‘Starting to write a suicide note would be too melodramatic. If she wrote it, it would only contain one line: This love makes me so uncomfortable.’

In the ninety seventh episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are passing the gates of Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise (房思琪的初戀樂園- fáng sī qí de chūliàn lèyuán), an all-too-real #MeToo novel by the late Lin Yi-han, centred around the titular girl and the cram school teacher who abused her all through her teens. Reflecting with me on the troubling nature of the text and the dark realities it holds a mirror to is its translator, Jenna Tang.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

A new fiendish rival? The China Books Review launches
Cambria Press publishes translation Liu Na’ou’s Urban Scenes
Avant garde champion Can Xue doesn’t get the Nobel Lit Prize… this time
READ: Heart by Shuang Xuetao (tr. Jeremy Tiang)

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// WORD OF THE DAY //

(樂園 – lèyuán – paradise)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

The pedophile art teacher from Angus’ secondary school
Black Box by Siori Oto
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

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// Handy TrChFic Links //

Help Support TrChFic // Episode Transcripts

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Ep 97 - Lin Yi-han and Fang Si-Chi's First Love Paradise with Jenna Tang

The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast

Ep 97 - Lin Yi-han and Fang Si-Chi's First Love Paradise with Jenna Tang