Occult literature is rampant, and there are not many good works. Photo/ Stills of "The Legend of Shu Mountain"
The strange logic in online novels often makes foreigners feel "suffocated" and incompetent in understanding. "The power of kissing is so great, he actually upgraded it?" "So he survived beyond the limit because of mouth-to-mouth kissing?"
Full of routines, but also quickly tired of watching. "Xuan Xianwen is all kinds of pretending to × punching the face, pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger." Some readers are just happy to find a new book, and when they open it, they look at it and it's the same except for the different names. ”
In 1998, Cai Zhiheng's online novel "The First Intimate Contact" became a sign of the maturity of Chinese internet literature. This work has a far-reaching impact, and almost everyone's QQ friends have a "light dance".
Today, 20 years later, the boom in Chinese online literature has spread abroad. Foreign readers said that the protagonists of their own novels "generally adhere to the concepts of 'don't steal things', 'we are equal', 'do not do to others what you don't want', but Chinese online novels let people see 'people don't destroy people for their own sake', 'people you dare to move me', 'strength explains everything' and 'hahaha, he actually pretended in front of me, let me appreciate his ugliness and then punch him in the face'"
Soon, foreign readers felt that the spirit of going against the sky advocated by Chinese online texts was often reflected in the ruthless abandonment of logic, so that they asked one after another: "The power of kissing is so great, he actually upgraded it?" "So he survived beyond the limit because of mouth-to-mouth kissing?"
Savoring Chinese online texts is a journey of obsession, boredom and question marks, and at the end of the series, foreign readers often have difficulty facing reality: "It's over, and the heartache is suffocating." "Look×× has become my habit, how should I live tomorrow?"
The same subject matter, foreign readers are tired of watching for two or three years
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According to iResearch data, the total number of overseas online users of Chinese online literature currently exceeds 7 million, and the top five countries in terms of readership are the United States (20.9%), Brazil (7.4%), India (6.7%), Canada (5.5%) and Indonesia (5.4%). It is expected that in the future, the number of users in Southeast Asia will exceed 65 million, the number of users in Europe will exceed 200 million, and the potential users in the Americas will reach more than 300 million.
Despite the numbers, Chinese online articles seem to be starting to stop after two years of popularity.
"Dark Light", 20 years old this year, is studying at a university in Switzerland, and he has only been in the online translation circle for two years, but he has already detected that online texts are in a state of "standing still" in overseas markets. "After all, the foreign market is very small, proportionally speaking, foreigners will really read chinese online texts very few, most people will choose paper books or Kindle, it is impossible to think of the first time to see the translated online texts, so this market has not been greatly sustained growth."
The European and American publishing industries are highly mature, and this does not have much benefit for the Chinese online literature market. On the one hand, the European and American publishing industry pursues market segmentation and best-selling book mechanisms, the variety is comprehensive, the content is highly typed, and almost everyone's taste can be satisfied, which causes the lack of living space for foreign online texts in the local market; on the other hand, China's online content is single, the quality is uneven, and once the freshness passes, it appears to lack of staying power.
Etvolare, founder of Volarenovels, further elaborates on this awkward situation: "The foreign publishing industry is very mature, the appetite of readers is very picky, and they are very demanding of writing quality, character development and presentation. Volarenovels' hottest romance web article "When Crossing Women Meet Reborn Men" best reflects the two popular elements of the moment: crossing and rebirth. But a theme that can be popular in China for five years may be tired of reading it in two or three years for foreign readers. So now the typical crossing and rebirth text is no longer very attractive. Because the reader feels that there are too many repetitions, he thinks that the immortals and fantasies are just like this: the monsters are upgraded, and every girl is as beautiful as a fairy. ”
Dark Light also noticed this situation: "Xuan Xianwen is all kinds of × punching their faces, playing pigs and eating tigers." Some readers are just happy to find a new book, and then open it, except for the name, everything else is the same, so that they misunderstand that they are reading the same novel. ”
In the network text, the forced index of the compound surname seems to be particularly high.
In online articles, Chinese-style surnames such as "Shangguan" and "Murong" will be favored by different authors at the same time, resulting in "every novel talking about the Affairs of the Shangguan family"; some foreign netizens collectively resist the word "yu", and they have enough of the heroine's name to be called "Yu".
