“Don’t speak of how women can’t become heroes”

June 18, 2023 3:11 PM

Qiu Jin was a Chinese feminist revolutionary [archive link] beheaded by agents of the Qing empire in 1907, becoming a martyred hero to her cause. She was also a poet, and Canadian translator (and SF writer) Yilin Wang has been publishing new translations of her poetry in various venues. For more about her approach, you can read her essay about translating. These new translations have been widely appreciated, including by the British Museum, who stole them and published without attribution or compensation.
posted by Kattullus (23 comments total)

Well. I mean, the British Museum stealing something? Shocked face.

I hope this gets wide enough attention that they don't end up just Elgin Marbles-ing the translations.
posted by hippybear at 3:16 PM on June 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

Also, that essay about translating is really really great. Thanks so much for posting about this!
posted by hippybear at 3:21 PM on June 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Their blog is also pretty great
https://yilinwang.com/blog/

The piece about the "infinite possibilities of trees" is a response to another instance of unauthorized publication.
posted by kokaku at 3:59 PM on June 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

The horrible intersection of Orientalism and misogyny that's taking place with the theft of her work is really sticking in my craw. It feels like because the subject of the translation is a woman, and Asian, and the translator is a woman, and Asian/Canadian, and as a translator is invisible, it's just fucking OKAY to take their work. Without a passing thought.
posted by hippybear at 4:07 PM on June 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

Thoughts:
1. Qiu Jin sounds like an absolutely fascinating person.

2. The British Museum has behaved astonishingly badly. As a cultural and scholarly institution, they should be ashamed. How would they recommend plagiarism be punished. I’m from a much less prestigious institution, and I wouldn’t tolerate that behavior in a first year undergrad.

I suppose a best case scenario is that the catalog has the attribution, but their not contacting her suggests not.

3. I enjoy her translations quite a bit. Chinese poetry seems like an especially tricky subject for the translator, as there is usually a sharp tension between capturing all the allusions and writing something that is a pleasure to read on its own. Yilin Wang seems to have threaded that tension gracefully, and her translations are a pleasure to read.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:53 PM on June 18, 2023 [6 favorites]

Thank you for this post! I had seen the twitter thread, but knew nothing else about Yilin Wang or her work. I'm going to look up her SF.

Translating poetry is hard. For a great introduction see Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language by Douglas Hofstadter, "in which he explores the meaning, strengths, failings and beauty of translation. The book is a long and detailed examination of one short translation of a minor French poem and, through that, an examination of the mysteries of translation (and indeed more generally, language and consciousness) itself." Each chapter begins with a translation of the same late renaissance French poem, Clément Marot's "A une Damoyselle malade," but they are all quite different from each other--yet all arguably faithful translations.
posted by indexy at 5:02 PM on June 18, 2023 [7 favorites]

Christ, one might think the British Museum could learn something about not committing theft in the course of a few centuries.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:03 PM on June 18, 2023 [10 favorites]

→ The British Museum … should be ashamed

They're the Boris Johnson of museums: incapable of shame
posted by scruss at 7:20 PM on June 18, 2023 [7 favorites]

I remember Qui Jim from University back when (we) were still using Ch'ing. The same week was taught about the The Xuantong Emperor, an Intrigued chronology formed from his reighn to the republic in which Young Henry seems to symbolize much during this period, the facade of the older empire, fragmentation and nationalism.The real stories I believe in that era are of Qui Jin and so many others.
my opinion this is a complex period in history and culture and it is very hard to pick a starting point. I will call it the 9 tab-7% battery power "solution".
The Twitter link considering the British museum is quite interesting.

2.2M Views, 8,515 Retweets, 771...
Suffice it say, the full statement of (we) were unaware and are very from the British Museum is likely. awareness, just one aspect to Qui Jin memory so I suppose a good overall view would start with the Qing dynasty a fascinating read especially 'New Qing History'. To digress, I use my own advice to not use the Chinese past to criticize the "present" for example Lu Xun statement. It becomes, it'd wager, an exponential subject to discuss. perhaps one thing that ties whatever forces or shattered histories together is the matter of poetry.

"Hold tight to your valor, hot-blooded fellows;
your spilled blood shall transform into martyr-jade torrents."
from to drink... transform into martyr Jade torrents. what a line to hear that as a male during that period I mean what are you going to say I'm sure people said something, perhaps that's not really the point.

