Exploring Translation Through Multilingualism, Traveling, and Gender Movements, Rethinking Translation: Translator Jenna Tang

Speakers:     

Jenna Tang, Translator (Mandarin, Spanish) —  Joining from Taiwan

Yoojung Chun, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English, Harvard University

“Over the years, the languages I speak—Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, French, and more, have taken me across the world and built relationships with literature from Latin America, Asia, Europe, and more. The journey is more than browsing through the spines of the books in different bookstores in various cities—it is an exploration coming from the love of languages, that childhood yearning to make my way out to see the world, and the curiosity and eagerness to understand the world in a profound way. At the same time, what is it like to work as a writer and translator while traveling across cultures?

Translated literature matters. It is another way for us to travel—we’re just a book away from a part of a culture. Part of the most significant process of being a literary translator involves translating literary works that engage with gender movements, other topics and niche that are considerably underrepresented—What does the translation journey look like to encounter new books, engaging with specific topics, putting ourselves out there to comprehend story backgrounds, and advocating for the underrepresented aspects of the book?

I will share nits and bits of my journey touring for Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise (by Taiwanese author Lin Yi-Han) across the States and Canada, and what it is like to expand the horizon of our current works and bring forward other voices that also speak to the changes we hope to see in our world.”— Jenna Tang

About the Speaker:

Jenna Tang is a Taiwanese writer, educator, and translator who translates between Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French, and English. She is a board member and chair of the Equity Advocates Committee at the American Literary Translators Association. Her translations and essays are published in McSweeney’s, Lit Hub, The Paris Review, Latin American Literature Today, World Literature Today, Catapult, AAWW, Words Without Borders, and elsewhere. Her translations include works from Taiwanese feminist authors, Lin Yi-Han (Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise), Lâu Tsí-û (“Not Your Child”), Leah Yang, and more. She has given talks about translation, languages, and gender movements across 16 universities in the States and Canada.                                                                                                                                                 

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