Peritextual Analysis of the Chinese Translation

The year 2009 not only saw the publication of the English translation of Wetlands, but also of translations into various other languages. Due to the geographical vicinity to Germany, many European countries soon caught on to the German Wetlands craze and publishers from all over the world became interested in translating and publishing the book. While the majority of translations were into European languages, a Chinese translation with the title Chaoshi-Didai【潮濕地帶】translated by translator Tang Wei (唐薇) was soon published in Taiwan.

Tang Wei was born in Taipei where she graduated with a degree in German. She is a translator, writer and literary agent, and has translated a variety of German literary works into Chinese including renowned German women writers Juli Zeh and Cornelia Funke; this has won her various translation awards (Reading between the Lines, 2015). She also works as a columnist for the Taiwanese music magazine Muzik and was the acting director of the Taipei International Book Exhibition in 2016/17. In 2019, she was the chief editor of Flaneur magazine. She spends most of her time between Taipei and Berlin (Wei, 2020).

In Taiwan, it is still the case that the majority of foreign book translations are translated from English and Japanese into Chinese. However, according to Tang Wei, this has been changing in recent years and an increasing number of non-English-literature is being translated for the Taiwanese market (Heimann, 2015).

Due to its strong sexual content, Wetlands was not published in mainland China.

Furthermore, since Wetlands was primarily translated into other European languages, the question remains: why was the book translated into Chinese, a language that is fundamentally very different to European languages? What was the motivation behind publishing such a taboo-breaking book in a cultural context with potentially different sexual views and cultural

norms compared to the Western world? Without the option of launching the novel in China, what incentivised agents to bring the book to Taiwan? The peritextual material and their functions accompanying the Chinese translation of Wetlands will be analysed in order to evaluate the possible incentives behind publishing Charlotte Roche’s work in Taiwan and to establish if the publication was an act of political intervention.

3.4.1 Peritextual Analysis of Denotative Peritext

Similar to the publication of its German original and its English translation, the background colour of the book cover is pink. Instead of choosing an image of a medical plaster or an avocado, the Chinese edition depicts an image of white medical gauze.

Overall, it looks as if the gauze has been stuck to the pink background with white adhesive tape. In the centre of the gauze, a brown or red stain is visible, which could be a

Helen experiments with female sanitary pads, for example, when she discovers that she has started her period or when she tends to her healing anal lesion. While it is not absolutely clear what the intention behind the gauze image is, it does suggest a certain peculiarity and suggests that the reader is about to embark on an interesting and unusual journey.

The translated title Chaoshi-Didai【潮濕地帶】is printed using a big white font, making it the biggest print on the entire front cover. This suggests that the publishers deemed the title to be the most marketable feature. Underneath the Chinese title, the German original title Feuchtgebiete is visible. The German title is printed in a much smaller font size than its Chinese translation, which informs a potential consumer that the novel is a translated work from a language other than English. Perhaps the purpose of this is to justify the book’s exoticism and to market it in such a way. At the bottom of the front cover, the name Charlotte Roche is written in Chinese characters 夏洛特-羅奇 著 (Xialuote Luoqi) followed by the translator’s name 唐薇 譯 (Tang Wei). Similarly to the front cover of the UK edition, the author assumes a very minor role, which could be due to the fact that Charlotte Roche is not a well-established writer in the Taiwanese target context. While the translator is not mentioned on the book cover of the English translation, the Chinese translator Tang Wei (唐薇) is mentioned in the Taiwanese version. In Taiwan, translators are usually credited for their work and it appears to be standard practice to mention the translator’s name.

Either way, compared to the British design cover which used domestication techniques to market the novel to a British readership, the Taiwanese version appears to intentionally highlight its ‘foreignness’, by including the German original as well as the translator’s name.

