The new publishing imprint Excèntrics, founded by editor and translator Liyun Wang and painter Dídac Masip, aims to fill the existing void in the Catalan literary market for classical, modern, and contemporary Chinese works. Its distinctiveness lies in the fact that translations are made directly from Chinese, considering not only the linguistic aspect but also the cultural one.
Wang, a graduate of the Shanghai International Studies University and holding a PhD in Catalan Philology from the University of Barcelona, and Masip, a painter from Lleida, have combined their passion for both languages to create the first publishing house in Catalonia specializing in this type of direct translation.
“"The language lives when people use it, otherwise it dies. We must make an effort, those of us who live in Catalonia, to speak it, regardless of our origins."
The first two publications under the Dents de Lleó (Dandelion Teeth) collection are two classic works: Contes de la dinastia Tang (Tales of the Tang Dynasty), which mostly lacked Catalan translation, and the novel Tres polzades de lotus daurat (Three Inches of Golden Lotus), by Feng Jicai, previously unpublished in Catalan. The official presentation of the imprint will take place on May 8 at the Fahrenheit bookstore in Barcelona.
