Join the Launch of Spittoon’s Latest Work This Sunday (Mar 9)

This Sunday (Mar 9) will see the launch of Spittoon Literary Magazine's latest work, an anthology titled Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons co-published with Honford Star. The anthology features the works of 16 writers, eight fiction writers, six poets, and two essayists, translated from Chinese to English.

Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons aims to bring contemporary Chinese literature to an international audience, showcasing fiction, poetry, and essays that defy conventional narratives and highlight the diversity of Chinese literary voices. The anthology was put together by editors Zuo Fei, Xiao Yue Shan and Simon Shieh along with a team of translators, all of whom have been active members of the Spittoon Literary Arts Collective, which was established in Beijing in 2015 by Matthew Byrne.

Ahead of the launch on Sunday, which will take place at Timekeepers from 2.30pm, we got together with editors Zuo Fei and Xiao Yue Shan, along with translator Ana Padilla Fornieles, to find out more about the collection.  

Firstly, Xiao Yue Shan and Zuo Fei, the anthology is co-published by Spittoon Literary Magazine and Honford Star. Where did the idea for the anthology first come from, and how long did it take to put together? 
Xiao Yue Shan: I first heard about the work of our publisher, Honford Star, when they came out with Sakinu Ahronglong's Hunter School back in 2020. It's a great book that represents the kind of adventurous, beautiful texts that they are dedicated to supporting and producing, and even from that early release, it was clear that they were players who had something different to say about the game. 

Noting that they were specializing in writing from East Asia, I thought that they would potentially be wonderful collaborators for the work that Zuo Fei, Simon Shieh, and I had been doing at Spittoon Literary Magazine, which is that of sharing contemporary Chinese writing with English-language readers. Like us, they don't necessarily think about commercial prospects. They are independent, willing to take risks, interested in range, and invested in changing the landscape of world literature. It's that word – range – that means everything to us, as Chinese literature in the global regard is so frustratingly minimized to certain sociopolitical (stereo)types. 

Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons grew out of that very same desire to share what we know about Chinese writing – how varied, experimental, and daring it can be – without giving up the editorial independence that we've been able to maintain. By the time we really felt like a published anthology would be a perfect next step to get more eyes on the groundbreaking work that Chinese writers are currently doing, we reached out to Honford Star and, luckily, they got back to us and liked our pitch for the anthology. 

It took just about a little over a year from beginning to end, curating, recruiting translators, working on translations, editing, designing, and final release – which is an insanely short amount of time. I'm kind of shocked that we did it. It's something that seems only possible in dreams…

The anthology features a diverse range of genres, including fiction, poetry, and essays. How did you approach curating such a varied collection, and what criteria did you use to select the works included?
Xiao Yue Shan: Anthologies should never claim to be comprehensive or definitive – especially not ones that focus on a certain country or language. Chinese literature is like any other country's literature in that it is the cumulative, ongoing, and ever-reinventive work of its writers, never simply indicative of "culture," which is in itself an ambiguous, amorphous subject, and simultaneously far-removed from and reflective of its nation – just as imagination is both different from and corresponsive with reality. Knowing that any claim of conclusiveness would be presumptuous, our only objective and hope in curation was to open a door and to direct some eyes into the sheer wideness of this literary world. 

As such, our criteria were that the work had to convince us of its singularity, it had to be direct and powerful in its point of view, and it had to be assured of its place in the world. Every writer has their own methods to achieve these qualities, and it is also a matter of each reader's taste and discernment, so I can only speak for us in saying that we heard these writers in our heads and that they spoke to us with power, vividity, beauty, and intelligence. 

The only diagnosis of Chinese literature I can make with certainty is that its diversity is all but ensured: The country's vastness has produced so many histories, dialects, regions, landscapes, pathways, ecosystems, weather patterns, fashions, customs, and aesthetics. So, it wasn't tough for us to bring about this variety, but the overall scope is overwhelming. 

But in terms of our methodology, we didn't pick pieces, but writers – which is to say, before selecting the work that would be in the anthology, we made sure that we were familiar with that individual's corpus, and that their mind and creative force was something worth introducing in the anthology. We were promising readers something special in this collection – something brazen, differentiated, and brightening – and this substance is created from aliveness, a person thinking and wondering and creating right there on the page. 

When the writers were determined, the individual pieces were discerned with the collection as a whole in mind. My thought was that in the final line-up we should feel that any two works, when put next to one another, should spark a differently intriguing and transformative wandering dialogue. It should feel like the most interesting dinner party you've ever been to.

Zuo Fei: We were looking to find pieces that met two standards: The language should be fascinating, with the potential to "torture the translators" – that is, it should be formally radical or experimental; and the content should better be culturally alluded. But we believe what is local is also global. The very thing we are searching for is the combination of both national and international, both ancient and modern, which is, at the same time, my goal to achieve as a writer.

As Xiao Yue Shan said, instead of accepting submissions, we solicit works from authors, which means we have to scout out the authors first. It's a difficult job. We need both well-established writers and new voices, but we focus more on new voices, especially those who hide from the public or are rarely exposed in the industry. We always hope to find something unusual, like a hidden treasure. For the same author, sometimes we'll have read five pieces, and it is the sixth that turns out to be a gem. It'd be a shame not to dig it out, and digging is time-consuming, but we have patience. China is a vast nation, and creative writing has been greatly valued for thousands of years, which means our efforts will eventually pay off and we can promote those special voices who make China all the more authentic.

