Remembering Li Chuan: Good News and Bad News.
I’m normally really good at not letting things get to me but I am really feeling hurt about this so please let me vent.
I’ve been translating Remembering Li Chuan for a bit now, and I’m almost done with chapter 6. But today I saw that someone read my translations, found they weren’t to her liking, and started translating on her own. Now, I don’t mind that, instead of coming over and correcting me or offering to help me, both things I have clearly stated I’m open to, she started on her own. And I’m not going to make stupid claims in anger that her translations are barely different than mine so far, so what is the entire point of having two different versions? It’s her right to do whatever you want. But the least she could do was drop me a comment saying that she was starting to translate. I would’ve responded really happily, and offered my help and let her continue, and probably dropped the series. But just the fact that she knew my translations existed before starting hers and didn’t even bother to write a couple of sentences as courtesy really rubbed me the wrong way. Honestly speaking, manners cost nothing, unless you’re in some kind of emergency. I started my translations when everyone else had barely heard of Li Chuan, and I know my translations are slow and probably very bad, but I honestly worked really hard on them, and now I simply feel really hurt.
I know that some of you may think that I'm being unnecessarily dramatic or butthurt, but I guess you have to understand where I am coming from. Translating mandarin is actually incredibly difficult for me. I have to spend a huge amount of time on every chapter, because I want to do the chapter justice when I'm coming from a background of almost no chinese whatsoever. I've had to give up leisure time in which I did things like read other people's translations (I'm sorry all my xue-jies, I'll become a frequent nuisance on your blogs once more), because if I don't spend time translating these chapters I feel guilty. I started because I wanted to give back to a community and realised that I could, even though it was a rather hard and long route. To be honest, the only reason I learnt chinese was to be closer to my maternal grandmother, my Ahma, because she's the only one in my mixed family who spoke it. Now that my Ahma is in tiantang , mandarin feels like the strongest tie I have to her. I grew up listening to her stories, she is the one who got me hooked on reading. My Ahma, frankly, in my eyes, is as perfect a human as I can ever aspire be. I carried into my translations all these feelings. So yes, maybe I am being unnecessarily dramatic. But this is why I am.
Anyway, after all this, I've come to the conclusion that there is no merit in me doing duplicate work, so for now, my version of the Remembering Li Chuan chapters are on an indefinite hiatus and if you want info for the other translations, you can visit the Shusheng Bar page for it ^^. If the other person ever discontinues or otherwise stops her translation for any reason whatsoever, I will pick it right back up from where she left off, promise~ (thou shalt never go without RLC *giggles madly*)
Now for the good news after I made you all listen to my whining: since I've (for now) dropped RLC, I'm free to pick up another project. Just right in a comment about anything you would like to see translated! I'll read the plot summary and get back to you~ I should also mention that while I'm not open to all suggestions, I normally prefer shorter, modern day, comedic books (especially if they're mentioned on Shusheng Bar so I can gauge other people (who have similar taste to mine)'s reactions) for translation. But again, open to all suggestions ^u^
Hope everyone in exam season is doing well, remember, only a little more to go!! Try to minimize procrastination!! Jia You!!! Su Su!!! Fighting~ Gambatte o(^u^)o