New Chinese translation prize for published works

09/02/2017

The UAB Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, the Confucius Institute Foundation in Barcelona and the TXICC (Research Group in Chinese-Catalan/Spanish Translation and Interpreting) have opened the first call of the Marcela de Juan Prize for the Best Translated Work. This is the first prize for translations from Chinese into Spanish or Catalan of already published works. The prize, which carries the name of one of the most outstanding Chinese translators in Spain, is biennial and will alternate between the two languages: in this first edition the prize will go to a Chinese into Spanish translation and the second edition will go to a Chinese into Catalan translation.

The prize will be awarded on odd years and alternate between Catalan and Spanish translations. The first call will accept any direct translation into Spanish published between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2016 of a literary work of any genre originally written in Chinese. The deadline for the first call is 15 February and the winner will be announced at the awarding ceremony which will be held at the beginning of the 2017/18 academic year in Barcelona. The first edition of the prize for a translation into Catalan will be awarded in 2019.

The award will include a 4,000 Euros in prize money. The jury will be formed by three to five specialists in translation and presided by Albert Branchadell, Dean of the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.

A leading figure in Chinese literature translations

Marcela de Juan (her name in Chinese was Huang Masai, »ÆÂêÈü) gave a new energy to translations from Chinese into Spanish, which had taken on a secondary place at the beginning of the 20th century. She was born in Havana in 1905. Her father was a Chinese diplomat and her mother was Belgian, with Spanish ancestry. As translator, writer and interpret of Chinese into Spanish, she played an important role in the dissemination of the Chinese culture in Spain, with special emphasis on literature.

As translator, she worked especially on short stories and poems, with several anthologies published in both fields. She did not limit her work to a few specific authors or literary periods, but rather translated the works of different dynasties, and therefore offered the Spanish reader a global vision of Chinese literature. Marcela De Juan privileged position gave her access to both Spanish and Chinese thinkers, such as Pío Baroja and Hu Shi, and this enabled her to gain an immense amount of knowledge about the two cultures. She died in Geneva in 1981.

More information: Marcela de Juan Prize for translations from Chinese