Lintao Qi
Lintao (Rick) Qi received his PhD in Translation Studies from Monash University, Australia in 2015. A NAATI accredited professional translator between Chinese and English (both directions), Rick is currently Director and Senior Lecturer in the M.A. program of Interpreting and Translation at Monash University.
Biography
Dr. Lintao (Rick) Qi is Senior Lecturer and Course Director of the Master of Interpreting and Translation Studies at Monash University. Rick completed his PhD research at Monash University in 2015. His current research interests include literary translation, translation and cultural diplomacy, censorship and sexuality in translation, and translation in the digital space. He is the author of Jin Ping Mei English Translations: Texts, Paratexts, and Contexts (Routledge, 2018), co-editor (with Leah Gerber) of A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation: English Publication and Reception (Routledge, 2020), co-editor (with Shani Tobias) of Encountering China's Past: Translation and Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature (Springer, 2022), and co-editor (with Vibeke Børdahl) of Jin Ping Mei – A Wild Horse in Chinese Literature. Essays on Texts, Illustrations and Translations of a Late Sixteenth-Century Masterpiece (NIAS, 2023). He has published papers in internationally leading journals such as Adaptation, Target, Translation and Interpreting Studies, and Perspectives. Rick is also a NAATI-certified translator (Chinese<>English), National Education Committee member of AUSIT (Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators). He was the Editor of The AALITRA Review, and Co-editor of New Voices in Translation Studies.Education
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PhD, Monash University, Australia, 2012-2015
MA, Henan University, China, 2008-2011
BA, Henan University, China, 2000-2004
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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Current research and supervision interests include:
Literary translation and adaptation studies
Translation and cultural diplomacy
Language services for CALD communities
Mobility, translation and cultural identities
Sexuality and censorship in translation
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
2022 – 2024 Editor, New Voices in Translation Studies
2022 – Facilitator, Translating and Interpreting Cultures and Languages (TICL) Cluster, LCNAU (Languages & Cultures Network for Australian Universities)
2021 – CIUTI representative of Monash University
2019 – 2022 Editor, The Aalitra Review (The Australian Association for Literary Translation)
2018 – National Education Committee member of AUSIT (The Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators)
2018 – Member of IATIS (International Association of Translation and Interpreting Studies)
2018 – Member of SHARP (Society for the History, Authorship, Readership and Publishing)
2015 – NAATI certified Professional translator between English and Chinese (both directions)
AWARDS/GRANTS
2023 National Foundation for Australia-China Relations (DFAT) grant
2022 Monash-Warwick Alliance Education Fund
2020 Faculty Award for Programs that Enhance Student Learning
2020 Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Research Grant
2019 Asia Study Grant, National Library of Australia
2019 CIUTI Award for the Most Outstanding PhD Thesis
2018 Australian Academy of Humanities Travelling Fellowship
2018 Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award, LLCL, Monash
2018 Australia China Council (DFAT) grant
2017 National Social Science Fund of China project (17BYY064)
REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOKS/CHAPTERS
• Qi, L. (2024). Translating Chinese Erotica: Re-inventing Otherness. In Baer, B.J., & Bassi, S. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Sexuality. Routledge.
• Qi, L. & Wilson, R. (2023). Redefining information accessibility in crisis translation: Communicating COVID-19 resources to culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia. In Declercq, C., & Kerremans, K. (Eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Interpreting and Crisis. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003207580
• Qi, L. (2023). Ballet diplomacy: Political agency in the Japanese adaptation of The White-Haired Girl. Adaptation. https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apac017
• Qi, L. (2022). Translation as crisis (mis)communication for culturally and linguistically diverse communities: The case of Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Translation Spaces. https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.21044.qi
• Qi, L. (2022). Monkey’s peregrinations in the West: An archival study of publishers’ reception of Arthur Waley’s translation of the Xiyouji. In Chan, Leo Tak-hung and Zong-qi Cai (eds.) History Retold: Premodern Chinese Texts in Western Trnaslation (pp. 154-182). Brill.
• Qi, L. (2022). The Adaptation of Sex and Sexy Adaptations: Rewriting Jin Ping Mei for the Mid-20th Century Anglophone Market. In Børdahl, Vibeke and Lintao Qi (eds.) Jin Ping Mei - A Wild Horse in Chinese Literature. Essays on Texts, Illustrations and Translations of a Late Sixteenth-Century Masterpiece (pp. 226-246). NIAS Press, University of Copenhagen.
