Mabel Lee
Mabel Lee (Chinese: 陳順妍, b. 1939) is a translator, best-known for her English renditions of fiction and essays by Nobel Prize-winning author Gao Xingjian. A third-generation Chinese-Australian born in Warialda, she taught Chinese literature and Asian studies at the University of Sydney, where she is now an Adjunct Professor. An Honorary Fellow of the Australian Society for Asian Humanities, she is among Australia's leading authorities on Chinese cultural affairs. Lee had already begun translation of the poems of Chinese writer, Yang Lian when she met Gao Xingjian, in Paris in 1991. After that meeting, Lee offered to translate Soul Mountain, a project which took seven years, and an additional two to find a publisher for the book in Australia. Following publication, Gao Xingjian became the first Chinese-language writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.[1]
Lee's translation won the 2001 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award for Translation[2] despite criticism about the book, and her translation's quality.[3][4] After her retirement from teaching, she translated another of Gao's novels, One Man's Bible, as well as a short-story collection and a book of his essays.[2] With Agnieszka Syrokomla-Stefanowska, she founded Wild Peony Press, which was active between 1980 and 2009 and published translations from East Asian literature as well as Australian scholarship on Asia. [5]
In 2012 Lee's translation of a collection of essays, Gao Xingjian: Aesthetics and Creation[6] was published by Cambria Press as part of the Cambria Sinophone World Series[7] headed by Victor H. Mair.
References
[edit]- ^ Mark Feeney (13 October 2000). "Nobel in Literature Awarded to Chinese Dissident". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
- ^ a b Jane Sullivan (12 February 2005). "An Accent on Accuracy". The Age. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^ Cao Chang-Ching (2 February 2001). "Modern Form Can't Hide Bad Prose". Taipei Times. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
- ^ Paul Gray (11 December 2000). "Lost in the Translation". Time. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^ Taylor, Eleanor (26 September 2013). "Cultural and Economic Ties: Developing Links and Relationships Between the Chinese and Australian Publishing Industries". Publishing Research Quarterly. 29 (4): 371–382. doi:10.1007/s12109-013-9328-1. ISSN 1053-8801.
- ^ "Gao Xingjian: Aesthetics and Creation By Gao Xingjian". www.cambriapress.com.
- ^ "Home - East Asian Languages and Civilizations". University of Pennsylvania - School of Arts & Sciences | School of Arts and Sciences - University of Pennsylvania. 26 January 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
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