Nhan Dan Electronic introduces an interview with Ms. Tran Thuy Thien Kim - CEO, publisher, co-founder of Major Books in London.
Reporter (PV): Major Books is newly established and operates in Europe, so up to now, domestically, there is not much information about the purpose, motto, and work done by Major Books,... Can you briefly outline Major Books?
Ms. Tran Thuy Thien Kim: Basically, Major Books is an independent book publisher in London (UK), with the goal of bringing Vietnamese literature to the world literary community. Major Books can be roughly translated as "Big Books", or "Main Books" because it is a direct protest against the hierarchy that still implicitly exists between literatures from different cultures and languages in the Western publishing industry.
Established in late 2022, Major Books has achieved certain achievements such as the PEN translation award for the translation of the work "National Chronicle" (Nguyen Ngoc Tu), or a series of three works on the image of Vietnamese women through literary periods (medieval, French colonial, contemporary) receiving funding from the Arts Council England...
PV: How did the members of Majorbooks come together? Is your field of study related to publishing? And why, while many young Vietnamese people go abroad to study and find high-paying jobs, do you choose publishing - a job with a relatively low income?
Ms. Tran Thuy Thien Kim: The three main members of Major Books are between 21 and 35 years old, most of them are as young as the company itself. Among them, I am a literature major so I am not considered too "out of line" when coming to this industry.
Major Books is fortunate to have a brother in Vietnam, the book publishing and media company San Ho Books. Having the opportunity to establish and operate San Ho Books in Vietnam for nearly four years, I have learned a lot and received a lot of generous support from colleagues and predecessors.
Your question touches on a truth that no one wants to talk about: the harshness of the publishing industry. In the UK and the US, on general publishing forums, every month we see more posts and comments filled with dissatisfaction and fatigue from people working or wanting to enter the publishing industry.
The average salary for workers in the UK publishing industry has always been low, making it difficult for a young person to make ends meet or have enough left over to save.
That’s also why so many people, after working in the industry for a few years, decide to leave. This is probably not just a UK phenomenon, but a global one.
After all, I think everyone who comes to the book industry has a love for books, a desire to bring joy to others in the same way that books have brought joy to themselves. But in reality, books are a business. Let's not consider whether there are types of books that are "marketable" or "easier to sell" than other types of books, but in general, books are an essential commodity but not "essential" enough to meet daily consumption needs.
As a bookmaker, no one wants to set the price for access to knowledge too high, so most of the cover price or selling price of a book does not reflect the true investment behind a book. Behind a complete, well-crafted book is a process of a whole group, with countless costs and invisible stages.
Unless thousands of copies are sold, the profits for a book company or independent publisher are usually very small, if not certain to be a loss.
Somehow, they have to continue to make the next books, with the quality improving. In return, doing what you love, thinking that this little book can reach someone, bringing them the joy that you have experienced, maybe that is enough to keep, or make many people still determined to embark on this path, at least in my opinion.
PV: From the Vietnamese literary works translated into English published by Major Books, it can be seen that Major Books initially tries to bring classical literary works such as The Tale of Kieu, The Treasure of Vietnamese Fairy Tales,... side by side with The Chronicle of the Country, Prostitution (Vu Trong Phung) to readers around the world.
Ms. Tran Thuy Thien Kim: It's true that we have big dreams, but we only dare to say that we will lay each small brick as a foundation for this dream, through each book.
The source probably came from the hidden, simmering resentment that I had not realized existed during my ten years of studying abroad. It came from sitting in the lecture hall of a university considered to be the most advanced in international academia, with the awareness that Vietnamese literature, along with many other literatures outside the languages of "major" literature (such as English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish), was classified as literature from "minority" languages, even though these "minority" peoples represent the majority of the global population (what we now refer to as the global majority).
It also comes from daily life, communication with international friends, when most of them only mention Vietnam through two aspects: pho/banh mi/coffee or war. We have a whole brilliant literature and culture that we believe the international community will be very interested in and excited about, just give them a chance to approach, the way we have approached international literature.
We have a brilliant literature and culture that we believe the international community will be very interested in and excited about, just give them a chance to access it, the way we have approached international literature.
