Asia in Frankfurt

Crowds at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Frankfurt, the biggest books fair and rights market in the world, is now underway. Last year, in 2013, 451 Asian exhibitors attended, this year publishers and agents from all over the region are there in force, and around 10,000 of the Fair’s visitors are expected to be from Asia. 

Many events on offer have an Asian twist.  Here’s a selection:

Chinese Market with CNPIEC: this explains how Western publishers can explore the Chinese market through exhibiting at the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), and offers updates on the development of digital publishing in China. BIBF is Asia's largest book fair, CNPIEC is the company that runs it.

Digital Publishing in South East Asia: South East Asia has a dynamic, young, literate population, and here digital is perhaps the future of publishing, more so even than in the west.  This event, run by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, explores how publishing in Asia can benefit from the new tools. 

Markus Nummi: Am Anfang ein Garten: The Finnish author Markus Nummi discusses his novel Am Anfang ein Garten. This is about love, loss and friendship, set in a missionary station in the Chinese part of Turkestan with the desert, mountains, and Asian gods in the background, and in the foreground a love story that begins in the year 1903 and continues until the year 1941. The event is sponsored by Finland Cool. Finland is the Fair’s guest of honour country this year.

Entering Asian Markets Successfully. Hosted by the Taipei International Book Fair, this panel will assemble experts from Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. They’ll present the best ways Western publishers can enter the Asian book markets, with a special focus on the Chinese language markets.

Dewi Lestari on new trends in her writing. Dewi Lestari is one of Indonesia’s foremost young authors, known for stylistic and formal innovation. In this session she will give her opinions on the future of writing in Indonesia in the digital age. Sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Indonesia.

Plenty yet to be done Against Child Labour and for Children’s Rights. Publisher and photographer Lois Lammerhuber and multi-award winning photographer Hartmut Schwarzbach in conversation about child labour and children’s rights.  Schwarzbach has devoted his career to sophisticated photo reportage on humanitarian and ecological issues. Since 2000 he has focused his attention on children’s rights in Asia and Africa.

Next year, in 2015, Indonesia will present its rich and diverse culture as the guest of honour in Frankfurt. This should make a big impact on the awareness of Asia as a hotspot in the publishing world.  In preparation for this cultural exchange, Indonesian chef William Wongso will demonstrate the art of cooking beef rendang, and also traditional Indonesian appetizers and desserts. The demonstration is called Mysteries of the Flavours of Indonesia - Part 1. Perhaps Part 2 will be next year?

Looking Back at Ubud / Alice Clark-Platts

Saraswati

The Ubud Writers’ and Readers’ Festival 2014 has just finished. Alice Clark Platts reports. 

This has been five days of glorious sunshine, inspiring writers and authors, book launches, and food events, all rounded off in the spirit of this year's theme of knowledge and wisdom – Saraswati – by a huge Hindu ceremony celebrated at the Ubud temple just as the Festival got underway.

For me, the stand-out attractions were the poetry nights. Whether it be the regular Poet’s Club at the infamous Bar Luna or the hugely popular Poetry Slam Competition at the Betelnut Bar, poetry, with its appeal to a broad and rowdy audience, has become Ubud's rock and roll.

Into the Wilds, was the first event I attended. At a packed Bar Luna, the wine flowed as percussion was played behind the fast and furious words of the poets. Most impressive was Abraham Nouk, a former refugee, now living in Australia. Until three years ago, Abe was illiterate, unable to read or write. Now poetry falls out of him with the dexterity of a master wordsmith. Notable too, was Kosal Khiev, an American in exile after serving time in a US prison, now living in his native Phnom Penh. Having survived solitary confinement for over a year, Khiev spits words like nails, his anger at injustice propelling his audience into an aural maze.

These were all poets with powerful and complex stories to tell. At the subsequent Q&A, I asked why they were attracted to poetry as opposed to other narrative forms. They told me that it was the absence of rules that appealed; the ability to say anything at all, unconfined by a linear and constrictive structure. If they couldn’t speak through poetry, they said, they wouldn’t know how to live.

From perhaps a less dramatic background, was the Singaporean poet Stephanie Dogfoot, who wowed the audience at the Poetry Slam a couple of nights later. Her poems about satellites and stars; and breaking free from proscriptive parents were a cornucopia of inspiration and beauty.

Poetry is to do with liberty and self-determination, it seems. It is the very act of telling the truth despite the confines of your background that provokes the greatest respect from the audience. The majority of these poets did this in spades. Those less successful at it were the ones who seemed to be putting on an act as opposed to transposing a reality; the lack of truth marred their work and it diminished the power of their poems. That’s not to say they didn’t still turn on an engaging performance – but the poems lost their emotional punch; they didn’t connect with the audience in the same way.

Poems, like songs, have the ability to reach in and turn on a switch in the listener. Perhaps it is their brevity which enables this; that the words are chosen with exquisite care, in order to stab and shock and amuse in the most impactful way.

Whatever the reason, these poetry events are given pride of place within the Ubud Festival’s line up. Long may they continue!

Published Today: The Book of Sins by Chen Xiwo

Forty-six, a new imprint of Hong Kong based Make Do Publishing is devoted to writing from Asia, and publishes translated fiction by ground-breaking writers such as Murong Xuecun, Anni Baobei and Li Er. 

Forty-six today releases The Book of Sins, translated by Nicky Harman. This is a controversial and provocative collection of novellas by Chinese dissident Chen Xiwo. The first of Chen’s books to be published in English, it was banned in China, and he caused an international sensation when he sued the government to force it to explain the prohibition. It subsequently won an English PEN Award for translated fiction.

