Negotiating Culture Space and Identity: The Translation and Analysis of Tongzhi and Ku-er Fiction

Example 5:
ST: 我們需要的是一雙翅膀，只要找到它就可以重新自由地飛翔。

[We need is a pair of wings, finding it can once more freely flying]

TT: “What we need is a pair of wings. If we found them, we could fly freely once more.”
ST: }開始的時候，阿蘇曾經這樣說。於是我著手寫了一篇名叫「尋找天使遺失的翅膀」的小說，如今，小說已接近尾聲，阿蘇，我們的翅膀呢？

[In the beginning, A’Su said this. So I wrote a novel called “Searching for the Lost Wings of an Angel”, now, the novel is nearly finishing, A’Su, where are our wings?]

TT: A’Su said that at the beginning. Because of it I had written a story called “Searching for the Lost Wings of the Angel.” Now the story is nearing its end. A’Su, what about our wings?
ST: 草草，只要你不停的寫作，你就會在稿紙中看到我，看見自己。

[Cao Cao, as long as you don’t stop writing, you’ll see in the paper me, see yourself]

TT: Cao Cao, you just have to keep on writing, and on the paper you’ll se me. You’ll see yourself.
In the passage, A’Su summarises the most significant aspect of (ku-er) writing: “只要你不停的寫作，你就會在稿紙中看到我，看見自己”. Through the process of writing, Cao Cao is able to create A’Su as a character completely devoid of the moral and social restrictions that bind her and her mother. This enables Cao Cao to be free, through creating an alternative point of reference. The process of emancipation however, does not only apply to the characters, but also to the readers that follow the short story. This affirms Martin’s earlier assertion that tongzhi/ku-er literature only comes into being at the moment of its interpretation and appropriation. With Angelwings, Martin’s translated text appropriates Searching for the Lost Wings of an Angel literally. The image of angels in search of their wings becomes a metaphor for ku-er/queer individuals worldwide searching for their freedom.
To conclude this section, Searching for the Lost Wings of an Angel corresponds with Martin’s ku-er positive translation strategy. The translated text is an extension of the ‘wings of freedom’ promoted in the original text. In discussing the enabling effect of tongzhi/ku-er fiction, Martin has provided examples through her own translation. In addition, her translation of female tongzhi works ties in with her tongzhi activist background.
7.9 Conclusion
As stated in the pilot study, even translations that are culturally and ideologically ‘faithful’ can display aspects of ideological intervention. In the case of Martin’s translation, she advocates a politicized reading of the original text, placing the notion of tongzhi struggle to centre stage. Nevertheless, as the comprehensive footnotes and introduction bear witness, not at the expense of a wider, deeper elaboration of the Taiwanese context.
Returning to the building of a globalised network, the translation of tongzhi and ku-er literature shows source and target culture working on a mutually supportive basis. Martin’s translated text can be seen to be more ‘metis’ than hybrid because she addresses multiple cultural roots. If translation is what Herman (1996: online) considers to be a ‘window of self definition’, then tongzhi and ku-er fiction also offer Western gay, lesbian and queer readers a window to a world that can resonate with their own.
Chapter 8: Notes of a Desolate Man
In the canon of tongzhi/ku-er literature, Chu Tien Wen’s male tongzhi novel 荒人手記 [Desolate Man’s Journal] captures the image of Taiwanese culture in transition. Critically acclaimed at the time of its publication, the novel is rated as a classic of both gay and Postmodernist fiction from Taiwan (Martin 2003, Liou). To offer a brief summary, the novel centers on the affluent, intellectual protagonist Little Shao, who, in contrast to his promiscuous, queer activist friend Ah Yao, is a closet homosexual. The plot switches between Little Shao’s current monogamous, passionate relationship with his lover Yongie, and flashbacks to his past friendship with Ah Yao, whose death from AIDS haunts him Little Shao. Against the backdrops of Tokyo, New York and Taipei, the protagonist simultaneously indulges and detaches himself from the burgeoning gay scenes of the world. As in the preceding short story 肉身菩薩 [Buddha of the Body]¹⁹, the ambiguities of home, identity and desire marks Little Shao as the desolate man of the title.
Thematically, Chu’s writing explores the uncertainties of individuals living in the dual environment of a traditional Chinese upbringing and an emergent Western modernity. The writing is idiosyncratic in nature, constantly flitting between influences contemporary and traditional, foreign and Chinese. The narrative structure corresponds with the aforementioned description of ‘postmodernist ‘, illustrated by the rich intertextuality. Fran Martin summarises the style of the novel as follows:
Notes of a Desolate Man […] is an emblematic instance of the 1990s mainstreaming of a postmodernist literary aesthetic that privileges narrative fragmentation, linguistic play, a contemporary setting, and a global imaginary. (Martin 2003: 4)
The ‘narrative fragmentation’ and ‘linguist wordplay’ make 荒人手記 a challenging text to translate. As the textual analysis will illustrate, the nuances and density of Chu’s writing style stretches the limit of the translators’ knowledge of the Chinese language.

In terms of critical perspectives, the novel has inspired a variety of interpretations, sometimes conflicting. One debate that surrounded 荒人手記 during its initial publication concerned its status as authentic male tongzhi fiction. As a female writer, Chu’s credibility in appropriating a male tongzhi perspective is disputed. In addition, the negative portrayal of gay lifestyle questions the validity of the novel as tongzhi fiction. The writer Huang Mong Shu (2006), for example, discusses the ambiguity of gender and sexual identity is in the novel. Huang cites a quote from Chu claiming she originally conceived 荒人手記 as a novel about female desire (2006: 277) The female ‘voice’, according to Huang, is transferred onto a male body. From this perspective, the formation of male tongzhi identity in the text is less clear-cut. Huang concludes 荒人手記 is ultimately not ‘enabling’ tongzhi fiction, for Chu’s characters are too conservative to contribute to tongzhi culture (2006: 287). However, Martin (2003) also acknowledges the tongzhi positive perspective of the text. The protagonist’s longing for a traditional family structure is a case in point: Little Shao’s regrets at not being able produce children highlight the heterosexist pressure to which he is subjected.

