"Translating Chinese danmei novels into Western languages," roundtable organized by Zhang, Wenqian

[starandrea]

Last month geraineon linked to an online roundtable on translating danmei, hosted by the University of Exeter. That roundtable was October 30, with five speakers and an audience of 150 people, and I enjoyed it tremendously.

Two of the presenters had powerpoint slides they gave explicit verbal permission to share. I've transcribed those slides below, adding a few notes in italics where I thought additional detail from the discussion might add clarity.

"Roundtable: Translating Chinese danmei novels into Western languages"

( Introduction )

Tatiana's slides
( Challenge 1: Diverse Audience )

( Challenge 2: Translation Strategies )

( Challenge 3: Idioms (Chengyu) )

( Challenge 4: Technical Aspects )

( Challenge 5: Text Consistency )

( Web Novel Translation Specifics )

( Key Takeaways )

Giulia's slides
( Between Two Worlds )

( Balancing fandom expectations and accessibility )

( Professional VS Fan Translations )

( Sensitivity Readers and faithfulness to the original )

( Final Thoughts )

In conclusion [more of Star's notes]
( Just a few more miscellaneous things )