American Publishers Take a Stand Against Censorship in China
AMY QIN October 16, 2015
時報看中國
美國12家出版商集體對中國審查說不
AMY QIN 2015年10月16日
This may be remembered as the year China’s publishing industry truly went global. In May, a large delegation of Chinese publishers attended BookExpo America, a major publishing trade event, as international guests of honor. And on Thursday, the Publishers Association of China, a government-backed industry group, was admitted to the International Publishers Association, a Geneva-based federation of more than 60 organizations whose mission includes promoting the freedom to publish.
今年可以被銘記為中國出版業真正走向世界的一年。5月，一個龐大的中國出版商隊伍作為主賓國代表，參加了出版業盛會美國書展(BookExpo America)。周四，中國政府支持的行業團體中國出版協會被國際出版商協會(International Publishers Association)接納為成員。該協會由60多個組織組成，總部設在日內瓦，宗旨包括促進出版自由等。
But in light of China’s ascendance in the publishing industry, 12 American publishers have signed a pledge to work against the censorship of foreign authors’ works in China, now the second-largest publishing market, behind the United States.
但是鑒於中國在出版業中的崛起，12家美國出版商簽署了一項承諾書，抵制外國作家的作品在中國遭到的審查。中國現在是僅次於美國的第二大出版市場。
“As publishers, we commit ourselves to a considered and principled approach to dealing with Chinese censorship,” the pledge read. “While we bring common values to questions of free expression and censorship worldwide, the pace of our engagement with China renders that market an important and emblematic case deserving particular attention.”
「作為出版商，我們承諾通過深思熟慮、堅持原則的方式來對待中國的審查，」該承諾書稱。「在全世界面對言論自由和審查問題之時，我們都秉承相同的價值觀。但我們與中國交往的步伐，使這個市場成了一個重要且有象徵性的例子，值得予以特別關注。」
Sam Hodgson for The New York Times
今年5月，美國書展舉辦之前，示威者在紐約公共圖書館前舉行集會，反對中國審查制度。
The pledge was announced on Thursday by the PEN American Center, which spearheaded the movement, and was timed to coincide with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest annual gathering of the publishing industry. Those who joined the pledge include prominent publishing houses like Penguin Random House, Macmillan Publishers, W. W. Norton & Company and Grove/Atlantic.
發起這項行動的美國筆會中心(PEN American Center)本周四公布了承諾書，這在時間上配合了出版業規模最大的年度盛會法蘭克福書展(Frankfurt Book Fair)。一同簽署承諾書的著名出版社包括企鵝蘭登書屋(Penguin Random House)、麥克米倫出版社(Macmillan Publishers)、W·W·諾頓出版公司(W. W. Norton& Company)和格勞夫/大西洋出版社(Grove/Atlantic)。
“This is something that we need to stand up to,” said Morgan Entrekin, the president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic, speaking by telephone from Frankfurt. “Particularly on the occasion of China being invited into the I.P.A., we need to set standards for the future so that mainland Chinese publishers can say to whoever is making decisions there that these are the standards that we need to adhere to.”
「這是我們需要站出來堅持的東西，」格勞夫/大西洋出版社總裁和出版人摩根·恩特利金(Morgan Entrekin)在法蘭克福接受電話採訪說。「尤其是在中國受邀加入國際出版商協會之際，我們需要設定面向未來的標準，使中國大陸的出版商可以對負責決策的不管什麼人說，這些是我們需要遵守的標準。」
The pledge is a response to a report released in May by the PEN American Center that showed how the translated works of foreign authors are sometimes published with unauthorized excisions. Books most likely to be subject to censorship are those that deal with sex or with delicate political issues, such as the crackdown on democracy protests around Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, Taiwan, Tibet, ethnic minorities, Communist Party leaders and party history.
該承諾書是對美國筆會發佈的一份報告的回應。今年5月發佈的那份報告稱，外國作家的作品在翻譯出版的過程中，有時會遭到未經授權的刪節。最有可能受到審查的書籍涉及性或敏感的政治問題，比如1989年對天安門民主抗議活動的鎮壓、台灣、西藏、少數民族、共產黨的領導人，以及中共黨史。
The American author Paul Auster and the former poet laureate Robert Hass were among the writers that the report cited as having had works censored without their knowledge. In the Chinese translation of Mr. Auster’s novel “Sunset Park,” passages about the detention of the Chinese dissident and writer Liu Xiaobo in 2008 were cut without the author’s approval.
該報告指出，美國作家保羅·奧斯特(Paul Auster)和前桂冠詩人羅伯特·哈斯(Robert Hass)的作品在作者不知情的情況下遭到了審查。奧斯特的小說《日落公園》(Sunset Park)中，描寫了中國異見作家劉曉波在2008年被關押的情況，但中文譯本在未經作者許可的情況下，刪除了相關內容。
“PEN’s researchers found that, in many instances, foreign authors – and their agents and publishers – do not have sufficient knowledge of the workings of Chinese censorship to do all they can to ensure that their books are not censored or minimize censorship,” the report said.
「筆會的研究人員發現，在很多情況下，外國作家——及其代理商和出版商——對中國審查的工作機制缺乏充分的了解，無法儘可能地確保他們的書免受審查，或減少審查的影響，」美國筆會的報告說。
In signing the pledge, the publishers agreed to help authors negotiate with Chinese editors and publishers to minimize censorship in translated books. For content that is censored, the statement outlines measures that publishers can take to help authors make the excised material available to Chinese readers by other channels. Because many book rights are controlled by agents, the broader publishing industry needs to address the issue together, Mr. Entrekin said that.
