Teithiodd Francesca Rhydderch, awdur The Rice Paper Diaries, a'r cyfieithydd Yan Ying, i Ffair Lyfrau Rhyngwladol ac Wythnos Lenyddol Shanghai fis Awst i lansio'r gyfrol mewn cyfieithiad Tseineg. Cyhoeddir y gyfrol gan Shanghai Translation Publishing House, y wasg sy'n cyhoeddi'r nifer mwyaf o gyfrolau llenyddiaeth byd yn Tseina.

Yn yr ail ysgrif fer i'r Gyfnewidfa, mae Dr Yan Ying yn trafod cyflwyno llenyddiaeth Cymru i Tseina.

Taking Welsh literature to China - Dr Yan Ying

The Rice Paper Diaries is the first book-length translation that was purposefully published as Welsh literature in Chinese, following the special issue of contemporary Welsh literature and art in the journal Foreign Literature and Art. This publication honoured the memorandum set up between Shanghai Translation Publishing House, Wales Literature Exchange and Bangor University in May 2014.

Fully aware of the range and number of audiences the international events in Shanghai offered us, Francesca and I took the opportunity to talk about Wales and Welsh literature whenever possible. Francesca gave a talk on Welsh women writers; we read poetry from Wales in Welsh, English, and Chinese translation, on the Poetry Night; we talked about the link between China and Wales at the book launch event.

And we heard people say, “I never knew Wales was not part of England,” and “I never knew Welsh is a language, so different from English”; we heard a female student asking for recommendations for readings on Welsh literature.

Welsh was not the only minority language heard during the literary week. There were writers and poets from Kazakhstan, Korea, and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Wei Shen, a well-known poet, expressed an interest in promoting Welsh literature in Xi Bu (The Western Frontier), a national literary magazine based in Xinjiang, of which he is the chief editor. The geographical, cultural as well as ethnical positioning gives this magazine a vantage point in taking on minority languages and literatures. Particularly, in view of the interest in Welsh literature generated from publications and events, I shall be looking forward to exploring the possibility of moving the current focus on the contemporary to an earlier era.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to a few parties: Shanghai Publishing House, as a top literary publishing house in metropolitan Shanghai, for their support in this endeavor to introduce Welsh literature to a Chinese audience, and for organizing various events and hosting us during the week; Wales Literature Exchange, without whose work the publication was unlikely to be possible.

A special thank-you should go to Cheng Jia for sending us, up against a tight deadline, the Chinese translations of the poems we read on the Poetry Night, and her effort over the years in translating Welsh poetry, particularly that of R. S. Thomas.

And of course, thank you, Fran, for your wonderful story, and company.

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Detholwyd The Rice Paper Diaries gan Francesca Rhydderch i Silff Lyfrau 2013 – 2014 Y Gyfnewidfa, detholiad blynyddol o lyfrau a argymhellir gan Gyfnewidfa Lên Cymru ar gyfer cyfieithu dramor.

Cyhoeddodd Shanghai Translation Publishing House eu bwriad i brynu’r hawliau cyfieithu The Rice Paper Diaries yn dilyn symposiwm ar gyfnewid llenyddol a chyhoeddi rhwng Cymru a Tseina gynhaliwyd ym mis Mai 2014. Trefnwyd y symposiwm gan Brifysgol Bangor mewn partneriaeth â Chyfnewidfa Lên Cymru, a hynny i nodi rhifyn arbennig ar Gymru o’r cylchgrawn Tseineaidd dylanwadol, Foreign Literature and Art.

Cefnogwyd taith Francesca Rhydderch a Yan Ying i Tseina gan Gelfyddydau Rhyngwladol Cymru a Phrifysgol Abertawe. Darparwyd croeso hael gan Shanghai Translation Publishing House.