Project Update
I’ve found myself in a somewhat awkward position this morning. I’ve got only a little bit of time before I have to go to work, and don’t have the ability to write as much as I wanted to.
Anyway, I know I’ve talked about this before, but I do want to reiterate a few things about the future plan for this blog.
These are the projects I currently have in mind (and, theoretically, am working on):
Character Database: My goal is to create a comprehensive database of all characters in 紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Chamber). I know that some can be found on Wikipedia, though the Wikipedia entries are often incomplete, and sometimes incorrect. My hope is that this blog will eventually become the destination for serious students of this book. My plan is to make this free for everybody.
Full Chapter Translation Pages: In addition to links to posts that contain the translations of each chapter, I am planning on making pages that contain full chapter translations to help those of you who just want to read the book. This might take a while, as this will require me to go over my translation and make a few corrections to make sure things read smoothly. I’ll likely make this available only to paying subscribers. I will add on another benefit: you can also make your own recommended changes to the translation, and we can work together to find a suitable solution.
Symbolism: Similar to the Character Database, I’m hoping to eventually create a series of essays regarding symbolism and certain motifs that occur frequently in this novel. Many of these are difficult to understand even if you grew up in China.
Please let me know if you have any other suggestions or thoughts!
The character database sounds like it might be really useful. In my pursuit of classical Greek, I rely on concordances to help me find examples of usage as well as suggested forms to focus on. I haven't been reading your daily posts lately; instead, I went back to the beginning of the book and am working my way to the present from there. Eventually I'll catch myself up. I've been using a notebook to record what I've read along with any notes of interesting content, and I've been hitting the like button as an electronic reminder of what I've read, and to indicate to Substack that your previous content is still being appreciated. It would be useful for your advanced followers to be able to bring the chapters together in one place, but for me, progressing through your original posts provide me with bite-sized pieces that are easily read in the moments that I find throughout the day to enjoy them.
Character Database sounds useful!