Gay Literature and Visual Culture under Postsocialism (Routledge, 2020), Queer Media in China (Routledge, 2021), Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance (Routledge, 2022), and Queering Asian Diaspora (Sage, 2024). He coedited Contemporary Queer Chinese Art (Bloomsbury, 2023), Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality (Routledge 2024) and Queer Literature in the Sinosphere (Bloomsbury, 2024).
Yahia Ma is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His critical work has appeared in the Journal of Literary Multilingualism, TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies, Melbourne Asia Review, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. His translations can be found in Queer Taiwanese Literature: A Reader (2021) and Queer Time: A Special Notebook of Taiwanese Tongzhi Literature (2021). He is the co-editor of Queer Literature in the Sinosphere (Bloomsbury, 2024).
Posted by: Yahia Ma yahia.ma1@outlook.com