Other major themes include city and country life, nation and nationality. The sense of alienation experienced by the eponymous ‘desolate man’ can be seen as a metaphor for the longing for homeland and national identity. Liou (2006) notes that while thriving in a cosmopolitan lifestyle the protagonist still recalls with nostalgia the enforced cultural closeness and the Kuo Ming Tang (abridged as KMT) party promise of a single ‘homeland’. Interestingly, Liou interprets this from a postcolonial perspective, arguing that the KMT party possesses many of the attributes of a colonial regime. The narrator of the novel, unable to accept postcolonial Taiwan, looks to Postmodernism as a way to avoid the issue of national identity (Liou 2006: 80). The above example illustrates how the text simultaneously addresses and detaches itself from the question of nationality. The issues relating to the concept of the Taiwanese ‘nation’ create an undercurrent of tension throughout the text. The uncertainty of belonging makes 荒人手記 resonate with the themes of exile and diaspora. As Martin also notes in Situating Sexualities, internal exile is a salient feature of the protagonist’s mental world (2003: 104). Expanding on Martin’s proposal, the mobile, hybrid city landscapes the narrator inhabits can be seen as the externalization of this inner cultural exile.
Compared to the Chinese original, the English translation of Notes of a Desolate Man received far less critical and commercial attention. Nevertheless, the novel is one of the more high profile works in the canon of marginal translated Taiwanese literature. The English language version, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-Chun Lin, received favorable reviews from major publications such as The New York Times and the Los Angels Times; the critic Peter Kurth (1999) from The New York Times, for example, described the novel as “a strong and perceptive voice from Taiwan”. Calling Chu a “superb stylist”, Kurth views the gay themed novel as a metaphor for Taiwan’s exiled political condition. While critical perspectives of the translated novel will be discussed in more depth in the paratextual section, it can be said that the external information (the epitext) surrounding Notes of a Desolate Man contributes to the potential readers’ perception of the translated text. In the case of Kurth, he has adopted a Nation/Nationalistic interpretation of the novel, placing Taiwan’s unique political context to be as of much interest to the Western reader as the gay themes in the novel.
Overall, the background and reception of 荒人手記 foreshadows the themes engaged in the textual and paratextual analysis. It should be noted however, that discussions on nation and national identity in Taiwan are not the focal point of this chapter. In a similar fashion to Martin’s textual analysis, this paper aims to look at 荒人手記 from a ‘glocalised’ perspective. Expanding on the themes of the novel, the translated text is a literary manifestation of the global/local intersections. The next section will look at the textual translation in terms of the different thematic aspects of the novel.
8.1 Narrative Style

As previously mentioned, the complexity of Chu’s narrative makes 荒人手記 a difficult text to translate into English. In the translator’s preface for Notes of a Desolate Man, Goldblatt and Li address the challenges that they faced. The two translators described the translation process as akin to a ‘treasure hunt’, searching for relevant references from literature, films and music. In order to strove to an ‘authentic’ reading experience, the two translators state in the preface that they strive to adhere to the idiosyncratic semantics and grammatical structure of the original. In instances where the reference was too obscure, the translators included a list of footnotes in the appendix to guide the English language reader. Compared to say, Martin’s Angelwings however, the paratextual information is not as comprehensive in Notes of a Desolate Man. Arguably this lack of guildance by the translators results in a more opaque translation. The ‘strangeness’ that comes with Chinese to English literary translation is part of the challenge Goldblatt and Li expect the reader to undertake. Rather than oversimplifying the text, the translators choose to present Chu’s writing in its dense, literary format.

To give an illustration of Goldblatt and Li’s translation strategy, the following example 1.1 show how the translators approached some of the most challenging aspect of the narrative. The extract is taken from the last sentence in chapter 7, leading up to the first sentence in chapter 8, in which the narrator attempts to describe the visual imagery of red and green. The passage offers an unusual expression of lust and desire, where the character Little Shao, tormented by sexual desire after parting with his lover, recites a green and red colour chart as a way to avoid the temptation of betrayal (see Chuang Chi Wei, 1997: 131). The example is cited below:
1.1
ST: 朱太赤，血不赤，千點赤 ，三月赤，奔虹赤，義輪赤，劍氣赤，鬚恨赤，妒君赤，空欲赤。。。

[Red too crimson, blood not crimson, thousand dot crimson, three month crimson, chasing rainbow crimson, sun crimson, sword spirit crimson, beard hate crimson, jealous gentleman crimson, empty desire crimson…]

一朵紅，正月長生一朵紅。

[A bud of red, January grew a bud of red]

TT: Verimillion is too crimson, blood is not crimson, thou-sand-drop crimson, thousand drop crimson, three-month crimson, rush-to-rainbow crimson, sun crimson, sword spirit crimson, beard resentment crimson, jealous gentleman crimson, empty desire crimson…
A bud of red, January grew a bud of red.

(Chu 1994: 92; Goldblatt 1999: 67)

