The Poison of Polygamy

by Wong Shee Ping, Ely Finch (translator)

Serialised 1909–10, The Poison of Polygamy is a rare gem of Australian literature.

The first novel of the Chinese Australian experience, it is a roller-coaster tale of blackmail, murder, betrayal and even thylacine attack, partly based on real people, places and events. Revealing the human face of migration between imperial China and colonial Australia, it recounts the story of a man from southern China who tries his luck on the Victorian goldfields, the wife he leaves behind, and their eventual fraught reunion.

In this bilingual edition, Australia’s and possibly the West’s earliest Chinese-language novel is presented in English translation for the first time. Illuminating introductions explore the work’s historical, cultural and linguistic context, and establish its unique significance in Australia’s literary and social history.

Genres: Chinese Literature, Classics, China

456 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Poison of Polygamy has to be the most exotic book I've read this year. It certainly has the most compelling title...

This is the blurb:

Serialised in 1909–10, The Poison of Polygamy is a rare gem of Australian literature.

The first novel of the Chinese Australian experience, it is a roller-coaster tale of blackmail, murder, betrayal and even thylacine attack, partly based on real people, places and events. Revealing the human face of migration between imperial China and colonial Australia, it recounts the story of a man from southern China who tries his luck on the Victorian goldfields, the wife he leaves behind, and their eventual fraught reunion.

In this bilingual parallel edition, Australia’s and possibly the West’s earliest Chinese-language novel is presented in English translation for the first time. Illuminating introductions explore the work’s historical, cultural and linguistic context, and establish its unique significance in Australia’s literary and social history.

[caption id="attachment_97685" align="alignright" width="235"] Wong Shee Ping c.1915 (Wikipedia*)[/caption]

The book begins with a comprehensive Introduction, which, contrary to whatever one's usual custom, should be read first, because it explains the book's context and unique characteristics. It comprises:

a profile, written by historian Michael Williams, of the author Wong Shee Ping, and the story of how he came to be identified after years of anonymity; then
there is a chapter by Mei-fen Kuo and Michael Williams, entitled 'Why is polygamy poisonous? An historical context.' It gives background information about Chinese migration during the Goldrush, and how the themes of the novel mesh with Wong Shee Ping's political and social preoccupations; followed by
the Translator's introduction, by Ely Finch, which explains the intricacies of Literary Chinese as distinct from translating Mandarin.

The novella follows, in bilingual format, the English translation on the LHS and the Chinese, reproduced from scans of the newspaper The Chinese Times on the RHS. Extensive footnotes explaining everything from cultural issues to the symbolism of the text can take up a good bit of both pages. This is how it looks:

[caption id="attachment_97681" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The Poison of Polygamy, pp. 138-9[/caption]

So while the book is 446 pages long the actual story is 318 pages and half of those are in Chinese, so the length of the story in English is a mere 159 pages, and with much of that being footnotes, the story can be read in a day.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/12/02/t...

[Oanh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly a soap opera, but of historical interest. The first Chinese Australian novel? I did not read all the footnotes. Yes, things gets lost in translation but reading mini essays in footnotes doesn’t actually engage or develop the story. I did read some of them. I’m not a completely lost cause (just mostly).

[Pip · Rating 3 out of 5]

is this book “Good”. absolutely not. is it entertaining? yes.

[LY · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being a Chinese native speaker, I feel I am missed-out when the translator meant to share the book with translation students, historians and academics. The more I read, the more I lost in the dilemma of originality and translation.
One-tenth of pages (Translator’s introduction) have been spent on the linguistics, translation skills and grammar, great. When the translator made a great effort to supplement and correct the words in Chinese, how about the punctuations? The beauty of silence and the colours of emotions were distorted while simply the meaningless full-stops '。’ appeared in the page of Chinese (there were no punctuations developed in classical Chinese yet) but the variety of punctuation marks are applied in the translated version. I would appreciate it if there are some remarks on punctuation in the translator’s note.
When translation outweighs the originality, sentences in both Chinese and English versions were often chopped in page breaks. I could not find the clues of the judgement (again, good to mention in the translator’s note). It ultimately affects the readability of cross-reference.
At last, I was lost again in the sea of footnotes as some of them really don't help tell the story. It was not a very pleasant reading experience in the clumsiness of translation and layout.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

中文原文遣詞典雅簡潔，堪作寫作典範；情節有趣，而可豐富一眾讀者對當時澳洲華人處境之認識
英文譯文由林雍坣先生操刀，雖為洋人，但對原文之意毫無曲解，譯文忠實信達，屢見巧思

The translator Ely Flinch attempted to render the best translation he could (and succeeded in) - producing the most appropriate diction in English for readers with lots of annotations and footnotes, so readers who do not know or read well in Classical Chinese can also enjoy the joy. The author Wong Shee Ping was, of course, erudite and wrote an alarming story to his fellow countrymen in Australia back in the late 1900s, and how lucky was this rediscovered and translated. By reading this, a Chinese-language reader may review his/her understanding of the Chinese language, its metaphors, four-character idioms, stories behind them, etc. Very impressive efforts in both the work and translation.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A translation of remarkable historical value

[em · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. I found this fine to read but not specifically captivating. Wong Shee Ping’s depictions of colonial Australia are vivid and interesting. However, I found the characters to be fairly shallow and overall, felt little like or curiosity for any of them. The plot became much more interesting towards the end. I think my reading experience was very much screwed by the fact I read it on my kindle and the formatting was all wrong.

[Yashvita · Rating 3 out of 5]

chase that bag, not women.
actual insane book. oh my LORD. everyone's crazy.