在簽署這份承諾書時，出版商同意幫助作者與中國的編輯和出版商協商，以減少對譯本的審查。對於被審查的內容，該聲明列出了一些措施，讓出版商可以幫助作者通過其他渠道，把被刪節的部分呈現給中國讀者。恩特利金說，由於很多書的版權由代理商控制，出版界需要開展更廣泛的合作來解決這個問題。
“The show of leadership on the part of the publishers will be catalytic,” said Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN American Center, speaking by telephone from New York. “China represents a very large and important market for publishers and I think given the size of the population, the pace of urbanization and the rising levels of education, it’s a tremendous long-term market opportunity for them.”
「出版商這邊發揮領導作用，將會起到催化效果，」美國筆會中心執行主任蘇珊·諾塞爾(Suzanne Nossel)在紐約接受電話採訪時說。「對於出版商而言，中國是一個非常龐大、非常重要的市場，我認為，鑒於其人口規模、城鎮化步伐，以及教育水平的提升，這對出版商是一個巨大而長期的市場機遇。」
“At the same time, it’s also clear that this is an issue of principle, and these are values of freedom of expression that these publishers have built their businesses on,” she added.
「同時，這顯然也是個原則問題，這些出版商的生意是建立在言論自由的價值觀之上的，」她說。
There remain, however, financial considerations.
但是也存在財務上的考慮。
“I’m curious to know if the U.S. publishers are willing to dedicate any resources to this issue,” said Peter Hessler, a writer for The New Yorker, in emailed comments. “In the end, this issue is economic as well as political.”
「我很好奇，美國出版商是否願意在這個問題上投入任何資源，」《紐約客》(The New Yorker)撰稿人何偉(Peter Hessler)通過電郵評論道。「說到底，這不僅是個政治問題，也是經濟問題。」
Mr. Hessler, who has had three of his four books translated and published in China, pointed to the low pay for translators as a big issue facing many foreign authors seeking to publish a high-quality translation of their works in China.
何偉的四本書中，有三本被翻譯成中文在中國出版。他指出，對很多尋求在中國出版高質量中譯本的外國作家來說，翻譯人員報酬低是他們面臨的一個大問題。
Hiring an independent editor to check the translated manuscript against the original would add to a publishing house’s costs. But Mr. Entrekin, for one, said that Grove/Atlantic was ready to take on such additional costs.
僱傭獨立的編輯來比對譯文和原文，會增加出版社的成本。但恩特利金表示，格勞夫/大西洋出版社做好了承擔這類額外成本的準備。
“It’s not going to be rocket science to figure out which books are going to be censored,” he said.
「弄清哪些書會被審查這件事不會很難，」他說。
Some in the Chinese publishing industry welcomed news of the pledge. Zhang Jiren, an editor at the Shanghai Translation Publishing House, said that increased communication between authors and their Chinese publishers would benefit the editing process on both ends.
中國出版業的一些從業者對承諾書表示歡迎。上海譯文出版社的編輯張吉人說，作者與中方出版社加強溝通有利於兩頭的編輯流程。
“In the publishing industry, there are a lot of editors who really don’t want to delete anything,” said Mr. Zhang, speaking by telephone from Shanghai. “We try our best to maintain the integrity of the entire manuscript. But we also live in this system, and sometimes we don’t have a choice.”
「出版業里有很多編輯真的想什麼都不刪，」張吉人在上海接受電話採訪時說。「我們會盡最大的努力，保障整部書稿的完整性。但我們也活在這個制度里，有時候別無選擇。」
Editors in Chinese publishing houses often have just as much trouble navigating the murky waters of China’s greater censorship system as do foreign authors. Mr. Zhang, who is also Mr. Hessler’s editor, said that the publishing climate had come “under increased stress” in the past two years. Some translation projects for which he had previously received approval, including a work about the Arab Spring, had recently been nixed.
在應對中國更廣泛的審查時，中國出版社面臨的麻煩常常和外國作者一樣多。張吉人說，過去兩年里，出版氣候「受到的壓力加大了」。張吉人是何偉的編輯。他的一些翻譯項目之前曾得到批准，包括一本有關阿拉伯之春的書，但最近又被斃掉了。
But even as China’s publishing industry remains in flux, most agree that substantial progress has been made.
儘管中國出版業仍處在不斷的變動中，但是大部分人都認為，已經有了顯著的進步。
“A decade ago, we were talking about piracy and royalties and whether or not Western writers were getting a fair share of their sales,” said Michael Meyer, author of several books on China. “And here, a decade later, we aren’t talking about the business side anymore. We are talking about the freedom of expression.”
「10年前，我們談論的是盜版，版稅，西方作者是否從銷售額中拿到了自己應得的那一份，」寫過多本與中國有關的著作的梅英東(Michael Meyer)說。「而10年後的現在，我們不再討論商業方面的事，我們開始討論言論自由了。」
本文内容版权归纽约时报公司所有，任何单位及个人未经许可，不得擅自转载或翻译。
本文内容版权归纽约时报公司所有，任何单位及个人未经许可，不得擅自转载或翻译。
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