PV: While trying to introduce Vietnamese literature to English-speaking readers, Major Books also tries to introduce valuable English literary works to Vietnamese readers. This is an interesting and unique trend but requires details and specifics. How does Major Books solve this problem?
Ms. Tran Thuy Thien Kim: Through San Ho Book Company, we hope to bring many high-quality works to Vietnamese readers. Taking literary values, humanity, and knowledge as the core, not rankings as the criteria for choosing books, we accept that these works may be difficult to sell, difficult to bring profit, but as long as they will bring good values to readers.
In addition, through the two-way existence of both San Ho and the New Writing Contest, Major Books is the unit that can receive and publish books not only in Vietnam but also internationally. We hope that writers in Vietnam will have more motivation to continue writing, continue to choose the writing profession, continue to bring new winds to Vietnamese literature.
PV: To decide to publish a book, Major Books pays great attention to the original, the quality of the translation, and tries to introduce to readers how the work has survived in the cultural and historical environment of Vietnam?
Ms. Tran Thuy Thien Kim: Realizing that Vietnamese literature is still a relatively new category for international readers, we try our best to help readers access the work in the most complete way. For us, this means that the work needs to be translated in a way that conveys the spirit of the original Vietnamese as much as possible, both in terms of cultural, historical, and linguistic factors. Therefore, we always prioritize choosing translators who are native Vietnamese speakers.
In the Western publishing industry, translation literature publishers tend to prioritize the target language (usually English) over the source language, which greatly reduces the opportunities for translators to translate from their mother tongue into a second language. I disagree with this practice, as it somewhat downplays the importance of the source language.
With global cultural integration, migration history, and the rapid growth of the English language itself, the approach to translation must also change.
Just the other day, Mark Harman was criticizing the way the Muirs translated Kafka into an overly smooth English, smoothing out all the labyrinthine syntax of the great writer's German, clearly demonstrating the need for a change in the way translators and readers approach translation.
I chose Major Books' translators with absolute confidence that they not only have the linguistic sensitivity and English proficiency to translate the work, but they are also knowledgeable and respectful of the original Vietnamese versions.
PV: Currently, Vietnamese literary works translated into English by Major Books are available on the shelves of many bookstores in the West, and are listed in many book distribution addresses around the world such as Amazon, Asterism Books, etc. And since there is still much work to be done, can you outline the upcoming work of Major Books while making efforts to effectively introduce Vietnamese literature to the world?
Ms. Tran Thuy Thien Kim: In the near future, after four works aimed at adult readers, Major Books hopes to reach out to young readers through the release of the translation of 11 stories in "The Treasury of Vietnamese Fairy Tales" by Nguyen Dong Chi into English, with vivid illustrations by talented artist Jeet Zdung (the first Vietnamese artist to receive the prestigious Carnegie Medal for Illustration), and a non-fiction picture book about Tet customs across the country "Muon mien Tet".
Not only does this help promote Vietnamese literature and folklore, it also reaches out to the international community of overseas Vietnamese children, helping them and their families continue to preserve the nation's traditional culture regardless of language barriers.
We have planned with artist Jeet Zdung, a multidisciplinary British-Vietnamese producer, Tuyet Van Huynh, the Museum of the Home in the UK, with the support of the startup incubation center at University College London to organize a series of events in London and Hanoi , aiming to bring Vietnamese fairy tales to the international community. This is the "nail" plan for 2025 for Major Books. We are hoping to get funding from Arts Council England and the British Council for this series of events, but we also hope to receive support from individuals, groups, agencies, and organizations interested in supporting. Sometimes, just a word of encouragement is enough for us to keep trying!
PV: Thank you for the interesting and useful exchange.
Tran Thuy Thien Kim, born in 1997 in Hanoi; BA in Comparative Literature at University College London, MA in Documentary Filmmaking and Ethnography/Descriptive Anthropology at University College London, currently Managing Director in charge of publishing, co-founder of Major Books.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/no-luc-dang-ghi-nhan-cua-nguoi-viet-tre-tuoi-o-vuong-quoc-anh-post892935.html
Comment (0)