Mabel Lee

{{Short description|Australian linguist}}

{{about||other people|Mabel Ping-Hua Lee|and|Mabel Barbee Lee|and|Mable Lee|and|Mabel Lee (teacher)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

Mabel Lee ({{lang-zh|陳順妍}}, b. 1939) is a translator, best-known for her English renditions of fiction and essays by Nobel Prize-winning author Gao Xingjian. A third-generation Chinese-Australian born in Warialda, she taught Chinese literature and Asian studies at the University of Sydney, where she is now an Adjunct Professor. An Honorary Fellow of the Australian Society for Asian Humanities, she is among Australia's leading authorities on Chinese cultural affairs. Lee had already begun translation of the poems of Chinese writer, Yang Lian when she met Gao Xingjian, in Paris in 1991. After that meeting, Lee offered to translate Soul Mountain, a project which took seven years, and an additional two to find a publisher for the book in Australia. Following publication, Gao Xingjian became the first Chinese-language writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.{{Cite web|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADDE7A56571611&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|title=Nobel in Literature Awarded to Chinese Dissident|accessdate=2008-06-13|date=2000-10-13|author=Mark Feeney|work=The Boston Globe}}

Lee's translation won the 2001 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award for Translation despite criticism about the book, and her translation's quality.{{Cite web|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2001/02/02/0000072054/2|title=Modern Form Can't Hide Bad Prose|accessdate=2008-06-13|date=2001-02-02|author=Cao Chang-Ching|work=Taipei Times}}{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998738,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122073000/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998738,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 November 2010|title=Lost in the Translation|accessdate=2011-01-28|date=2000-12-11|author=Paul Gray|magazine=Time}} After her retirement from teaching, she translated another of Gao's novels, One Man's Bible, as well as a short-story collection and a book of his essays.{{Cite web|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/Books/An-accent-on-accuracy/2005/02/11/1108061845072.html|title=An Accent on Accuracy|accessdate=2011-01-28|date=2005-02-12|author=Jane Sullivan|work=The Age}} With Agnieszka Syrokomla-Stefanowska, she founded Wild Peony Press, which was active between 1980 and 2009 and published translations from East Asian literature as well as Australian scholarship on Asia. {{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Eleanor |date=2013-09-26 |title=Cultural and Economic Ties: Developing Links and Relationships Between the Chinese and Australian Publishing Industries |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-013-9328-1 |journal=Publishing Research Quarterly |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=371–382 |doi=10.1007/s12109-013-9328-1 |issn=1053-8801|url-access=subscription }}

In 2012 Lee's translation of a collection of essays, Gao Xingjian: Aesthetics and Creation{{Cite web|url=https://www.cambriapress.com/pub.cfm?bid=531|title=Gao Xingjian: Aesthetics and Creation By Gao Xingjian|website=www.cambriapress.com}} was published by Cambria Press as part of the Cambria Sinophone World Series{{cite web | title=Home - East Asian Languages and Civilizations | website=University of Pennsylvania - School of Arts & Sciences | School of Arts and Sciences - University of Pennsylvania | date=2021-01-26 | url=http://www.sas.upenn.edu/ealc/publications/cambria-sinophone-world-series | access-date=2021-02-22}} headed by Victor H. Mair.