Introducing rock & roll to China: One translated book at a time
BEIJING: The money isn’t great but it is Dong Nan’s love for music that made her a niche translator in China, translating books on rock and roll from English to Chinese.
In just a decade, Dong has translated 11 books – she’s working on her 12th – ranging from Jim Morrison’s No One Here Gets out Alive, Bob Spitz’s biography on The Beatles called The Beatles Keith Richard’s Life, Jimi Hendrix’s Room Full of Mirrors to Chris Welch’s David Bowie. “I just love doing it. I don’t care about the money,” Dong said over coffee at a busy bookshop, the Bookworm. Back in the 90s, she saved her pocket money to buy pirated cassettes of Nirvana and Guns N’ Roses from non-descript shops in Beijing. In China at the time, it was the Beijing-based metal band Tang Dynasty that was creating rock music waves.
Born of her passion for rock and roll, Dong’s first translated book on The Doors was published in 2008. “It was 300 pages and took me six months to complete. I translated the book because I wanted to, and wasn’t even sure if it will be published. Luckily, one publishing house already had the book’s rights and published it,” she said. The publishing house clearly liked what they read and new projects haven’t stopped since. Dong’s biggest project so far has been translating The Beatles – and to her, it was like spending time with them.
“It was some 900 pages. I literally spend a year with The Beatles every day. Everyone became familiar; right from their sound engineer to their manager.” And that’s how she read about Indian sitar maestro, Ravi Shankar.
She also enjoyed translating Waiting for the Man: The Life and Career of Lou Reed. “At the beginning of a translation you are a fan, in the end, you become a believer,” Dong said, explaining how her translations and love for music merge.
The money’s isn’t much of a factor. “In the beginning, it was about 55 yuan (Rs 550) for every 1,000 Chinese characters or 500 English words. Now, it’s about 80 yuan (Rs 800).”