About Chen Xiwo

Chen Xiwo is one of contemporary China's most acclaimed authors; his works have been nominated for numerous prizes and in 2001 he won the Chinese Literature Media Prize, with My Dissipation. His novels are characterized by defiance and black humour.

About The Book of Sins

The Book of Sins is an investigation of the darker side of the human psyche. Seven novellas explore sexual and political deviance and corruption, they confront topics like S&M, voyeurism, and incest. In I Love My Mum, a disabled man who shares a bed with his mother is arrested for murder; here Chen uses incest as a metaphor for a dysfunctional society. Likewise, in Kidney Tonic, a resident of an exclusive gated community indulges in voyeuristic fantasies about the sex lives of his neighbours. Meanwhile, in Going To Heaven, the son of a village undertaker tries to convince his friend to enter a suicide pact, surely a sly reference to political relations between the Party and the people in China?

About the court case

Chen Xiwo has been described by Asia Sentinel as: “one of China’s most outspoken voices on freedom of expression.” His refusal to self-censor his controversial work meant he’d been writing for nearly 20 years before his books could be published in China, although he found publication in Taiwan.  In June 2007, the China Customs intercepted the galley proof of The Book of Sins, which had been mailed to Chen by his Taiwanese publisher. The book was banned in China.  Chen launched a legal challenge  against the government for the prohibition and an uproar exploded in the Chinese media at the absurdity of a writer having his own book confiscated.

In a 2010 essay, The First Prohibition, Chen Xiwo wrote: “To be prohibited is normal for me. Basically, everything I have published has either been banned or else extensively revised…This is my style of writing, although lots of people don’t understand why I want to write this way. It embarrasses them. It makes people unhappy, makes them anxious. Well I prefer to be this kind of evil spirit, rather than an angel who sings all day long in praise of some ‘golden age of China.’”

Nicky Harman’s English translation of The Book of Sins will bring a courageous writer and dissident to wider international prominence.

This week in the Asian Review of Books

Asian Books Blog is not a review site.  If you want reviews, see the Asian Review of Books.  Here is a list of its newest reviews:

The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia by Bill Hayton and Fire on the Water: China, America, and the Future of the Pacific by Robert Haddick reviewed by Peter Gordon
Hard Choices: Challenging the Singapore Consensus by Donald Low and Sudhir Vadeketh reviewed by Kerry Brown

A Poetic Backgrounder to the Hong Kong Protests 
Willow Trees Don’t Weep by Fadia Faqir  reviewed by Agnes Bun

If you are interested in Agnes Bun's piece on the background to the Hong Kong protests, then you may also like to read Chinese Mainlander Sheng Yun's first hand account of events in Causeway Bay, published here in the London Review of Books.

The Paju Booksori Festival

Friday 3 Oct sees the start of The Paju Booksori Festival, the largest book festival in Korea. Launched in the autumn of 2011, the Festival draws around 100 publishers, and leading Korean organisations related to the publishing industry, books, education, and culture.  Click here for an English-language round-up of what visitors can expect, published in the Korea Joongang Daily.

If you happen to be attending the Paju Booksori Festival, and you would be willing to write about it for Asian Books Blog, then please leave a comment or contact  asianbooksblog@gmail.com. Thanks. 

Guest Post: Philip Chadha on GloBooks & Translated Fiction

GloBooks is a new international book review site. It is a place where readers with a passion for great fiction by international writers can connect with each other.  It often features works originally in languages other than English, but now available in translation, and heralding from all around the globe.

Philip Chadha founded GloBooks, and he is also heavily involved in the London-based Asian Book Club. He here writes about encouraging trends in the availability of translated fiction.

So: Over to Philip…

“If I said two names Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson, what would they mean to you? If you are a fan of crime fiction, then probably quite a lot. Larrson and Nesbo are literary stars, authors whose books have sold in their millions around the world. Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo stormed best seller charts everywhere; Nesbo has produced a string of must-reads for any crime fiction fan. His novels The Police and, more recently, The Son have clocked up a bucket-load of sales from London to Sydney. For sure, Nordic noir has helped put translated fiction on the map.

Still, there is a wealth of great writers telling international stories that are high in cultural currency but low in popularity, both amongst English-language publishers and also amongst English-speaking readers. Unfortunately, translated fiction has long been perceived as the poorer cousin of English language literature.

But people are keen to expand their horizons, and perhaps things are about to change? In a recent article in The Observer newspaper (UK), journalist Dalya Alberge highlights a market report recently published by Literature Across Frontiers, a group furthering literary exchange, translation and policy debate within Europe. Talking about the UK, its director, Alexandra Büchler, is quoted as saying literary translations have grown by some 18% over 20 years. UK Publishers also reported an increase in sales. Adam Freudenheim, director of Pushkin Press, a London-based house which specialises in translated fiction, told Alberge: 'Sales doubled last year and are on track to double or even triple this year.'

It’s not just the small presses making a success of translated fiction; some major publishers are also doing sterling work. Penguin are soon to launch Turkish novelist Elif Shafak`s new novel Architect`s Apprentice which is out in November. Shafak is a barn stormer of a writer with her books translated into 33 languages.

At GloBooks we too are doing our bit to promote fiction in translation.  We cover books from everywhere - including, of course, Asia. We will be talking about  Architect`s Apprentice and, looking even further east, we were delighted recently to feature Indian writer Deepti Kapoor’s well-received debut novel Bad Character - click here to see our discussion." 

Ubud Up And Running...

The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival starts today.  Look out for posts over the next few days, from Festival-goer, and Asian Books Blogger Alice Clark-Platts. Meanwhile, see here for an interesting interview the Festival's founder, Janet De Neefe gave to The Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week, or here for a video she has posted on YouTube.