Ep 65 - Ge Fei and The Invisibility Cloak with Giray Fidan and Rauno Sainio

The best attributes of anyone or anything usually reside on the surface, which is where, in fact, all of us live out our lives

In the sixty fifth episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast we are swathing ourselves in The Invisibility Cloak (隐身衣 / Yǐnshēn Yī). Languishing with me in the peace and pain of relative obscurity are Giray Fidan and Rauno Sainio, two translators of the book’s author: Ge Fei, an imperceptible fabulist and three-time subject of this very show. I still haven’t figured him out, and I’m sure he’d be glad of it.

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// NEWS ITEMS //

• ACA Publishing/Sinoist Books bags an English PEN translation grant for The Sacred Clan by Liang Hong

• New book: The Artisans by Shen Fuyu, translated by Jeremy Tiang

• Chinese student writes Marxism dissertation on Warhammer 40K

• Lemony Snicket’s new book has a cameo from Pu Songling and John Minford

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// PHRASES OF THE DAY //

(太阳还好端端的在天上挂着呢! - Tàiyáng hái hǎoduānduān dì zài tiānshàng guà zhene - And the sun is still hanging right up there in the sky!)

(安居乐业 - Ānjūlèyè - To live in peace, and work happily)

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// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //

• I Found My Mind in Connecticut - Cage

• La Follia - Vivaldi

• Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

• The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tampinar

• Naked CEO Grant Horsfield and his Moganshan resort

• The Altaic language family and its syntax