Chen Jiayi, an online translator, summarized the Xuan Fantasy text simply and clearly - "The male protagonist likes to fight and kill, and there are many beautiful women around", and the romance class is "Girls like the cold rich and handsome male protagonist, and the rich and handsome like women from ordinary backgrounds, just like in "Meteor Garden"" ." Another translator, Beerblade, thinks this is normal because most people watch online literature only at a pastime, and "they don't intend to acquire any advanced knowledge."
Dark Light felt that this situation could not all be blamed on the author: "There are only a few hundred translators in this circle, but there are too many domestic online writers, and there is a huge group of authors such as GuangXuanxian." You should know that online texts also have high quality, but many translators are only willing to translate novels that are more bloody and easier to earn clicks, because they can make money. They don't care whether the online literature market can develop in the long run, so works that have been proven successful and mature are more likely to be liked by translators and translation companies. ”
Now, Dark Light intends to translate a new novel, The Chaos, which he likes because it is "different enough." "The protagonist is not the illegitimate son of the ten family owners in China, but an ordinary person from the countryside, so it makes people feel that he is related to our lives."
As a 20-year-old boy, Dark light is trying to change the misunderstanding of Chinese online texts by foreign readers with the words he has translated. "There aren't too many translators who think like this, and I can only contribute."
Etvolare already had a sense of crisis, and a large number of low-quality online output began to affect the expansion of foreign readers. "In the past two years, more and more works have been online to grab the same cake. Therefore, the translation website itself needs to check and select high-quality online texts, rather than just thinking about making quick money, which will cause more harm. ”
More than 400 web sites were shut down.
Not long ago, more than 400 online literary sites were shut down, and jointly deployed by the State Press and Publication Administration and the National Office for "Eliminating Pornography and Cracking Down on Illegal Publications", focusing on rectifying the three major problems of incorrect orientation and vulgar content of online literary works, dissemination of obscene and pornographic information, and infringement and piracy. Well-known sites such as the starting point Chinese.com, 17K Novel Network, and Jinjiang Literature City have also been punished for disseminating obscene pornography and vulgar literary works.
Online literature and serious literature seem to be on opposite sides. The truth is that from the day of its birth, online articles have been accused of vulgarity, brainlessness and bad taste.
In the view of the Dark Light, China's online text output is not necessarily a good thing. "The good thing is that Chinese culture is known. The disadvantage is that low-quality online articles will make foreigners misunderstand Chinese culture, and everyone is inexperienced when they first write, and often use the ideas and plots of their predecessors, such as fighting Japanese devils. For Chinese, this plot is very common, and foreigners cannot understand it. But in fact, Chinese is not always like this, this is just a cultural barrier, just like the terrorists in Hollywood movies are all Middle Eastern, and the gangsters are All Russian and Mexican, which is a stereotype. Therefore, a considerable part of the online texts that have been selected for translation do not represent the real level of Chinese culture, and I think that if foreigners want to understand Chinese culture, they should still read traditional novels. ”
However, in addition to the complex plot and lack of popularity of traditional novels, classic works such as "The Legend of the Eagle Hero" have also suffered losses in translation. Dark Light said helplessly: "Guo Xiaotian is translated as Skyfury Guo, and Huang Rong becomes Lotus Huang (Yellow Lotus). In addition, "Deer Ding" is translated as The Deer and the Cauldron (deer and cauldron), but in fact, 'lu ding' is the meaning of lu ding zhongyuan, who would want to see the story of a deer and a cauldron? ”
The Deer and the Cauldron are translated as The Deer and the Cauldron.
Words with Chinese characteristics are difficult to translate
Translating online texts is not easy, and the Dark Light finds that the mood is the most difficult to translate. "Chinese more concise and more specific in English. Maybe the original text is only five words, but the translation is twenty English characters, which is not quite the right way. ”
Beerblade felt the same way, and every time he came across a sentence describing the mood and atmosphere, he had to imagine the picture first, and then describe the picture in English. For example, "Nie Tian channeled the rich spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth into his dantian region", and "Falling into a state of Qi diviation" would be translated as "Nie Tian channeled the rich spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth into the spiritual sea in his dantian region", and "falling into a state of Qi diviation" would be used.
