Tuesday 13 May 2008

"There are certain places in the original text which are incompatible with Chinese sensitivities"

A fascinating look into the translation process that foreign books undergo from Paper Republic. Here's a snippet from an interview with the translator of "The Kite Runner":

In China, Political Correctness (政治正确) is the utmost concern. The original text’s description of the Afghan Communist Party could easily bring to mind earlier actions of the Chinese Communist Party. The publishing house feared that if the translation were published unaltered, the authorities might see it as a form of innuendo.

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