Moving Between Tongues: Chinese Poetry in English

The three Chinese language week events at the National Library of New Zealand have been jointly organised by Wellington City Libraries and the National Library of New Zealand.

Translation is one of the most powerful tools in introducing poetry readers to other voices and worlds. The act of translation is one of uncovering new meaning as much as it is presenting an alternative version of a text. In this Chinese Language Week event, Chris Tse and Yujing Liang will explore what is found and gained in translation, with a focus on contemporary Chinese poetry. They’ll also discuss their own experiences of incorporating English and Chinese language in their own work.

Speaker Biography:
Chris Tse is the author of two poetry collections published by Auckland University Press: How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (winner of the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry and a finalist at the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards) and HE'S SO MASC.

Chris reviews books for Radio New Zealand and Landfall, and is a regular contributor to Capital's Re-Verse column. He and Emma Barnes are currently editing an anthology of contemporary LGBTQIA+ Aotearoa New Zealand writers to be published by Auckland University press in early 2021.

Liang Yujing is a poet and translator who grew up in China and is currently a PhD candidate at Victoria University of Wellington, working on his thesis on Chinese poet Yi Sha. He is the Chinese translator of Best New Zealand Poems 2014 (Wai-te-ata Press, 2016) and the English translator of Zero Distance: New Poetry from China (Tinfish Press, 2017) and Dai Weina’s Loving You at the Speed of a Snail Traveling around the World (Cold Hub Press, 2018). His Chinese translations of American poet Kim Addonizio’s Tell Me and What Is This Thing Called Love are forthcoming in China in 2019.

Image: Yujing Liang