• Qi, L. (2022). Piracy and the commodification of originality in translation: The Thorn Birds in the Chinese literary marketplace. Translation and Interpreting Studies (online first). https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.21024.qi
• Qi, L., & Tobias, S. (2022). Encountering China's Past: Translation and Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature. Springer.
• Qi, L., & Tobias, S. (2022). Japanese Translations of Jin Ping Mei: Chinese Sexuality in the Sociocultural Context of Japan. In L. Qi, & S. Tobias (Eds.), Encountering China's Past (pp. 125-144). Springer.
• Qi, L. (2022). Construction and consumption of otherness: A (neo-) orientalist study of english translations of contemporary Chinese literature. In J. Zhao, D. Li, & R. Moratto (Eds.), Chinese Literature in the World: Dissemination and Translation Practices (pp. 19-38). Springer.
• Ni, J., & Qi, L. (2022). A translational history of the dream of the red chamber in Japan. In L. Qi, & S. Tobias (Eds.), Encountering China's Past (pp. 29-48). Springer.
• Qi, L. (2021) Source text readers as censors in the digital age: a paratextual examination of the English translation of Wuhan Diary. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2021.1939741
• Gerber, L & Qi, L (2021). A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation: English Publication and Reception. London and New York: Routledge.
• Qi, L. (2021) Translating sexuality in the context of Anglo-American censorship: The case of Jin Ping Mei. Translation and Interpreting Studies. 16(3). pp.416-433.
• Qi, L., & Gerber, L. (2021). Archival Research as Method: A Study of ‘Non-professional’ Agents of Literary Translation. In L. Gerber, & L. Qi (Eds.), A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation 1919-2019 (pp.9-22). Routledge.
• Qi, L and M. Roberts (eds). (2020) Translation of Classical Chinese Novels. Beijing: Beijing Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press.
• Qi, L. (2020) The Death of the Source Text: De-canonisation of Jin Ping Mei Through English Translation. Journal of Yanshan University. 21(3). pp.39-48.
• Qi, L. (2020). Transference of things remote: Constraints and creativity in the english translations of Jin Ping Mei. Translation Horizons, 10(2), pp.98-110.
• Qi, L. (2019) Texts, Paratexts and Context: A Comparative Study of English Translations of the Classical Chinese Novel Jin Ping Mei. East Journal of Translation. pp.29-51.
• Qi, L (2018) Jin Ping Mei English Translations: Texts, Paratexts and Contexts. London and New York: Routledge.
• Qi, L. (2018) The Dual Patronage Roles of Literary Censorship: On English Translations of the Erotic Texts in Jin Ping Mei. Journal of Translation Studies. 2(2). pp.101-116.
• Qi, L. (2018) The Patrons’ Invisibility: A Paratextual Study of the First Complete English Translation of Jin Ping Mei. Translation Horizons. no.6. pp.21-34.
• Qi, L. (2016) Agents of Latin – An Archival Research on Clement Egerton’s English Translation of Jin Ping Mei. Target: International Journal of Translation Studies. 28:1, pp.42-60.
• Qi, L. (2015) The Odyssey of Jin Ping Mei in English: Encounters with Anglo-American Literary Censorship. Journal of Ming-Qing Fiction Studies. no.2, pp.233-246.
• Qi, L. (2014) Researcher as Translator: David Roy and His English Retranslation of Jin Ping Mei. mTm: A Translation Journal. no.6, pp.39-51.
Non-refereed Book Reviews/Introductions
• Børdahl, V. & Qi, L. (2023). Introduction. In Jin Ping Mei - A Wild Horse in Chinese Literature. NIAS Press, University of Copenhagen.
• Tobias, S., & Qi, L. (2022). Literary Translation as Cultural Encounter: Classical Chinese Literature in the World. In Encountering China's Past (pp. 1-8). Springer.
• Gerber, L., & Qi, L. (2021). Introduction: A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation. In A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation (1919–2019): English Publication and Reception (pp.1-6). Routledge.
• Qi, L., & Roberts, M. (2020). Classical Chinese Literature in Translation: Texts, Paratexts and Contexts. Translation Horizons, 10(2), pp.1-6. [1].
• Qi, L. (2017) Book Review: The Explosion Chronicle by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas. AALITRA Review: A Journal of Literary Translation. no.12, pp.51-53
• Qi, L. (2016) Book Review: The Plum in the Golden Vase, or Chin P’ing Mei, translated by David Tod Roy, Published by Princeton University Press. Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), pp.214-218.
• Qi, L. (2015) Book Review: The Seventh Day by Yu Hua, translated by Allan H. Barr. AALITRA Review: A Journal of Literary Translation. no.10, pp.25-27.