The white print at the bottom of the cover further advertises Wetlands as one of the highest-ranking German bestsellers of 2008,³ followed by a sentence informing a potential buyer that the book is about an eighteen-year-old girl’s haemorrhoids, a plot that is likely to separate Germany into two ‘narratives’ yet again.⁴ The very last line at the bottom is printed in black bold Chinese characters mentioning Taiwanese female writers Zheng Hua-Juan (鄭華娟 ), Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and Nü Wang (女王), who have read Wetlands and are recommending it, arguing that this book will make you blush and make your heart beat faster.⁵

Since it is very common in Taiwan for a book to be endorsed and promoted by other prominent figures in the form of a preface (推薦序), a potential buyer might assume that the novel is supplemented with a preface written by the female writers mentioned above. The fact that two prominent Taiwanese women writers are endorsing the book highlights the importance of the author function. Since Charlotte Roche is not known in Taiwan, mentioning three Taiwanese woman writers could be seen as an attempt to promote the work in a Taiwanese context. Thus, one could say that the author function of the Taiwanese authors Zheng Hua-Juan, Lady Nai Nai and Nü Wang is ‘borrowed’ to provide a possible Taiwanese equivalent of Charlotte Roche and what she represents. Indeed, Lady Nai Nai and Nü Wang are also marketed as celebrity writers and bloggers in Taiwan. Their books are provocative, discussing relationships and female desire, which could explain why they were used as substitutes for Roche’s author function in the Taiwanese target context.

Finally, what is interesting about the front cover page is its official warning regarding the explicitness of the novel’s content. This is positioned in the top right corner of the page,

informing the reader of the book’s explicit content and that under eighteen-year-old minors are not allowed to read it.⁶ Even though the publisher clearly had an interest in publishing the novel, the publishing house was still required to comply with the political, legal and social norms in Taiwan. This information seems to suggest that the sexual and explicit content of the book are potentially deemed inappropriate and that Taiwanese legal minors need to be protected in line with the censorship guidelines laid out by the Taiwanese government.

Furthermore, this could also be an indicator that women’s sexuality is even more of a taboo topic in Taiwanese society than it is in Germany or the UK.

The back cover shows a photo of Charlotte Roche in the top right-hand corner, depicting Roche as an attractive well-educated woman with a sweet and innocent aura. The blurb text can be divided into three different sections. The top section provides a summary of the plot with a heading describing the book as spicy, sweet, salty and moist and as a completely new

6「未滿十八歲不得翻閱， 限制級」

experience.⁷ The middle section provides quotations of reviews from the three Taiwanese writers, while the lower section boasts translated book reviews from German, American and English reviews.

The Taiwanese writer Lady Nai Nai warns potential readers that after reading the book, there will be nothing one is too afraid to talk about,⁸ while writer Nü Wang likens Wetlands to a hot and spicy German version of the French film The fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain that will make you choke and take you on an addictive and unimaginable journey exploring a woman’s private lady-parts. Simply, it is something Nü Wang has never experienced before.⁹ The reader is being mentally prepared that they are about to embark on a somewhat ‘unusual’

journey that might leave them choking. The comparison to the film The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain, a story about a French girl lost in her own thoughts and fantasies, which was a huge film success, creates the expectation that the protagonist in Wetlands is similar to Amelie.

The lower section, which lists quotes from foreign media reviews translated into Chinese, suggests that the novel was a huge success in Germany and the English-speaking world. The names of the newspaper outlets are also translated into Chinese characters and are preceded by the name of the country where the newspaper is published; for example, Germany: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,¹⁰ or America: The New York Times.¹¹ While the

7「又辣， 又甜， 又鹹， 又濕，全新的閱讀體驗！」,

8「看完這本書，妳將會覺得往後不會有什麼事不可告人」

9「哇！這簡直就是【艾蜜莉的異想世界】德國嗆辣版， 絕對超乎想像又大呼過癮的女性私處

names of the media outlets are translated into Chinese, their ‘foreignness’ is further highlighted by the fact that the country of origin is added in front of the names of the respective newspapers.

