Center for the Art of Translation and The Ruby SF present a conversation between Lau Yee-Wa, author of Tongueless (Feminist Press), translator Jennifer Feeley and Laurie Wen.

TW: This book discusses suicide.

Tongueless follows two rival teachers at a secondary school in Hong Kong who are instructed to switch from teaching in Cantonese to Mandarin—or lose their jobs. Apolitical and focusing on surviving and thriving in their professional environment, Wai and Ling each approach the challenge differently. Wai, awkward and unpopular, becomes obsessed with Mandarin learning; Ling, knowing how to please her superiors and colleagues, thinks she can tactfully dodge the Mandarin challenge by deploying her social savviness.

Sharp, darkly humorous, and politically pointed, Tongueless presciently engages with important issues facing Hong Kong today during which so much of the city’s uniqueness—especially its language—is at risk of being erased.

About Lau Yee-Wa

Lau Yee-Wa is one of Hong Kong’s most exciting up-and-coming fiction authors. Lau began her literary career writing poetry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she obtained her BA in Chinese language and literature, and her Master’s degree in philosophy. Lau’s short story “The Shark”' won the prestigious Hong Kong Champion of the Awards for Creative Writing in Chinese in 2016. Tongueless has been highly praised by acclaimed Hong Kong authors including Chan Ho-Kei and Dorothy Tse.

About Jennifer Feeley

Jennifer Feeley is the translator of Not Written Words: Selected Poetry of Xi Xi, Carnival of Animals: Xi Xi's Animal Poems, the White Fox series by Chen Jiatong, Wong Yi's chamber opera Women Like Us, and Mourning a Breast by Xi Xi. She holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures from Yale University and is the recipient of the 2017 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize and a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellowship.

About Laurie Wen

Laurie Wen’s writing has appeared in The New York Times and Geez Magazine. Her short film, The Trained Chinese Tongue, is in the Criterion Channel collection. She has translated subtitles for independent films from Hong Kong, her hometown. She’s also worked as a Cantonese-English interpreter in New York City criminal courts. She’s writing a book about Hong Kong.

About The Center for the Art of Translation

The Center for the Art of Translation champions literary translation, bringing original voices to readers, and leading students to new ways of thinking by teaching them to translate poetry. The Center's publications, events, and educational programming build audiences for literature in translation, enrich the library of vital literary works, nurture and promote the work of translators, and honor the incredible linguistic and cultural diversity of our schools and our world.

This event is supported by Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Hong Kong Arts Development Council supports freedom of artistic expression. The views and opinions expressed in this project do not represent the stand of the Council.