Poetry and idioms have embarrassed Chen Jiayi, who grew up abroad, "Some sayings only apply to Chinese, such as 'men and women are not intimate', foreign readers can not understand."
Etvolare revealed that she recently encountered a difficult problem: "In the novel, the male protagonist has two dogs, Great White and Great Black, and a rabbit named Erbai. It's not confusing to Chinese readers, but translated into English it becomes Big White, Big Black, and Second White. But the pet's name Iscond White is weird, and The English reader doesn't feel it at all. Later, I wanted to deduce it by color, and then describe it as cute, called Whitey or Blackie, but immediately found that it was easy to become racist, and stepping on this minefield abroad was finished, so I struggled for a long time. Finally, the colleague suddenly thought of not naming the two dogs salt and pepper, first echoing the color, and secondly, the two dogs love to eat, so salt and pepper have a certain echo in the theme of 'eating', and then the rabbit is called Riceball (rice ball), which is a white, cute feeling. ”
Unlike several other translators, Etvolare felt that the mood was very good: "The author usually uses a lot of words to describe it, so I first understand what he wants to say, and then describe it in the same beautiful English." 」 For me, the hardest thing is often the name, place name or trick, and a handsome trick can easily be ruined on a bad name. For example, the Divine Aeons Fist is literally Wilting Glory God Fist, which I think is a bit funny, and the whole character is broken. ”
In the first chapter of Etvolare's translation of "Jintang Guiyan", there is a passage Chinese: "The old lady is wearing a tea-gold cloud brocade placket collar gown, wearing a white jade-encrusted forehead of the same color on her head, and a gold-encrusted jade flower head hairpin is inserted obliquely, and she is sitting cross-legged on the bed of Luohan." ”
In order to translate "Jintang Guiyan", Etvolare consulted a large number of historical materials on ancient costumes and headdresses, but words with Chinese characteristics such as jade flower head hairpins, yunjin placket collar pants, and smeared foreheads are not easy to convey the spirit.
最终，Etvolare将这段文字处理为：“Sitting cross-legged on the luohan bed, the old dowager was wearing a dark gold jacket with a row of buttons down the front, topped with a high, round collar. A brocade headband of the same color, embedded with jade, wrapped itself around her head. A golden hairpin tipped with a jade flower had also been slid in diagonally into her hair.”
Etvolare sees two criteria for a good translator: "Because we have a large number of translators who grew up abroad, the first thing to check is the level of Chinese and whether they can understand what the author is writing; the second is the translator's English writing ability, which should be fluent, infectious, and cannot deviate from the original text." ”
In Etvolare's view, the reason why Chinese online texts can have an impact on the world is not only that the plot is simple and enjoyable, but also because the emotions depicted in online texts are very rich and subtle.
"Broadly speaking, Western film and television drama and literature are more direct, and a bad guy pretending to be a good person for a while will stab you, and this transformation will happen quickly." But the level of Chinese online text is delicate, and the foreshadowing is buried deeply. In particular, the writing of court dramas is very brilliant, because this is a place where real thoughts and feelings cannot be revealed at all, so each character is not simply divided into black and white, but gray, which will make the reader especially interested and trigger their crazy discussion. But the screenwriter of the American drama will bury the foreshadowing in the whole plot, rather than the interaction between people, maybe we watched a whole season of good people, and finally the plot reversal will find that he is the real bad guy. ”
The logic of Chinese online texts, foreigners are likely to not understand what skr is ghostly.
In addition, Etvolare found that Chinese authors do not ask too much about rationality at the logical and scientific levels. "Some authors will write about a hundred thousand miles in order to show how big a mountain is, which is completely unscientific, and foreign readers will seriously think about this problem."
Behind the popularity, the success of China Netwen has allowed many people to see business opportunities, and all kinds of investment and speculation have come from all directions. Since the creation of Volarenovels in 2015, Etvolare has also encountered a lot of helplessness, she revealed that the same type of website is fiercely competitive, "but to compete benignly." Her attitude is resolute: "Let's let more Chinese culture be exported together, so that the market is bigger, so as to protect the interests of the entire industry, and vicious competition will only consume mental energy elsewhere, and some gains will not be worth the loss." ”
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Author/Song Shuang Typography/Zhang Jiaming
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