Overall, the paratextual use of the front cover appears to be serving a promotional function by using foreignization and domestication techniques: on the one hand, the foreign element is maintained to make the reader aware of the fact that the novel is not a Taiwanese creation. Marketing something as foreign or exotic can be appealing, especially in an island-nation like Taiwan where people are very curious about everything non-Taiwanese.

Furthermore, the publisher’s insistence on ‘foreignness’ in the external peritext can also be a strategy for ‘playing it safe’; if the book is rejected by Taiwanese society or deemed as too inappropriate, the publisher still has the option of hiding behind the fact the book is a foreign creation and was merely published in Taiwan based on its success overseas and not because the values represented align with those of the agents involved in the publishing process.

3.4.2 Peritextual Analysis of Connotative Peritext

The inside of the book cover includes a brief introduction of Charlotte Roche as well as the translator Tang Wei. The introduction on Roche lists the various prizes she won during her time as a television presenter and explains that seventy percent of the novel is based on autobiographical facts. This, in itself, can be seen as declaring Roche as a controversial representative of neo-feminism. The introduction also mentions that the book occupied the German number one bestseller lists in 2008, citing various German newspapers classifying Wetlands as a polarising and shocking book.

The introduction of Tang Wei lists some of her previous translations and literary prizes.

According to the introduction, Tang Wei was very keen to take on the linguistic challenge that Wetlands posed as it was difficult to find equivalent expressions in Chinese that would make sense in the target context of Taiwan.

In contrast to the English translation, the novel is preceded by internal peritext in the form of two book reviews written by Taiwanese authors Zheng Huan-Juan and Lady Nai Nai, followed by a commentary written by Tang Wei. As previously mentioned, in East Asia, it is a lot more common to publish prefaces and epilogues written by the authors, translators or established literary figures (Bilodeau, 2013). However, the fact the reader is exposed to three different verbal peritexts and thresholds prior to entering the main text could also be an indicator of the fact that the agent deemed the content of the novel ‘too foreign’ and therefore felt it was necessary to provide additional background information.

Furthermore, the fact that two female writers, regarded as provocative by Taiwanese society, were chosen to comment on Wetlands gives the Taiwanese reader a vague idea about what they should expect from this book. The first preface is written by Zheng Hua-Juan, a Taiwanese singer, songwriter and writer now living in Germany with her German spouse.

Many of her literary works deal with her cross-cultural experiences of navigating cultural differences. As a Taiwanese living in Germany, she experienced the media hype around Charlotte Roche’s publication of Wetlands and is therefore in a position to realistically gauge whether Taiwanese society will be receptive to this type of literature.

In the book commentary, she voices her concerns over Taiwanese society potentially misunderstanding or misinterpreting Charlotte Roche. She is worried that the Taiwanese reader

will soft-pedal the issues discussed in her book when interviewed or approached in person.

However, Zheng Hua-Juan assures the Taiwanese reader that Roche is a kind and yet candid TV persona in Germany. Despite Roche’s elegant, girly and sophisticated appearance, she never shies away from talking about topics deemed as ‘too private’ or ‘unladylike’ (2009，p.

2). For example, when asked in an interview about how she likes to spend her holidays, she responds that she likes to spend her time doing the following three things: making love, getting drunk, and sleeping (2009, p. 3).

Roche is someone who does not think that there is anything wrong or shameful in talking about our bodies. Zheng Hua-Juan further raises the point that if Charlotte Roche had been male, she would certainly have been reprimanded for writing such a dirty and pornographic book; however, with Roche being a woman, the book has paved the way for an entire new debate revolving around women’s sexual autonomy.