The horrible intersection of Orientalism and misogyny
What is that, the Western influence of modern goods and opium with an emerging class who study in Japan and forment revolution to fight a three pronged battle of rights, expression and hey, binding feet is not just inhumane, it's class like. because if that's really a central thesis especially orientalism I've got a counter action right here.
I think it should be every person's right to express outrage and dissatisfaction with society as is the post subject matter but I believe there should be some sort of solution or avenue and if one does not address that with a mere historical perspective, you have to make it new.
posted by clavdivs at 9:46 PM on June 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Apparently the British Museum has sent a letter to Wang thanking her for her help, without an apology or offer of compensation. Understandably, she's not happy about that response.

The original bad deed is awful on its own, but the British Museum's response is giving me an ulcer.
posted by Kattullus at 11:37 AM on June 19, 2023 [9 favorites]

Yilin is a really nice and generous person, and she does not deserve this. British colonization doing it again!!
posted by yueliang at 12:08 AM on June 20, 2023 [4 favorites]

Quick update from Wang:

someone who works for the museum has reached out to apologize (neither of the 2 organizers have apologized). They're offering to send me their permission form and I have asked them for a list of the places where the translations appear. Hope to have more news soon.

posted by Kattullus at 3:19 PM on June 20, 2023 [4 favorites]

They're offering to send her, the translator who was ripped off, THEIR permission form...

Like, this is going from colonial bad to colonial worse the more I hear about it.
posted by hippybear at 3:53 PM on June 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Guardian has reported the story.
posted by Kattullus at 4:04 PM on June 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Guardian has reported the story.

From that article "It is understood that the first time the museum was made aware of the matter was via Wang’s Twitter thread."

How exactly?

How the fuck is the museum not aware of where the translations of these texts not only in a foreign language but in a language that doesn't even share characters with English originate? Did they just materialize? Was someone at the museum somehow providing these translations that are miraculously the exact same as this translators?

WHAT THE FUCK BRITISH MUSEUM? AND ALSO THE GUARDIAN.

Why isn't a prestigious journalism outfit like The Guardian not saying "we've done the research and this is how these translations ended up being used"?

This one sentence elides at least a copyright court case of documentation.
posted by hippybear at 4:11 PM on June 20, 2023 [3 favorites]

So maybe I’m overly reactive, but this sentence from the Guardian story

Celebrated in the exhibition is the life and legacy of Qiu Jin (1875 – 1907), a revolutionary, feminist and poet who was executed by beheading at the age of 31.

kind of annoys me. The emphasis on beheading feels exoticizing. Would they emphasize that, say, Roger Casement, executed by the British about a decade later, was “executed by hanging?”
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:25 PM on June 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wang has another update:

I hear the BM removed my translations from the exhibit and told journalists they did so in good faith.

Well, this morning I got an email with an offer for payment, and docs that including the following quote

"we will not be reinstating the translations in the exhibition that have been removed following your complaint, and therefore you will not be acknowledged in the exhibition as your work will not be featured"

To which I can only say

What
The
Fuck
British
Museum
posted by Kattullus at 12:49 PM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Someone needs to print out pamphlets about this whole circumstance and casually leave a stack or two of them in the BM every day where this exhibit is.
posted by hippybear at 12:59 PM on June 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

News report in ArtNews. The absolute sour-faced gall of the British Museum’s response is starting to corrode my insides.
posted by Kattullus at 4:49 PM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

The museum’s statement also called the criticism its staff has recently received on social media “unacceptable,” noting, “It is through their scholarship and efforts, and those of their collaborators, that we have been able to present this period of Chinese history, through people-centred stories, to the thousands visiting the China’s hidden century temporary exhibition at the British Museum.

You know what else is unacceptable, BM? Hint: it starts with p and rhymes with “lagisrism.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:56 PM on June 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

Elaine Velie has a good follow-up article in Hyperallergic. The British Museum continues to be bafflingly stupid about this.
posted by Kattullus at 4:41 PM on June 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Jesus! We stole your work; here’s £600. Stop making a fuss. How much did the writers of the catalogue get paid? The designers of the text panels for the exhibit? The cover up, as often, is worse than the crime.

I wonder how Qiu Jin would react?
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:47 PM on June 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Yilin Wang has initiated a crowdfunding campaign in order to raise funds to support a legal claim against the British Museum.
posted by ursus_comiter at 3:17 PM on July 5, 2023 [2 favorites]