Given the anthology's aim to present contemporary Chinese literature to an international audience, what do you hope readers will take away from this collection? 
Xiao Yue Shan: The Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz said something that I've always taken to heart, which is that we are vulnerable to mistaking everyday life for reality, but the truth is that everyday life is often just a tired, congealed series of routines, habits, and performances, and reality is in fact so luminous, multiplicitous, and impossible to behold that we need something as difficult and utopian as art in order to get it within our sights. Only art brings reality to us intact – like a prism that reveals the light as full of colour, like a hallucination that shows up to guide you out of a maze. It brings us to our potential for awareness. It assaults reason so that meaning can live. I hope that readers will find in this anthology a selection of how Chinese writers are giving their readers realities.

Ana, you translated Lu Yuan's short story The Large Moon and Other Affairs. Why did you choose this piece to translate? 
Ana: The short answer to this would be that the story was assigned to me. But there's actually a fun anecdote here – I was not initially paired with Lu Yuan! I had been given some other short story in the anthology (I believe it's Pulling Thunder), and then my editor contacted me with a sudden proposition. Would I mind taking on Lu Yuan's piece instead? Shelly (Xiao Yue Shan) felt it was a better fit for me, and that I would be intrigued by this new challenge myself. I remember pondering what to do for a minute – I don't know if this makes sense, but I had already called that first assignment "mine." However, this turn of events did intrigue me enough that I decided I would trust Shelly's call and plunge into this new story itself. A challenge it was! But a very rewarding one, too. 

Nice anecdote! So why do you think the story was chosen for you then?
Ana: I am not entirely sure of the answer here. The Large Moon and Other Affairs is a very peculiar piece of fiction with a distinctly experimental style and baroque writing. In the past, I've translated pieces with similar, albeit more covert, elements for Spittoon Literary Magazine. So, I suppose that Shelly thought my background could fit this new, really ambitious piece, and I am really grateful that she trusted me with Lu Yuan's work. It was not an easy piece to read, let alone translate. But I hope readers will agree with me that it is gorgeous fiction. 

Can you give us a brief introduction to what the story is about? 
Ana: The moon reigns supreme in the night sky over a surreal landscape … or does she? The moon is described as huge and strangely magnetic, but there is also an impending sense of menace because she is about to split in two. The reasons for this phenomenon are unclear, and with this mysterious backdrop our hero, a middle-aged man, sets out on an equally peculiar journey across town populated by dreamlike scenes, colorful characters and vivid, strange events. 

How did you balance staying true to the original text while making it accessible and engaging for English-speaking readers? Were there any particular cultural nuances or idiomatic expressions that posed significant challenges during translation? If so, how did you address them?
Ana: The main challenge with Lu Yuan's piece was double-sided. After reading several times this spectacularly complex piece in order to be able to take it all in, I came up with a first draft where every decision had been carefully considered and revised in order to ensure that there were no errors – that I was truly preserving the meaning of each sentence and bringing it with me into the target text. 

The result was indeed accurate, for the most part – but then came the editing! Matching the literary quality of the target text to the original Chinese was an intense process, as well as an exercise in trust of my editor. We ended up rewording several sections and making some bold decisions in order to deliver the many exquisite layers in the story, and I'd like to think we did a great job out of it. 

As a translator, I enjoy that hindsight to my work where I can clearly tell which pieces marked a turning point in my professional practice. This is the story that taught me to look at the source text from unexpected angles, or this is the poem that taught me to be confident in my decisions – that kind of reflection. The Large Moon and Other Affairs did inspire me to stretch my own conventions, and I am grateful for the learning that came out of it. I am sure I will incorporate it into future texts.

Back to you, Zuo Fei and Xiao Yue Shan. How or where can people purchase the book? 
Zuo Fei: You can buy the book from www.amazon.com and other online platforms, either the electronic version or the physical copy. You can also purchase the book by checking out the website of the publisher, Honford Star, at www.honfordstar.com. Or you can come to our launch this Sunday, where you can order the book at ten percent off. 

Can you tell us more about the book launch?
Zuo Fei: Yes, the launch party is happening this Sunday (Mar 9) from 2.30pm to 5pm at Timekeepers. We've invited writers, editors and translators to talk about their work in/on the anthology. There is also going to be live rock music by a band called Deathbed, headed by Mike Fox and his fellow band members. It'll be a big show that's sure to be loud and a lot of fun. But as I mentioned, the most important thing is: If you attend the launch, which is free, you can order the book at ten percent off, plus you get free delivery, too. So, come join us! Spring is in the air. 

The launch of Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons will take place at Timekeepers at Ballhouse on Mar 9 at 2.30pm, the event is free to attend and there is no need to register in advance. 

Timekeepers at Ball House
40 Zhonglouwan Hutong, Dongcheng District
东城区钟楼湾胡同40号

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Images: courtesy of Spittoon Collective, Canva