Gan Nineteenth Sister: eight chapters translated and ready for review
Contents
Introduction
When we announced the Gan Nineteenth Sister translation in early June, we set an ambitious target: 40 chapters in 16 weeks. Eight chapters in, we’re on track and the translation is taking shape.
This post covers where we are in the pipeline, what’s been completed, and what comes next.
The translation so far
Eight chapters have been translated from the Chinese source text:
| Chapter | Status | Parts |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter 1 | Translated (draft) | 4 parts |
| Chapter 2 | Translated (draft) | 5 parts |
| Chapter 3 | Translated (draft) | 5 parts |
| Chapter 4 | Translated (draft) | 4 parts |
| Chapter 5 | Translated (draft) | 5 parts |
| Chapter 6 | Translated (draft) | 5 parts |
| Chapter 7 | Translated (draft) | 5 parts |
| Chapter 8 | Translated (draft) | 5 parts |
All eight chapters have completed their first translation pass and are now in the review queue.
The pipeline
Our translation workflow has four stages:
- Source text preparation — the Chinese text is split into manageable parts and cleaned for processing
- Translation — each part is translated using AI-assisted tools, with human oversight for quality
- Review — translated parts are checked against the source for accuracy, consistency, and style
- Publication — reviewed chapters are formatted, footnoted, and published on the site
Chapters 1–4 have completed stages 1–3 and are awaiting final review before publication. Chapters 5–8 have completed stages 1–2 and are moving through review.
What we’ve learned
Translating Xiao Yi’s prose has been a particular challenge. His style is spare and atmospheric, relying on implication rather than exposition. Every sentence carries weight, and the translation needs to preserve that economy.
A few observations from the first eight chapters:
- Martial arts descriptions require careful attention to physical detail. Xiao Yi’s fight scenes are precise, and the English needs to match that precision.
- Character voice is distinct. Gan Nineteenth Sister herself speaks differently from the other characters, and the translation preserves those distinctions.
- Cultural references are dense. The footnotes are doing heavy lifting in these early chapters, explaining terms and concepts that would be familiar to Chinese readers.
What’s next
The immediate priority is clearing the review backlog. Chapters 1–4 are ready for final review and should be published in the coming weeks. Once those are live, we’ll move through chapters 5–8.
Meanwhile, chapters 9–16 are in the translation queue. We’re maintaining a pace of roughly two chapters per week, which keeps us on track for the September deadline.
The full novel
Gan Nineteenth Sister (甘十九妹) is Xiao Yi’s most celebrated work, a story of revenge, loyalty, and the cost of vengeance. It’s the first Xiao Yi novel we’re translating in full, and it represents a significant milestone for WuxiaSociety.
If you’re new to Xiao Yi, you can read his biography or explore his other novels. For context on the genre, our wuxia fundamentals guide covers the cultural concepts that appear throughout the novel.
Follow the translation progress at gan-nineteenth-sister-translation. Questions and discussion welcome on the forum.
Follow the archive routes
- Read: Continue with the translation archive and the Xiao Yi bibliography.
- Explore: Follow Xiao Yi and the Xiao Yi bibliography.
- Understand: Read understanding wuxia fundamentals for the cultural concepts that appear throughout the novel.
- Watch: Follow the Wuxia adaptations route for source-work context and separate factual records and analysis.
- Write: Study story elements in wuxia fiction for recurring plots, relationships, and character patterns.