Service/Engagement
• Qi. L. (2023 guest lecture) Beyond text and agent: Translation and dissemination of Jin Ping Mei in the Anglophone world, Tsinghua University, 1 November.
• Qi, L (2022 guest lecture) Uncovering the Translatorship of the Golden Lotus: The Showroom and the Backroom, East China Normal University, 19 December.
• Qi, L. (2022 guest lecture) Commodification of Originality in Translation: The Thorn Birds in the Chinese Literary Market, RMIT University LCIE Seminar Series, 18 August.
• Qi, L. & Tobias, S.(2022 guest lecture) Book talk: Encountering China’s Past, Hong Kong Baptist University, 15 July.
• Qi, L. (2021 guest lecture) Ballet diplomacy: Political agency in ballet adaptations of The White-Haired Girl, The University of Sydney, 9 December.
• Qi, L. (2021) NAT: Literary Translation Panel, AUSIT (Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators), 19 June.
• Qi, L. (2019 guest lecture) De-Canonization of Literary Classics -- Jin Ping Mei and Anglo-American Censorship, Beijing Foreign Studies University, 18 April.
Books
News
Chinese translation of Australian children's literature
By: Lintao Qi
Subjects: Communication Studies, History, Literature
With the world becoming increasingly more globalised, the sizable middle-class Chinese families are looking towards Anglophone cultures for alternative sources of knowledge to educate their children. In this context, Australian children’s literature has performed particularly well in the Chinese reading market. The popularity of Australian children’s literature in China may be attributed to two factors: 1) the excellence of the literary works created by Australian authors and publishers; and 2) the translation and publication of these works in Chinese by Chinese translators and publishers. While the former was often discussed in the academia, due in part to the many literary awards won by Australian authors, the latter remained under-researched. For example, which authors and titles have been selected for introduction into the Chinese market? What publishing mechanism was in place for translated Australian titles to be approved for publication in the Chinese context? What are the agents that are particularly instrumental in this process? What are the challenges facing Australian publishers and Chinese publishers in the exchange between two very different systems of publication? Who are the translators, how are they selected, and what are the factors influencing their translation strategies? What about reception: Which genres were favoured by Chinese readers and why? This paper will attempt to answer these questions on the basis of extensive data collection and in-depth analysis of texts, paratexts and sociocultural contexts, with a view to identifying the historical patterns, current trends and future directions of this important form of cultural exchange between Australia and China.
Edited book: A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation (1919–2019)
By: Lintao Qi
Subjects: Area Studies, Asian Studies, History, Literature, Research Methods
This book delves into the Chinese literary translation landscape over the last century, spanning critical historical periods such as the Cultural Revolution in the greater China region.
Contributors from all around the world approach this theme from various angles, providing an overview of translation phenomena at key historical moments, identifying the trends of translation and publication, uncovering the translation history of important works, elucidating the relationship between translators and other agents, articulating the interaction between texts and readers and disclosing the nature of literary migration from Chinese into English.
This volume aims at benefiting both academics of translation studies from a dominantly Anglophone culture and researchers in the greater China region. Chinese scholars of translation studies will not only be able to cite this as a reference book, but will be able to discover contrasts, confluence and communication between academics across the globe, which will stimulate, inspire and transform discussions in this field.
CfP: Translation of Classical Chinese Novels -- Texts, Paratexts and Contexts
By: Lintao Qi
Subjects: Asian Studies, Literature
Translation Horizons
(Edited by Beijing Foreign Studies University,
published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press)
Special Issue Call for Papers
Translation of Classical Chinese Novels: Texts, Paratexts and Contexts
Guest edited by Lintao Qi(Monash University) and Moss Roberts(New York University)
Classical Chinese novels play a unique and prominent role in the history of Chinese literature, particularly towards the end of the pre-modern period, when “xiaoshuo (for want of a better equivalent in English, novel)” matured and prospered as a genre in the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty. Due to multifarious factors such as the circulation pattern of novels, technical limitation of printing, and at times, literary censorship, practically all classical Chinese novels have more than one version. This plurality of texts, on the one hand, enriched the textual history of novels in China; while on the other hand, it significantly complicated the translation landscape when classical Chinese novels were introduced to the outside world.
Translation of a text across linguistic, cultural and geographical borders always bear the imprints of the ideology of the translator, the socio-cultural features of the target context, and most likely, the negotiation and compromise between the various agents and/or patrons involved such as the commissioner, the translator and the publisher, whose powers are, more often than not, imbalanced. And these can usually be best uncovered by scrutinising not the translated texts, but the paratexts of translations: prefaces, correspondence between the agents and/or patrons, interviews, reviews, and publisher’s public archives, etc.
