I feel quite accomplished. Recently I finished subtitling my first TV series, The Wind Across Our World. I also finished subtitling my first feature length documentary, a complex historical polemic called Historical Nihilism and the Collapse of the USSR. And I have now translated two essays from Chinese into English.
In the meantime I’m also proud to say I’ve been able to stay consistent recording audiobooks about China and Marxism, which is how I gained an online audience in the first place. I have recently finished the full audiobook of Xi Jinping’s Governance of China, vol. 4, and I consistently provide new audiobook recordings on my Patreon, Gumroad, and Bandcamp pages.
But I don’t feel now is the time to rest satisfied with these accomplishments. English speakers grow more and more curious about China by the day, and the Chinese culture industry continues to unleash more and more products in need of distribution, translation, and interpretation. With these facts in mind, here’s a brief rundown of some projects I’m either currently working on or hope to be working on soon:
1. Youtube Documentary on Tom Hutchins
Thanks to my thoughtful friend and consistent supporter John B. Turner, I was recently introduced to the work of the New Zealand photojournalist Tom Hutchins. He was one of the first Western photographers to capture New China on film in the 1950s. He also covered many aspects of Sino-Soviet relations at the time, including a Russian man who had a Chinese wife plus 8 children of mixed nationality. John brought Hutchins’s work to my attention after I began translating The Wind Across Our World, which followers of mine know tells the story of a Chinese man and a Russian woman who fall in love and are then torn apart by the Sino-Soviet split. Even though I have zero experience, I am in the process of writing a documentary script for a short film/slideshow on Tom Hutchins and his work to be posted on my YouTube channel, in order to hopefully bring his legacy to the attention of more people interested in Sino-Soviet history.
2. Marx Enters the Confucian Temple
A good friend of mine who would probably consider himself an anti-communist recently asked me an excellent and pointed question: “China is now a country governed by Marxism, so doesn’t that mean it’s Westernized?” I excitedly referred him to the short story “Marx Enters the Confucian Temple,” written by CPC member Guo Moruo, which dealt with the perceived tensions and potential harmony between Marxism and traditional Chinese civilizational thought. I enjoyed this story so much I made an audio recording of its English translation. But this story was written almost a hundred years ago (1926). Thankfully, in the process of searching for resources for my friend, I also came across an educational documentary series from 2023 that deals with the exact same theme. This 5-episode version of Marx Enters the Confucian Temple wrestles with the same questions Guo Moruo was exploring, and updates them for the 21st century, including an integration of Xi Jinping’s own thoughts on the subject. I hope to have all 5 episodes subtitled and uploaded to my channel soon. In the meantime, the Chinese to English translator Dylan Levi King provided some clips from the show that he subtitled on his Twitter page.
3. More translations of Gennady Zyuganov
Gennady Zyuganov is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The USSR may have collapsed, but the Communist Party is still a powerful and popular force to be reckoned with, one with which Vladimir Putin’s own party regularly has to negotiate in order to maintain the current power balance. Given how influential Zyuganov is in the current Russian political scene, it was shocking to me to find last year that none of his writings have been translated into English. Thankfully a lot of his work has been translated into Chinese. I started simple this past December, posting an English translation of an article Zyuganov wrote praising the CPC. But entire books of his speeches and essays are available in Chinese as well, and I want to translate those next.
4. Age of Awakening
In the midst of all the above projects I haven’t forgotten my love of Chinese TV dramas. This historical drama about the founding and building of the CPC has been referenced by Xi in speeches and is adored by millions of Chinese fans for its high quality and patriotism. This show is longer and more dense than the last TV drama I subtitled, so translating it into English will take a while, but keep an eye out for more updates, especially as I finish the projects listed above.
What else should I be translating and working on? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.