The narrator refers to the Munsell colour chart²⁰ and Levi-Strauss’ theory of semiotics as points of reference. The different nuances of red and green are paired with evocative descriptions, creating an imaginary semiotics of colour. The effect is comparable to an index for commercial use, with each colour name a paint or cosmetic. At the same time, the repetitive, cumulative narrative reads like a prayer, or incantation or litany. The contrast between rampant consumerism and a spiritual, ascetic aesthetic can be compared to the theme of the short story Bodhisattva Incarnate. The character Little Shao, in an attempt to suppress his desire, turns to abstract materialistic symbols for use in prayer.
Looking at example 1.1 specifically, the sentences follow a mimetic structure, with the syntax of three Chinese characters: adjective, adjective and colour, for instance, 朱 [red] 太 [too] 赤 [crimson]. At first glance, Goldblatt and Li translate very closely to the original text, almost the point of back translation. The syntax of the original is maintained in the English version, which is translated according to the Chinese three characters structure. The colour 千點赤 [thousand drop crimson], for example, is translated as ‘thou-sand-drop crimson’ in English, with ‘thousand drop’ deliberately extended to mimic the three character rhythm. Each of the reds is translated literally, and become more suggestive of same sex desire as the sentence progresses. Phrases such as 劍氣赤 [sword spirit crimson] 鬚恨赤[beard resentment crimson]，妒君赤 [jealous gentleman crimson] evoke aspects of masculinity in both Chinese and English. In comparison, the Chinese speaking reader may find the implicit suggestion of desire more obvious than the English reader, for whom the Chinese syntax can be perplexing. Nevertheless, by preserving the narrative structure of the original, the poetic integrity of the text is maintained.
In the translator’s preface, Goldblatt and Li acknowledge that despite their best efforts, difference between the English and the Chinese language inevitably occur. As they state: “the greatest loss to the non-native reader is experienced in the language itself”. Although the text is translated closely to the original, there are instances in the translation, where the evocative nature of the Chinese language becomes explicated. Example 1.2 offers an illustration of the subtle shifts in tone between the source and the translated text. The scene comes from a conversation between Little Shao and Ah Yao. The ‘outed’ queer Ah Yao, after long hedonistic weekends abroad, would often call the conservative Little Shao for reassurance. Below is an extract:
1.2
ST: 他聲音裡的痣{啞\浮脹，相隔十萬八千里也難逃我耳目。必是週末的吧追逐，隨後到蒸汽\屋裡與十幾人大風吹。

[His voice is hoarse and bloated, even with ten thousand eight thousand miles distance still does not escape my ear. Must be weekend’s bar chase, afterwards to the steam room with ten or more people to Big Wind Blow]

TT: Even the thousands of miles could not keep me from detecting the hoarseness and edema in his voice. It had to be the result of weekend bar-hopping followed by musical chairs with a dozen or more men in a steam bath.
ST: 器官扔腫著，慾火又燃起來，永不淹足，卻又屌乏而告終。我太瞭了，那吐一口唾沫在掌心隨之旁洞吸搓的狂迷儀式，無從渴阻，像紅菻艷中穿上了魔鞋便旋轉不停直到筋疲力販\仍不能停止，至死方休。

[Organ still swollen, desire burns again, never satisfied, but becomes worn out and thus ended. I understand too well, that saliva spit in the palm and rubbing sucking crazed ritual, can not to sated, like red beauty wearing a pair of magic shoes and cannot stop spinning even when completely worn out, till death can rest]

TT: Before his member had turned completely flaccid, desire flared up again, but his worn-out dick forced him to give up. I knew only too well the frenzied rites of sucking and touching after spitting on your palms and getting on your knees. It was unstoppable, like the girl who, after putting on the red shoes, couldn’t stop dancing until exhaustion set in, and finally died.
The portrayal of sex in the passage is explicit and Chu employs euphemisms that are not exactly subtle. The line “\隨後到蒸氣屋裡與十幾人大風吹” [afterwards to the steam room with ten or more people to Big Wind Blow], for example, uses the children’s game 大風吹 [big wind blow] as an euphemism for group sex. The game, aptly translated by Goldblatt and Li to its English equivalent ‘musical chairs’, conjures up the image of a group of people scrambling and falling into each other’s laps. The colour red also appears here in the narrative here:“像紅菻艷中穿上了魔鞋” [like Red Beauty wearing a pair of magic shoes] - a reference to Hans Christen Anderson’s fairy tale The Red Shoes. The red shoes themselves can be interpreted as a symbol for the madness of desire, used by the narrator as a metaphor for Ah Yao’s insatiable sexual appetite.
While sexual overtones are evident in example 1.2, the Chinese original is arguably more evocative than the English version. In the line: “器官扔腫著，慾火又燃起來，永不淹足，卻又屌乏而告終” [Organ still swollen, desire burns again, never satisfied, but becomes worn out and ended], the tone between the Chinese and English texts varies slightly. Whereas the Chinese ‘永不淹足，卻又屌乏而告終’ [never satisfied, but becomes worn out and thus ended] alludes to Ah Yao’s sexual exhaustion, the English translation: “desire flared up again, but his worn-out dick forced him to give up” is direct in its implication. Furthermore, the use of the slang word: “dick”, by extension, installs a colloquial, Americanised tone to the narrative not keeping with the original. Although the translated text is described as faithful to the point of opacity, there are nevertheless significant subtle cultural shifts that affect the tone of the text.
The above examples illustrate how the translators approach the more challenging aspects of Chu’s narrative. Although Notes of a Desolate Man and Fran Martin’s Bodhisattva Incarnate are two very different texts, the translators all have to address the difficulties of trying to convey the nuances of the Chinese language into English. The evasive nature of Chu’s narrative means that inevitably, some elements of the source text will be explicated. The next section will move on to discussions on labeling and sexual identities.

8.2 Queer, Gay, Tongzhi Identity
The timeline in Notes of a Desolate Man corresponds with the rise of the tongzhi movement in Taiwan and queer movements in America. Sexual political activism provides the backdrop and an underlying source of conflict in the novel. In the source text, homosexual identities are “labelled” ‘gay’ and ‘queer’ (often emphasised in English rather than Chinese), and the local 同志 ‘tongzhi’. It should be noted here that in the English translation, tongzhi is translated literally as ‘comrade’, without any paratextual information to indicate the term is itself a label of identification. While the Chinese original presents ‘tongzhi’, ‘gay’ and ‘queer’ simultaneously, the omission in the translation indicates that there is an absence of a local homosexual identity. The conflict shifts between definable Western sexual identities and the indefinablity of Chinese homosexuality. The subtle presence of tongzhi culture in the translated text becomes more ambiguous, overshadowed by the more relatable, overt and assertive gay and queer culture.
The two major characters in the novel, Little Shao and Ah Yao, represent opposite ends on the spectrum of sexual and cultural identity. As mentioned in the introduction, the protagonist Little Shao is a closeted homosexual, caught between his longing for the traditional Chinese family structure and his homosexual desires. Ah Yao, in contrast, wholly embraces the ‘out and proud’, version of queer identity. To a certain extent, the two characters both conform to negative stereotypes of homosexual identity, with Ah Yao as the promiscuous Americanised ‘queer’, and Little Shao the closeted Chinese ‘gay’. The contrast between the characters’ attitudes towards identity politics is explored in chapter 4, where Little Shao attempts, and ultimately fails to identify with ‘gay’, ‘queer’ and ‘tongzhi’. Protest strategies, such as ‘coming out’, are often portrayed ambivalently. For the translated text reader especially, Chu’s writing potentially subverts the Western queer narratives that she/he is more likely to be familiar with.
Beginning with example 2.1, Little Shao recounts his struggle in acknowledging his homosexual desires compared to the already ‘liberated’ Ah Yao. His affirmation as a ‘gay’ man however, is met with derision from his friend. As the passage shows:
2.1