Finally, she calls on all readers to sit back, enjoy the ride and to find out for themselves if the book is an account of a girl’s most intimate feelings or an account of her private lady-parts.¹²

The second commentary is by Lady Nai Nai, who is a famous Taiwanese writer and blogger. Instead of focusing on establishing the authorial image of Charlotte Roche, she is more concerned with discussing the content of the novel and its significance for the liberation of women. Lady Nai Nai views Wetlands as ground-breaking as it disregards sexual taboos sending an important message to women: Lady Nai Nai is certain there is nothing one feels too

12「是不是私密感動筆記， 還是一本女生的私處感覺筆記」。

shy to talk about after reading Wetlands.¹³ She particularly feels that it is important that women read this book as, in her opinion, women are still made to keep a lot of secrets, especially when it comes to matters related to the female body, sexuality, or female lust.

She posits that despite progress in advancing gender equality, sexual oppression continues to be an issue as a result of the patriarchal structures we live in. Therefore, it is important that women read Wetlands, so that they feel empowered to talk about these issues.

Lady Nai Nai admires Roche’s outspokenness and admits that the novel has challenged and influenced her on many personal levels. For example, she admits to suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to hygiene and cleanliness. Wetlands has helped her address this weakness and opened up a new world to her. Based on her experiences, the book has a truly liberating effect on women, and she assures potential readers that it will open up an entire new world to them too (2009, pp. 5-6).

In contrast to the commentary by Zheng Hua-Juan, the primary concern of Lady Nai Nai’s peritext is not to establish the authorial image of Charlotte Roche, but to discuss its significance in relation to women achieving true gender equality. Therefore, the peritext is used as a site of political intervention. She explains to her Taiwanese readers why Wetlands is an important book worth reading despite its perceived exoticism, playing to the idea of sexual desire.

The third peritext is a commentary written by translator Tang Wei. She explains how she immediately felt drawn to translating Wetlands into Chinese when she first stumbled across a poster of the book during a book fair in Germany. After reading Wetlands, Charlotte Roche

immediately replaced her earlier female role model Madonna: Roche’s sophisticated, innocent and sweet appearance is in contrast with the stereotypical image one might have of a feminist revolutionary who does not shy away from breaking social taboos.

Tang Wei immediately knew that she wanted to translate Wetlands and consulted with various literary experts. Having won numerous prizes and awards for her previous translations, she was warned that adding a book such as Wetlands to her repertoire would stain her reputation. Tang Wei was even urged by her otherwise always supportive husband to use a pen name if she insisted on going ahead with the translation. Eventually, Juli Zeh, a German woman writer whom Tang Wei had previously translated into Chinese, encouraged her to go ahead with the translation arguing that Roche is a smart woman who knows what she is doing, and that it would be cool to translate this book into Chinese.

Tang Wei confirms that translating Wetlands was indeed a cool experience despite various challenges on the way, particularly finding linguistic equivalents reflective of the candid tone, uncensored language and grammatical inconsistencies used by the protagonist.

In the interview with the Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung, Tim Mohr also confirmed that one of the reasons he felt drawn to translating Wetlands was because of the childlike and frank language used as well as various terms that the female protagonist made up, for which there was no English equivalent (Fuchs, 2012).

When Roche was given an award for Wetlands by German television channel ZDF, she publicly reiterated that her aim with the book was to criticise and liberate women from society’s obsession over the female body and hygiene. Finally, Tang Wei states that she hopes her

translation will do the same thing for her Taiwanese readers: that it will empower them by bringing them a step closer in their quest for sexual liberation (2009, pp. 7-9).

Not only does the translator’s commentary foreground the translator’s voice and intention, furthermore, it appears that Tang Wei used the paratextual threshold to reinforce and confirm the messages that Zheng Hua-Juan and Lady Nai Nai sought to put across: namely, to

Not only does the translator’s commentary foreground the translator’s voice and intention, furthermore, it appears that Tang Wei used the paratextual threshold to reinforce and confirm the messages that Zheng Hua-Juan and Lady Nai Nai sought to put across: namely, to