Word: write
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...Authors who stick with the Chinese language, such as Hong Ying and Ma Jian, are able to get Western exposure thanks to diligent translators. Ma's girlfriend, Flora Drew, and Hong's husband, Henry Zhao, are their avid advocates and translators. Ma stubbornly defends his unwillingness to read or write in English: "I believe one might benefit from reading great works in English. But I haven't tried to learn English at all. I'm a genius. I write because of my talents and inspiration. I don't need another language...
...Anchee Min says her decision to write in English was a matter of survival. When she moved to America in 1985, her written Chinese was limited to slogans and big-character posters. "Since both languages are new," she thought then, "perhaps it makes more sense to learn English since I'm in America." Min has written four books in English but still thinks and takes notes in Chinese. Chinese-American author Lisa See comments that "even though Min's English isn't 'perfect,' that roughness is very refreshing...
...Unlike Min, I have shifted in my writing from Chinese to English for the sake of creativity. Although I've been publishing in Chinese since age 14 and am more fluent and comfortable in Chinese, English enables me to write without self-censorship and worries about cultural land mines...
...When I returned to Beijing in 1999 after six years in Berkeley, California, a Chinese reader scolded me for switching to English. "What's the point of laboring 10 years to write a novel in English when you could have published more books for starved Chinese readers in your mother tongue and let the translators do the rest of the work? Nowadays, authors can get famous much more easily in China than in America." He is somewhat right. The bookstores in China are always packed, while the average Borders bookstore in America is the most peaceful place in town. Compared...
...escape that sort of idolatry, I write in English. Readers' adulation and expectations can be a burden for an author and lead to self-censorship. In English, I feel no expectations from old fans and no negative cultural associations. The 26 letters of the English alphabet make me a child again-naive, bold, fearless, primal. I can profane, question and break the stranglehold of traditional Chinese culture. English is my rite of passage...