ST:早年阿堯就是快樂的gay{時候，我水深火熱陷在我是或我不是的認同迷宮裡。後來我承認了 […] \我才敢放言我能接受如若沒有伴侶終將獨自過活的下半生，gay的命運，我說，我很好，很歡愉。

[Early on when Ah Yao was already a happy gay, I suffer in hell and high water am I or am I not the maze of identification. Afterwards I admit it […] I dare say I can accept the second half of my life alone without a partner, gay’s fate, I say, I’m very good, very happy.]

TT: Early on, when Ah Yao was already a happy GAY man, I was lost and tormented in a labyrinth of identity: Was I or wasn’t I? Later on I faced up to cold reality […] did I have the courage to proclaim that I could accept the lonely second half of my life without a partner – the fate of a GAY man. I said, I’m fine, I’m happy.
ST: 阿堯用狎悔的眼光看著我，喔你很歡愉你也很好？

[Ah Yao look at me with a sleazy eye, oh you’re happy and you’re good?]

TT: Ah Yao looked at me with a lecherous sneer. Oh, so you’re happy and you’re fine, are you?
At first glance, the label ‘gay’ is emphasized both in the source and target text. The term is cited in English in the Chinese original, and underlined in capitals in the English translation. The literal meaning of ‘gay’ as joyful is played with in the narrative, in which Little Shao states being gay is being fine and happy. The sentiment however, contains an ironic element, as demonstrated by his evident loneliness: “the fate of a GAY man”, as well as Ah Yao’s sarcastic refrain. The repeat emphasis of the word ‘gay’, in this context, only serves to imply the very opposite.
Thus the presence of (or absence of, on Little Shao’s part) a political homosexual identity is a constant source of tension, expressed through flashbacks and dialogues between Ah Yao and Little Shao. For Ah Yao, to be ‘gay’ is inadequate, ‘queer’ is the only identity worth adopting.
2.2
ST: 阿堯堅持，gay，白種的，男的，同性戀，這是政治不正確的說法。Queer 則不，管它男的女的黃的白的黑的雙性的，四海一家皆包容在內，queer名知。

[Ah Yao insisted, gay, white, male, homosexual, these are politically incorrect descriptions. Queer are not, who cares male female yellow white black bisexual, the whole world is included in this family, called queer]

TT: Ah Yao insisted gay is white, male. The term homosexual is politically incorrect. QUEER is not like that at all. Male, female, yellow, white, black, bisexual, transsexual, there’s room for everyone, that’s QUEER.

ST: {是呀我同意，語言的使用本身即訊習的一部分，我百分之百擁護我鍾愛的李維史陀這麼說的。

[Yeah I agree. The use of language is in itself part of an indication, my one hundred percent beloved Levis Strauss said so.]

TT: Yes, I agree. The use of language is part of the message, as stated by my cherished Levi-Strauss

(Chu 1994: 42, Goldblatt and Li 2000: 25)

In the passage, Ah Yao advocates the importance of queer identity in a narrative almost directly lifted from queer activist discourse. The term ‘queer’ is once again cited in English rather than its Chinese version ‘ku-er’. Little Shao’s response however, is wryly enthusiastic. In the original version, his affirmation is a colloquial ‘是呀我同意’[yeah I agree], rather than the more formal interpretation of “Yes, I agree” in English. Furthermore, the sentence: “[…] 我百分之百擁護我鍾愛的李維史陀這麼說的“[my one hundred percent beloved Levis Strauss said so] comes across as camp and exaggerated compared to the more restrained: “[…] as stated by my cherished Levi Strauss”. If Ah Yao was sarcastic about the notion of a happy ‘gay’ in example 2.1, then Little Shao’s response to the liberating ‘queer’ identity can be seen as slightly ironic. In the Chinese original, the implication that he does not align himself with a queer identity is more overt.
Little Shao’s reluctance to participate in the queer movements is made explicit in example 2.3, when he discovers a collection of pamphlets and slogans left by Ah Yao.

2.3
ST: \貼紙上印著各式符號跟標誥，沈默等於死亡，無知亦既恐懼，Act Up, Fight back, Fight AIDS […] {好想告訴阿堯，並不是我不參加他的同志運動，歸根究底，我只是太怕，太怕呼口號了。那些我必須跟集團一齊叫喊一齊揮舞的舉動，總令我萬分難堪，無異赤條站在大街上，醜態畢漏。

[The stickers has all kinds of symbols and slogans printed, silence equal death, ignorance equate to fear, Act Up, Fight back, Fight AIDS […] Really want to tell Ah Yao, it’s not that I don’t want to join his tongzhi movement, going back to the root, I’m just afraid, so afraid of sloganeering. For me the behavior to stand alongside a group waving shouting dancing , make me feel extremely embarrassed, like standing naked in the street, unslightly exposure]

TT: There were all sorts of symbols and slogans: Silence Is Death; Ignorance Is Fear; ACT UP, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT AIDS […] I wanted desperately to tell Ah Yao it wasn’t that I didn’t want to participate in their comrades’ movements, but in the final analysis, I was afraid, afraid of shouting slogans. I was always embarrassed by having to shout and wave my fists in a crowd, for it felt like I was standing naked in the street, disgracing myself.

(Chu 1994: 55-6, Goldblatt and Li 2000; 36-7)

In total contrast to the spirit of Pride protests, Little Shao’s fear is the shame of losing face. The slogans in the passage: “Silence Is Death; Ignorance Is Fear; ACT UP, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT AIDS” form an ironic counterpoint to Little Shao’s deliberate silence. The example is particularly revealing of the issues involved in ‘coming out’ within the Chinese context. It is worth referring to Fran Martin’s (2000) study of coming out in Taiwan, in which she compares the Western trope of the ‘closet’ with the Chinese trope of the ‘mask’. Citing Pride festivals in Taiwan as an example, where participants wear masks as a way to join the parades without revealing their identity, Martin argues that this enable collective action without ‘loss of face’- bringing the shame of homosexuality on their families. Little Shao’s shame at being discovered naked is the fear of ‘losing face’. It should be noted here that the closing line of the diatribe: “醜態畢漏” [unsightly exposure] is translated slightly differently in English as ‘disgracing myself’. In the original, shame is explicitly related to visibility, whereas the latter implies the loss of dignity – a fall from ‘grace’.
The theme of shame and concealment is explored in example 2.4, where Chu actually uses the metaphor of the ‘face’ in the narrative. As the passage illustrates:
2.4

ST […] 闖進來一個新人類的頭部衝到鏡頭跟前突變晃動，扮鬼臉怪叫，『我真的 – 喜歡 - 喜歡 – 我的臉！』駭我一跳}，急按鍵消滅他。[…] 當阿堯站出來說，『queer，我就是這樣子又怎樣！』我好想跳出去用塊布毯把他遮蓋住推下臺。孩子們有的是青春，阿堯你和我，一副臭皮囊，何苦獻醜。

[…] A new person’s head rush onto the camera changing and shaking, making a face screaming, “I really – like – like – my face” shocked me, pressing the button to erase him […] when Ah Yao stand out and say “queer, this is who I am so what!” I want to jump out using a blanket to cover him and push him off stage. The children have youth, Ah Yao you and me, with stinky leather skin, why display our ugliness]

TT: […] the face of a “new person” burst onto the screen, changing and shifting through a convex lens. Making a face, he yelled “I really-like-I like-my face,” so shocking me that I hit the button and obliterated it. […] When Ah Yao stepped up and taunted, QUEER, that’s what I am! I wanted to jump up, wrap him in a blanket and drag him off the stage. The kids, they had their youth, but Ah Yao, you and I, with our mangy hides, why display our ugliness for all to see?

(Chu 1994: )

The statement: “I really-like-I like my face” is a mantra of self affirmation echoed by Ah Yao’s statement: “QUEER, that’s what I am!” The metaphor of the ‘face’ is presented literally in the narrative, in which both the character in the commercial and Ah Yao display their physical ‘face’ openly. Little Shao’s reaction however, is to cover and hide his face – considering it too ‘mangy’ for exposure. The term Chu uses here, 新人類 [new person], is revealing, as it is slang used to describe the subculture of young people who represent the popular culture zeitgeist. Queer identity, especially its Chinese counterpart ‘ku-er’ (literally means ‘cool child’) is considered to part of the trend of the ‘new person’. In Chu Tai Wei’s ku-er manifesto for example, the notion of ku/cool in ku-er is associated with - ‘the sense of defiance embodied by young people’ – like the youth in the advert (1997: 56). In contrast, in the translated version, the ‘new person’ comes across as more transformative, where the implication is also to become someone ‘new’. Either way, ‘queer’ in the narrative is identified with youth: not only is Little Shao too conservative to be ‘queer’, he is also too old.
To summarise the various strands encountered in this section, ‘gay’ and ‘queer’ identities are represented as stable, overt identities in the text, whereas the local tongzhi/ku-er has a more muted presence, rendered virtually invisible in the translated text. The reader follows the protagonist between the binary points of identification: ‘queer’ and ‘gay’, ‘Western’ and ‘Chinese’, ‘old’ and ‘new’, yet ultimately unable to align with a fixed identity. It should be noted here that time is a major influence in the reception of the aforementioned themes. Textually, the novel follows the timeline of the pre tongzhi/gay culture in the 80s, and the simultaneous growth of queer/ku-er culture. The concept of queer, as well as the local sexual identities tongzhi and ku-er, is still at a new and explorative stage. For subsequent readers (especially those of the translated text) however, ‘queer’ is no longer a radical concept in this respect.
8.3 Eroticism and Location
The image of Taipei city accompanies the sexual wandering of the protagonist. The sexual and cultural dimensions are brought together in the landmarks are often entwined with a sense of eroticism. Fran Martin offers a postmodernist reading of the landscape: “[…] the novel’s mobile and dislocated tongxinglian [homosexuality] articulates to the novel’s writing of the specific spaces in Taipei City” (2003: 101). One aspect that Martin notes is the recurring reference to 密口 [secret entrance] in Chu’s narrative. For Martin, the secretive passages correspond with the hidden homosexual desires embodied in the novel. These ‘secret entrances’ act as both literal and metaphorical pathways for sexual encounters, evoking genitalia and/or anal sex. As the textual examples will illustrate, the reader follows the narrator to each secret location within the city, where each unique sexual encounter becomes a landmark in itself.
In addition to the secret entrances, the concept of the fin de siècle can be mentioned here. The term fin de siècle literally means ‘end of the century’, originally used to describe the period of decadence, affluence and creativity in France at the end of 19 century. Contemporary parallels can be drawn with Taiwan at the end of 20^thth century, echoing the economic prosperity and artistic experimentation. The opening line of the novel: “這是頹廢的年代，這是預言的年代”[This is the age of decadence, this is the age of prophesy] suggests decay as well as progress. The scholar Liou liang-ya (1999) (2003) interprets fin de siècle in Notes of a Desolate Man both from a Post Structuralist perspective as defined by Bhabha (1994), and a feminist perspective proposed by Elaine Showalter (1993). To quote Bhabha in the introduction to the Location of Culture:
[…] in the fin de siècle, we find ourselves in the moment of transit where space and time cross to produce complex figures of difference and identity, past and present, inside and outside, inclusion and exclusion. [Bhabha 1994: 2]
Bhabha’s description of the fin de siècle as a period of cultural transition aptly mirrors the setting of Notes of a Desolate Man. Coincidentally the different binaries he mentions are also themes in the novel. Showalter (1994) on the other hand looks at the fin de siècle specifically from the perspective of female Euro-American literature produced at the end of the 19^th century. The sexual experimentation and extravagant materialism portrayed in these fictions is an antithesis of Victorian conservatism. Interestingly, Liou notes that the word ‘decadence’ itself was a code term for homosexuality in the fin de siècle era. Citing the trial and conviction of Oscar Wilde, homosexuality (a symbol of depraved, ‘decadent’ living) became part of the popular lexicon, In this respect, the hedonism in fin de siècle art and literature can also be see as anti-establishment (1999: 136).

It can be argued there is a queer dimension to fin de siècle decadence. Ku-er writer Hong Ling (1997) devotes an entry to the fin de siècle in Chi Tai Wei’s tongue in cheek queer/ku-er encyclopedia. In the entry, Hong name checks (in)famous ‘historical queers’ such Rimbaud, Jean Genet and Aleister Crowley, and compares their notoriety and decadence to contemporary ku-ers in Taiwan. Significantly, the one medium in which Hong considers queer and ku-er are able to interact is through literary texts. In Hong’s re-imaging of fin de siècle decadence, queer authors parties with ku-ers in queer/ku-er literary journals (described by Chi as ‘洞窟’ [caves], reminiscent to Chu’s ‘secret passage’) such as 島嶼邊緣 [Isle Margin] and 愛報 [Love News](1997: 31). Considering Hong Ling herself is an established ku-er author, the continuous reference to the fin de siecle is itself a form of queer intertextuality.

The city in Notes of a Desolate Men possesses both the decadent aesthetic and queer sexuality embodied by the term fin de siècle. Taipei city is gradually revealed through fragments in the narrative. Fran Martin describes Chu’s landscape as ‘composed by signs of commodification’ (2003: 106). For Martin, Taipei is a curious mixture of shop names, nostalgic personal landmarks and Western cultural references. On the abundance of English words, Martin notes: “The pervasive presence of English names […] bespeaks the global circulation of fragments of that language within such commercial cultures as fetishized signifiers of the modern” (2003: 107). The example 3.1 illustrates Martin’s assertions:
3.1

ST:ＩＲ，ＵＲ，老媽的菜，陽光空氣水，慾望街車，懶得找錢，不用客氣，布貓 ，清香霽，小熊森林，ＨＯＭＥＬＩＫＥ。[I R, U R, old ma’s cooking, sunshine air water, desire street car, lazy to find change, don’t be polite, fabric cat, light fragrance study, little bear forest, H O M E L I K E]
TT: IR, UR, Mom’s Cooking, Sun-Air-Water, A Street Car Named Desire, Too Lazy to Give Change, You’re Welcome, Stuffed Kitty, Light Fragrance Study, Teddy Bear Forest, HOMELIKE.
ST: 有反共標語和公賣局菸酒鐵牌和中美合作握手圖案的，阿財的店。有三輪車老收音機電話舊報紙梳妝台的，阿爸的情人。後現代中國風的ＰＵＢ，長安大街。ＡＢＳＯＬＵＴＥ。[With anti communist slogan and state sold cigarette and tobacco iron plate and Taiwan America cooperation holding hand pictures , Ah Ca’s shop. With pedicab old radio telephone newspaper vanity desk, Ah Pa’s Lover. Postmodern Chinese style P U B, Chuang An street. A B S O L U T E.]
TT: Ah Cai’s shop, with anticommunist slogans, steel tags for liquor and tobacco from the government tobacco and wine monopoly, and pictures of shaking hands representing the cooperation between Taiwan and the United States. Dad’s Lover, which had a pedicab, used radios, old newspapers, and a vanity. Postmodern Chinese style PUB, Changan Boulevard. ABSOLUTE.
The landmarks and references cited in the two examples range from the familiar to the obscure. Although the clusters of symbols and shop names appear random at first, each is designed to evoke a specific timeframe/context. Some references, such as Tennessee Williams’ play A Street Car Named Desire and Chuang Ann street/boulevard (a central location in Taipei city), are potentially recognizable to the English and the Taiwanese reader. Others are more contextually specific; the reference to 公賣局²¹ [government alcohol and tobacco selling unit], for example, evokes 1960s Taiwan, where strict martial law is enforced alongside the push for economic freedom(for more in depth discussions on the martial law era, see the chapter on the birth of tongzhi and ku-er). The image of Taiwan and America ‘holding hands’ is another reference to Taiwan’s complex foreign relations, in which the close ties with America was major factors driving economic growth in the 1960s. These nostalgic symbols in turn contrast with the commercial in the narrative. Phrases such as 陽光空氣水[sunshine air water] 小熊森林 [little bear forest] do not refer to any existing products, but they mimic the discursive style often employed by shops and commercials in Taiwan – a combination of ‘feel good’ phrases defined by their very meaninglessness.
Furthermore, symbols of commercialism are frequently entwined with symbols of home in the narrative. Martin notes that the familial sphere is often transformed into public commodities in the novel (2003: 107). In example 3.2, the yearning for home is both implicitly conveyed in the phrase 老媽的菜 [Old Ma’s Cooking] and explicitly spelt out in English as ‘H O M E L I K E’. The term ‘Old Ma’ specifically is an affectionate colloquialism for ‘mother’ in Chinese, and what suggests intimacy paradoxically is also part of the public sphere. The English phrase ‘H O M E L I K E’ stands out in the Chinese original and the font is reminiscent of a neon sign. The textual ‘building’ of public spaces is reflected in the translated text, everyday phrases such as 懶得找錢 [lazy to find change] and 不用客氣 [don’t be formal] are translated as ‘Too Lazy to Give Change’ and ‘Your Welcome’. The effect of which merges them with the shop names and cultural references, creating a textual space where each reference becomes a location. Nevertheless the translated text comes across as more opaque compared to the original. The more localized aspect of Chu’s narrative will inevitably be difficult to convey to a Western audience. The aforementioned ‘feel good’ commercial names are a case in point: the literal translation in English does not resonate in the same way.
The above examples illustrate the density of Chu’s narrative style, the references are concise in their meaning despite their seemingly random arrangements. The scattered, fragmentary locations, where even nostalgic symbols of home are transformed into public commodities, create the Postmodernist landscape of fin de siecle Taiwan. It can be argued however, that the locations in the Chinese original come across as more individualistic compared to the English translation, because the readers are more likely to recognize the cultural references. In this sense, the image of fin de siecle Taipei in the translated version is also alien, forming a collective ‘foreign’ space rather than separate individual landmarks.
Taipei city is mapped by a litany of shop names and popular culture references, as imagined by Liitle Shao. Example 3.2 sees Little Shao exoticise the city landscape through the reading of maps:

3.2

ST: 於是我閱讀城市版圖，由無數多店名組成，望文生義，自由拼\貼。我想相進入它們的密口，各種族群跟儀式，如星散佈，眾香國土，如印度的千王政治，三大千世界。[So I read city maps, composed of numerous shop names, looking at the words creating meaning, free composition . I want to enter their secret entrance, all tribes and ceremonies, like stars scattered, many scents in the country soil, like India’s thousand king politics, three thousand worlds.]
TT: Then I started reading the map of the city, made up of numerous shop names, interpreting them with no clear understanding, mixing and matching them at will. I tried to imagine their secret entrances, which led to places where many tribes and rituals were scattered like constellations. A country of many scents, like the multiple rulers of India, three thousand kaleidoscopic worlds.
The passage sets the scene of exploration in the novel, in which the narrator knowingly refers to the reading process as 望文生義 [looking at words creating meaning] – a process that the reader also engages in through Little Shao. The streets and shops are portrayed as 密口 [secret entrance], a recurring metaphor in the narrative. The appearance of the ‘secret entrance’ here establishes the first hint of illicitness and concealment to Little Shao’s wanderings. The reader by extension is initiated into the secretive ‘tribes’ and ‘ceremonies’ in the novel. The translated version has some added poetic flourishes, where 各種族群跟儀式， 如星散佈 [like stars scattered] is translated more fluently as “where many tribes and rituals were scattered like constellations”, and “三大千世界” [three thousand words] becomes “three thousand kaleidoscopic worlds”. The translation can be seen as building on the mood of decadence in the narrative, which is more evocative in Chinese.
The recurrence of 密口 [secret entrance] suggests the city in Notes of a Desolate Man is a highly sexualized space by extension. Chu’s description of these secret entrances is eroticized, as illustrated by example 3.4:
3.3

ST: 我每每穿過城市版圖，悉知城市存在的好多密口，從那裡滑入，抵達各種異教殿堂，進行著陸離光怪的儀式。[I go city map, familiar the city’s many secret entrances’ existence, through there slide in, arriving at every cult temple, performing out of the earth grotesque rites.]
TT: I frequently strolled around the city and came to know its many secret entrances, which led to the temples of cults that performed all sorts of bizarre, grotesque rites.
The sexual nature of Little Shao’s explorations is evident in the original narrative. The description of Little Shao ‘滑入’ [sliding into] the secret passages is sexually suggestive. Martin notes that these mikou transform the city landscapes into a ‘staging ground’ for gay cruising (2003: 108). The ‘cult temples’ and ‘strange grotesque rites’ mentioned foreshadow the different sexual conquests Little Shao has in the city. It should be noted here that sexual connotations in the translated text appear more muted compared than in the original. The suggestive sentence 從那裡滑入 [through there slide in] becomes the passive “which led to” in the translated text. The ‘grotesque rites’ described in the translated text, implies religiously deviant, rather than sexually deviant acts. The subtle nuances of the source text are again explicated, where the religious dimension is interpreted literally.
If example 3.2 and 3.3 is the narrator imagining the erotic potentials of the city, then example 3.4 illustrates the city actively becoming a sexual playground. Little Shao cruises the 密口[secret passages] for a game of cat and mouse. The lengthy extract below demonstrates the thrill of the chase from a gay bar to the streets of Taipei:
3.4
ST: 他是一雙濃濃睫毛覆蓋遮住不見眼珠的眼睛，不時自那密藏的叢係 裡閃動星芒。

[He has a pair of thick thick eyelashes covering the pupil of his eyes, apart from the shiny sparkle hiding in the lashes]

TT: He could be a pair of eyes with lashes so long they hid everything but the sparkle.
ST: 我決定起來追錯，經過旁邊擦撞其身，並無回訊。地方就那麼大，轉過來折過去，時隱實現，專晚{如天體迷宮，且有人借酒裝瘋來啃我肩膀，我只一心一念想要緝捕那星光。

[I decide to chase, but walk past and brushed the body, no response. The place is only that big, decided to walk back, sometimes hidden sometimes showing, like a astronomical maze, and somebody uses alcohol as an excuse to bite my shoulder, all I wanted to do is to capture that sparkle]

TT: I decided to search for it, but provoked no response when I walked by and brushed past him. It wasn’t a very big place, but it felt like a celestial maze when I moved about, for that light was there one moment and gone the next. Someone was using his drunkenness as an excuse nibbled at my shoulder, but I was intent upon capturing that sparkle.
ST: 馬路銀河，分在兩岸，我如影隨形。他轉進小巷去了，我突奔跟住。奔至街盡頭，死巷無蹤，溢滿殘餚蒜味。我折回，猛見招牌柱子底挑起一道火光點著了香煙 […] 暗中那定定在候著的星芒，終於，被我一傾，烙著了。

[Milky Way road, divided between two sides, I’m like a shadow. He turned into a small lane, I suddenly run to follow. Sprint until the end of the street, dead lanes no sign, filled with the smell of left overs and garlic. I turned back, saw under the commercial sign a lighted cigarette […] in the dark the sparkle waited, finally, I found, kept for sure]

TT: The street was like the Milky Way, divided into two sides, with me walking on this side, following him on the other side like a shadow seeking its mate. When he turned into a narrow street, I quickened my steps to catch up until I reached the end of the street, a dead end. It was just me and the over powering stench of garlic and other garbage. Turning around, I saw a light materialize on the tip of a cigarette beneath an advertising kiosk […] Finally I’d grabbed hold of the sparkle that had been waiting so quietly and assuredly in the dark.
ST: \我放蕩為官能享樂的掏金者，逐夜於城市中搜尋運氣，瀝取奪目脆片。

[I am a bodily pleasure lode runner, chases in the city searching for luck, washing shiny fragments]

TT: I was a gold-digger, abandoning myself to sensual pleasure. I sought my fortune every night in the city, hoping to lay my hands on some dazzling nuggets.
In the extract, Little Shao encounters an anonymous man who catches his eye in a gay bar. He pursues him through the secret alleyways of Taipei city. Chu employs the metaphor of the galaxy here, in which the streets are described as the ‘milky way’ and the romantic interest’s eyes are akin to sparkles from a star. Fragments of the city in turn are revealed through the thrill of the chase. The line 死巷無蹤，溢滿殘餚蒜味 [dead lanes no sign, filled with the smell of leftovers and garlic], for example, contrasts a sense of rural living in the cosmopolitan city. The smell of leftovers and garlic evoke the image of home life. Sexuality is subtly entwined with materialism in the narrative: the romantic interest is discovered beneath an ‘advertising kiosk’ and Little Shao describes himself with the curious metaphor of a 掏金者 [gold miner/gold digger]. The vibrant gay scene in Taipei is compared to a gold rush, and in each potential sexual encounter is riches to be discovered.
The English text translates the term 掏金者 [gold miner/ gold digger] as a ‘gold digger’, which is also a slang term primarily aimed at women who marry for money. It is unclear in what context ‘gold digger’ is used in the translated text (whether as a literal translation of the Chinese original, a derogatory term the narrator applies to himself, or an expression of camp), though the English language reader would recognize the double meaning. The metaphor of gold digging can be seen to be further explicated in the English translation, where the short sentence: 瀝取奪目脆 [washing shiny fragments] is translated as the notably longer: “hoping to lay my hands on some dazzling nuggets”.
The city in Notes of a Desolate Man offers as much of a story as the characters themselves. It represents a new fin de sciele: a landscape composed of illicit sexual encounters and rampant commercialism. One factor that is not mentioned by critics is that the translated text is itself a textual location, adding to the broad cultural and geographical maps constructed in the novel. This leads up to the last section of the textual analysis, which revisits the topic of nation and diaspora.
8.4 Nation and Diaspora
In chapter 4 textual diaspora is discussed in relation to both Pai Hsien yung’s Niezi and Notes of a Desolate Man. To briefly recap the discussion, diasporic communities in the novels are formed out exile from the conventional national and familial structure. The sense of ‘home’ in this respect is represented
The ‘home’ in the two novels is embodied by the traditional family structure, in which male tongzhi characters are excluded because they cannot fulfill the filial duty of father and son. While the diasporic New Park community in Niezi is born out of exile, there is a real sense of solidarity amongst the characters. In contrast, the narrator in Notes of a Desolate Man is detached from the queer and tongzhi communities portrayed in the novel. The protagonist Little Shao is desolate because he is alone, and his isolation is attributed to his homosexuality.
Example 4.1 provides an illustration of his bleak worldview:
Example 4.1
ST: 但我已感染長年不癒的流浪性，無根性。

[But for long years I am infected with incurable wander last, rootlessness]

TT: But I already been infected with the incurable disease of wanderlust and deracination.
ST: 陰界的招換，同性戀者無祖國，即使形體上我很少在涉足，精神上早就塑成我排斥公共體制的傾向。

[Yin World’s calling, homosexuals have no homeland, even if I very rarely participate in reality, spiritually it already formed my tendency to reject public conventions]

TT: Even if physically I rarely set foot in the nationless world of the homosexual, in spirit the yin world’s beacon molded my tendency to reject all public systems.
ST: 置身社會，心裡的非社會化，注定我一生格格不入，孤獨罪人。

[Belong in society, heart’s non , sentenced me to a life of never fit in, lonely sinner]

TT: Being a member of society but asocial psychologically sentenced me to a life of exile, a lonely sinner.

8.5 Conclusion
The landscape in Notes of a Desolate Man is therefore diffused.

The dense intertextuality of Chu’s narrative style is discussed earlier in this paper, where one of the themes mentioned is the parallel between rampant consumerism with a spiritual, ascetic aesthetic. Significantly, Martin also compares Little Shao’s sexual conquests with consumer culture. Each encounter is presented as a commercial landmark in itself. As Martin states:

They are defined by the defining city experiences of strangers’ footsteps, advertising billboards, and cinema, and their listed form recalls the listing of the names of the gexingdian [themed boutique] as signifiers of the commodification of the city’s space.
Conclusion
The study has a relevance beyond the confines of a minoritized Taiwanese culture. An understanding of the factors, forces and processes that influenced the emergence and evolution of tongzhi and ku-er fiction and culture have implications for many of the issues that increasingly occupy the attention of contemporary society, notably minority expression, migration and its effects on identity and culture. Such an understanding can inform the reader to the subtle ways in which a translator can ‘colour’ the text, whether intentionally or not.
As illustrated by the two translated texts, the goal of this study is not to try and capture culture shifts, but examine evidence of cultural interaction. Martin, Goldblatt and Sylvia Li Chun Lin translations are part of the unique facet of Taiwanese tongzhi and ku-er culture, representing an unprecedented era of social and cultural openness. Rather than focusing on gain or loss in the process of translation, this thesis is concerns itself with the cross fertilisation of ideas and new forms of creativity relating to identity and minority expression.
In essence, the purpose of this thesis is two fold: to illustrate the interactive nature of translation, and raise the visibility of Taiwanese tongzhi/ku-er fiction.

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