Dominykas Urbas prize – for debuting translators from the Chinese language Culture

Indrė Balčikonytė-Huang is a beginner translator living in China. She graduated from London with a BA in Chinese language and economics, then at Fudan University in Shanghai, she completed her MA in modern and modern Chinese literature.

Together with Yu Xi, who completed her bachelor’s studies in Lithuanian language, she translated Marius Ivaškevičius’s play “Kantas”, Antanas Škėma’s novel “The White Shroud” into Chinese, and independently translated Jonas Mek’s collection of poems “Words and Letters”.

Interpreted for Lithuanian theater directors Oskars Koršunovs, Rimus Tuminas, Gabriela Tuminaita. Is with Kathy Flower in 2021. The books China – Culture Smart! published in Great Britain. Co-author of The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture.

Shuang Xuetao’s collection of short stories “Red Street” is Indrė’s first translation from Chinese to Lithuanian. It will be released in 2023. published by RARA publishing house. This book made it to the long list of the translated book of the year competition organized by LLVS.

Shuang Xuetao (Shuang Siuetao, born in 1983) is a contemporary Chinese prose writer, screenwriter, who has already published six books in China. He started writing in 2010, having decided to participate in the Chinese fiction competition, where he unexpectedly won the prize for the best short story with his debut work.

The writer gained fame in 2016, when the collection of short stories “Moses in the Plains” appeared, for which he won two awards: Blossoms Literary bonus and Wang Zengqi Short bonus.

The writer gained fame in 2016, when the collection of short stories “Moses in the Plains” appeared, for which he won two awards.

Together with Ban Yu and Zheng Zhi, he is called the representative of the new Chinese literary current “New Dongbei”, that is, the New Northeast region writer group. Writers born in the late 1970s and early 1980s and who grew up during the country’s transformation from a planned economy to a free market belong to this stream. Their parents, who until then worked in state-owned companies, unexpectedly had to adapt to the changed conditions and find a place in the merciless labor market, where many were not successful.

Shuang Xuetao, cleverly combining harsh realism, narrative polyphony, elements of mysticism and magical realism, and black humor, unravels the past of China’s divided northeastern region.

The author has said that Chinese literature is in dire need of unique, more sincere voices; therefore, he strives for his work to be more autobiographical, he weaves personal, home district and regional stories into his stories. “Literature is a torch moving in the dark, lit by itself, held by itself, illuminating a little bit of the environment as it runs.”

Dominykas Urbas Prize, 2008 established by the Lithuanian Literary Translators’ Union, it is awarded to a translator of fiction and humanitarian literature for a debut: a professional, artistic first or second translation into Lithuanian published in the last three years. The winners of this prize are announced on April 28, commemorating the birth anniversary of the famous translator, editor and linguist Dominykos Urbas.

The prize will be awarded to Indrei Balčikonyte-Huang on May 8. 18.00 at the Writers’ Club, Vilnius.