Dr Yan Ying

I completed my PhD on Chinese American Literature at the University of Nottingham. Following a maternity break, I made a successful transition to Translation Studies, thanks to my passion for the field, years of translation practice as well as further academic and professional qualifications. Before joining the University of Leicester in 2015, I was Lecturer in Translation Studies at Bangor University.

I work in two worlds: I write in English about memory and translation, especially Chinese literature in translation; I write in Chinese about contemporary English literature, and translate English literature into Chinese. 

My research interests include Chinese literature in English translation, migrant and minority literature, focusing on issues of cultural translation and memory. Well published in literary translation, I also examine issues in literary translation from a practitioner’s perspective. 

Editorial positions

• Journal Editorial Board: East Asian Journal of Popular Culture; Translation Matters; International Journal of Chinese and English Translation & Interpreting 

Edited collections

• Y. Ying, W. Xiao. Special Issue: Chinese Popular Culture in Translation and Transmission. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, in preparation, scheduled for Autumn, 2023.
• Seeds of Dandelions: A Study of Overseas Chinese Literature and Its Dissemination”, co-authored with Yuping Rui, Kexue Chubanshe, 2015.
• K. Taylor-Jones, Y. Ying, Cultural Translation and East Asia: Creativity, Film, Literature and Religion, JOMEC, Issue 6, November 2014.
• Y. Ying, Special issue on “Contemporary Welsh Literature and Art”, Foreign Literature and Art, Issue 5, November 2013.

Journal articles

• “Postmemory Lost: Historiographical Meta-fiction Jinling Shishan Chai in Translation”, in eds. Sharon Deane-Cox and Anneleen Spiessens, The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Memory, 2022.
• “Translating Psychological Space in Autobiographical Writing”, Translation and Literature, 28 (2-3), 2019, pp. 200-216.
• With K. Taylor-Jones, “Editorial: Cultural Translation and East Asia: Film, Literature and Religion”, Cultural Translation and East Asia: Creativity, Film, Literature and Religion, JOMEC, Issue 6, November 2014
• “Migrating Literature: Reading Geling Yan’s The Banquet Bug and Its Chinese Translations”, Meta, 58 (2), 2013, pp. 306-325

In Chinese on British literature

• 《文坛“顽皮小孩” “老傻蛋”：作为现象的马丁·艾米斯》，《外国文艺》, to be published in August, 2022.
• 《新世纪英国文学20年：传统，现实，记忆，虚构》（Two Decades of British Literature: Tradition, Reality, Memory and Fiction），中国作家网， 2020年10月4日. (http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/1004/c433142-31883085.html） 

Authorised reprints

• 《文艺报》, 2020年12月11日
• 《新华文摘》, 2021年3月20日, 第 714期。

• 《封城之时读〈中间的英格兰〉》（Reading Middle England during Lockdown）, 《文艺报》, 2020年4月27日。（http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0427/c404092-31689578.html）
• 《马丁·艾米斯回忆录〈经历〉：玩转“时间之箭”》（Martin Amis’s Experience: A Master of Time’s Arrow）《文艺报》，2019年1月18日。
• 《萨瑟兰：文学界的福尔摩斯》(John Sutherland: Sherlock Holms in the literary world), 《文艺报》, 29 April, 2013.

Translation works

• 《经历》 (Experience) by Martin Amis, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2018. Revised edition to be published in 2023.• 《米纸日记》  (The Rice Paper Diaries) by Francesca Rhydderch, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2015.
• 《怀孕的寡妇》 (The Pregnant Widow) by Martin Amis (with the translator’s afterword), Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2015
• 《死者简史》 (Brief History of the Dead) by Kevin Brockmeier, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2014
• Three translations in the Special Issue: Contemporary Welsh Literature and Art, Foreign Literature and Art, 2013
• “威尔士语当代文学三十载” (“Three Decades of Welsh-Language Literature”) by Jerry Hunter
• “翻译与威尔士文学” (“Translation and Welsh Literature”) by Angharad Price
• “此时此地” [Excerpt, Bydoedd: Cofiant Cyfnod (Worlds: A Memoir of My Times in Europe)] by Ned Thomas
• 《文学趣谈》, “Wenxue Yihua” (Curiosities of the Literature) by John Sutherland (with the translator’s afterword), Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2012
• 《修补匠》, “Xiubujiang” (Tinkers) by Paul Harding, excerpt, Foreign Literature and Art, Vol.6, 2010.
• 《家园》, “Jiayuan” (Home) by Marilynne Robinson (with the translator’s introduction), the People’s Literature Publishing House, 2010; 2nd edition, 2019.
• 《巴黎之悟》, Satori in Paris by Jack Kerouac, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2010.

I welcome enquiries from prospective postgraduate students, particularly in the following areas:

• Literary translation between English and Chinese
• Memory studies and translation
• Migrant writing

Completed PhD supervision as first or joint supervisor 

• Changjing Liu: English Translations of Chinese Avant-Garde Literature (Bangor University)
• Xihuan Hu: Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Case Study of the Nüshu Culture
• Jie Deng: The Role of Trade Publisher in the Translation of Chinese Literature: A Case Study of Penguin Books

Current doctoral projects that I am supervising

• Jiaying Wang: Chinese Literature in English Translation: A Narratological Investigation
• Tingwen Xu: Genre Translation: From Chinese Gong’an Xiaoshuo to Western Detective Stories

I teach both at BA and MA level. In addition to contributing to modules such as Technical Translation and Current Issues of Translation and Interpreting Studies, I convene and teach the following modules: 

MA

• TS 7002  Research Skills and Methods in Translation Studies 1
• TS 7038 Extended Translation 

BA

• TS 3003 Advanced Translation
• TS 3007 Dissertation

• Taking Welsh Culture to China
• 2015 Shanghai International Literary Week

External Examiner

• University of Surrey: MA Translation and Interpreting Programmes  2016 – 2021
• Xi’an Jiaotong - Liverpool University: BA and MA Translation Programmes from 2018 (annually renewed)
• Heriot-Watt: BA (Chinese) and MA Translation Programmes (Chinese) 2019 – 2023 

• BA (English Language and Literature)
• MA (English Language and Literature)
• PhD (American Studies)
• Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (Chartered Institute of Linguists)
• MA (Translation)
• Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy