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Sinica Podcast

Author Rebecca Kuang on her novel Babel, or on the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators Revolution

Sinica Podcast
Sinica Podcast

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Rebecca Kuang (who writes under the name R.F. Kuang), the author of the best-selling historical fantasy novel Babel. Set in the 1830s in England, the novel’s Chinese-born protagonist sets out to prevent a war with China over the opium trade. It’s a novel about the industrial revolution, labor activism, revolution, and — surprisingly — language, etymology, and translation.


2:28 – On Rebecca's own connections to China and her anxieties about losing the Chinese language

8:27 – What historical insights Rebecca hoped her readers would take away from Babel

14:37 – Parallels between the U.K. of the early 19th century and the U.S. of the early 21st

20:26 – Refections on revolution and revolutionaries

25:48 – Silver working: the magic system in Babel and its relation to language

30:37 – Issues with translation theory presented in the book

38:04 – How Rebecca’s background in debate influenced her writing style

45:03 – Rebecca's forthcoming novel Yellowface

A transcript of this podcast will be available soon at TheChinaProject.com.

Recommendations:

Rebecca: The film Banshees of Inisherin and other works by its director, Martin McDonagh, including the dark comedy In Bruges (2008).

Kaiser: The new novel by Cormac McCarthy The Passenger, and a review of it by James Wood in The New Yorker.

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