Yaqi Xi
About
I am a PhD student in Translation and Transcultural Studies. My research focuses on English translations of contemporary Chinese literature. I am currently working on my PhD project on translating and audio-remediating contemporary northeast Chinese literature, where I seek to empower literary translators in cultural industries through creative practices of translation and trans-mediation. My PhD research is supervised by Dr David Orrego-Carmona, Dr Qian Liu, and Professor Maureen Freely.
Research
My practice-based PhD research, “The translator’s voice embodied: translating the New Northeast Chinese Writers Group from text to audio”, is predicated on an awareness of the significance of the vocal presence and vocal delivery of the (co-)creators of a literary text—authors, translators, narrators—in the making and reception of translated and trans-mediated literature. My research hopes to work with audio media to explore creative ways of literary translation and trans-mediation, using my voice as a literary translator—in and beyond my translation work—to present and promote under-represented translated literature in the World Literature Market. I propose to weave my voice as a literary translator through a two-stage, text-to-audio translation project, drawing literary examples from the Chinese “Rust Belt” fiction written by the “New Northeast Writers Group” that includes Ban Yu 班宇, Shuang Xuetao 双雪涛, and Zheng Zhi 郑执 to show how a translation poetics of “translating for the audio”, combined with literary translators’ experimentation with audio remediation may help translators from “lesser” translated languages garner visibility for their work.
Research Interests
Chinese literature in translation; queer literature; psychoanalysis and literature; sound studies and audiobook studies.
Scholarships and Awards
Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, AHRC Doctoral Award, 2022-2026
Qualifications
MA in Literary translation studies, University of Warwick
BSc in Psychology, Fudan University, China