Research on the translation of classical Chinese novels has been increasing in recent years, and is developing into a multi-disciplinary area. The editors of the proposed Special Issue of Translation Horizonswould welcome proposals for essays that explore the following areas, and other related topics:
- Historical studies:At what historical moment was a classical Chinese novel translated into a particular language? And what are the socio-cultural motivations? Is the choice of such texts isolated cases or does it represent a historical trend? How has the plurality of source texts been dealt with and what are the implications of such choices?
- Translator studies:Who devised the translations? What are the habitusand capitals of the translators? How did the translators’ ethos affect their translated texts?
- Sociological studies:What are the translation strategies? How (or whether) have these strategies been conditioned by the socio-cultural contexts of the time, e.g. popular ideology, political policy, literary censorship, etc.? Are there any network of agents and/or patrons at work in the choice of translation strategies, or more broadly, in the publication of the translations?
- Comparative studies:If there are more than one translation of a novel into a particular language, in what ways are they similar to, or different from each other, in terms of textual and paratexutal features, translatorial orientations, and reception by readers?
- Retranslation studies:If multiple translations of a novel exist, are they synchronically or diachronically related to each other? Is one translation an active or passive retranslation of another?
- Contextual studies:Why have there been retranslations of the same novel? Are the reasons for retranslation temporal, historical, political, personal or commercial? Are the considerations of a translator of a retranslation mainly linguistic, cultural or even academic?
- Theoretical studies:Are there any patterns observable from the history of retranslations of classical Chinese novels? Are these in line with or in opposition to the retranslation hypothesis proposed by Antoine Berman?
- Adaptation studies:Are all the translations of the same novel complete translations? Is there any partial translation, or adaptation? If so, what have been transferred into the target text, and what have been left out? Why have these happened? Is the translator, the publisher, any other agent or patron, or the social milieu responsible for such adaptations? If so, in what manner?
- Paratextual studies:What are the roles of paratexts such as book covers, prefaces, interviews, book reviews, correspondence and archives in the study of translations, translators and/or the other agents?
- Methodological studies:How can the texts, paratexts and contexts of translations of classical Chinese novel be most effectively examined and studied?
- Ontological studies:The Chinese terms and their translations. In the case of xiaoshuo, does xiaosuggest false modesty, meaning content of lesser consequence (even trivial) compared say to daxue, the study of important matters, i.e., state and social relations, the focus of the Lunyu? And shuoas casual informal conversational written story-telling? Yanyi, zhuan, jian(mirror), ji would be contrasting ways to describe a narration. The Hongloumengitself has characters who question the value of reading such narrations. Do you think the title Hongloumenghas been correctly translated? Does hongmodify louor meng?
- Miscellaneous studies:e.g. interviews with the translators of classical Chinese novels.
Instructions for Authors
Submission instructions
Articles will be 6000–8000 words in length, in English (including notes and references); however, the translated texts on which the proposed papers are based could be in any language.
Abstracts of 400-500 words should be sent to the guest editors at [email protected] [email protected].
Schedule
30 June 2018: deadline for submitting abstracts to the guest editors
31 August 2018: deadline for decisions on abstracts
30 April 2019: submission of papers
30 November 2019: submission of final version of papers
May2020: Publication date
Contact: [email protected] [email protected].
About Translation Horizons
Translation Horizonsis biannual, peer-reviewed journal focused on disseminating scholarly research relevant to translation and interpreting. The inaugural issue of the journal was released in May 2016. It is edited by the Center for Translation Studies of the School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University, and published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. It is abstracted and indexed in Translation Studies Bibliography (TSB) and CNKI.
Translation Horizonspublishes original theoretical and empirical research articles as well as translations of influential theoretical and methodological research articles written in languages other than Chinese. It also pays close attention to studies on translator and interpreter training and issues in the language industry.
The Journal publishes in every issue eight research articles, one book review and one interview. Articles should be submitted to [email protected]. For more information, please visit http://translationhorizons.com/.
About the guest editors
Lintao Qiobtained his Doctoral degree in Translation Studies from Monash University, Australia in 2015. He is currently lecturing in the Master’s program of Translation and Interpreting at Monash University. His research interest is in the translation of canonical Chinese works.
Having completed his bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D degrees at Columbia University, Moss Robertshas been a professor in NYU's Department of East Asian studies since 1968. He has released dozens of publications on Asian language and culture, including multiple books and translations. He currently teaches courses on East Asian civilization and serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies.