Helen Wang Explained

Helen Wang
Birth Name:	Helen Kay Below
Spouse:	Wang Tao
Children:	2
Alma Mater:	SOAS University of London University College London
Thesis Title:	Money on the Silk Road: the evidence from Eastern Central Asia to c. AD 800
Thesis Year:	2002
Discipline:	Sinology
Workplaces:	British Museum

Helen Kay Wang (; ; born 1965) is an English sinologist and translator.^[1] She works as curator of East Asian Money at the British Museum in London. She has also published a number of literary translations from Chinese, including an award-winning translation of a Chinese children's book.

Biography

Wang has a BA in Chinese from SOAS University of London (1988, including a year at the Beijing Language Institute, 1984–1985).^{[2] [3]} She has a PhD in archaeology from University College London, titled "Money on the Silk Road: the evidence from Eastern Central Asia to c. AD 800", 2002.^[4]

In 1991 Wang joined the British Museum staff as an assistant to Joe Cribb in the Asian section of the Department of Coins and Medals.^[5] She became Curator of East Asian Money in 1993. Her work mostly relates to the collections for which she is responsible, collection history and development of the field, in particular East Asian numismatics, Silk Road Numismatics, Sir Aurel Stein and his collections, and textiles as money. She was joint Honorary Secretary of the Royal Numismatic Society from 2011-2016, Hon. Vice President from 2018,^[6] and is an honorary member of the editorial board of Zhongguo Qianbi 《中国钱币》 (China Numismatics), the journal of the China Numismatic Society. She was elected as an individual member of the International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles (IASSRT) in 2016.^[7] In 2017, she started a web-resource Chinese Money Matters.^[8]

Wang was married to Chinese archaeologist Wang Tao, with whom she has two children.^[3]

Literary translations

Wang's first published literary translations were in the early 1990s - short stories and essays by Yu Hua, Zhang Chengzhi, Ma Yuan, Du Ma and Zhang Langlang.^[9] After a long break, she returned to translation in the 2010s, translating more short stories, essays and children's books.^[10] She also works collaboratively with the China Fiction Book Club (with Nicky Harman), Paper Republic, Global Literature in Libraries . In 2016, she co-founded the group Chinese Books for Young Readers with Anna Gustafsson Chen and Minjie Chen. From 2012-2015 she was a Member of the Committee of the Translators Association. She has been on the judging panel of four of the Writing Chinese Project's Bai Meigui Chinese translation competitions.^[11]

Awards and commendations

• 2024 Awarded the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society^[12]
• 2024 Awarded the Lhotka Prize for Chinese Numismatics - the world of Chinese money (co-authored with François Thierry (numismatist) and Lyce Jankowski^[13]
• 2023 Mildred L. Batchelder Award Honor Book - for her translation of Dragonfly Eyes by Cao Wenxuan^[14]
• 2023 ALSC Notable Children's Books - for Dragonfly Eyes [ALSC = Association for Library Service to Children]^[15]
• 2023 Dragonfly Eyes received a 2022 Freeman Young Adult/Middle School Literature "Of Note" Award^[16]
• 2023 Playing with Lanterns by Wang Yage, illus. Zhu Chengliang, tr. Helen Wang (Amazon Crossing 2022) selected for the 2023 Notable Social Studies Trade Books list, a joint project of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Children’s Book Council.^[17]
• 2023 Playing with Lanterns selected for the 2023 USBBY Outstanding International Books List^[18]
• 2019 Awarded the Jeton de Vermeil by the Société française de numismatique^[19]
• 2019 Shortlisted for the GLLI Translated YA Book Prize - for Bronze and Sunflower^[20]
• 2017 Marsh Christian Award for Children's Literature in Translation - for her translation of Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan^[21]
• 2017 Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award - for translation and increasing visibility of Chinese children's literature^[22]
• 2017 Finalist in the Kirkus Awards Young Readers category - for Bronze and Sunflower^[23]
• 2017 Nominated for a 2018 YALSA award Best Fiction for Young Adults - for Bronze and Sunflower^[24]
• 2017 New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2017 - for Bronze and Sunflower^[25]
• 2017 Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature - Best Books of 2017 - for Bronze and Sunflower^[26]
• 2015 Awarded an English PEN Writers in Translation grant - for Bronze and Sunflower^[27]

Selected publications (books, edited and co-edited volumes)

• 2023 Look at the Coins! Papers in Honour of Joe Cribb on his 75th Birthday (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2023) (co-ed. with Robert Bracey)
• 2022 Chinese Numismatics. The World of Chinese Money (Spink, London) (with François Thierry, Lyce Jankowski and Joe Cribb)^[28]
• 2021 Asia Collections in Museums outside Asia: Questioning Artefacts, Cultures and Identities, Transcultural Perspectives 2020, issue 1, thematic issue in Kunsttexte. Humboldt University. Berlin. (online publication, open-access) (co-ed. with Iside Carbone)^[29]
• 2013 Textiles as Money on the Silk Road (co-ed. with Valerie Hansen, 2013)^[30]
• 2012 Sir Aurel Stein, Colleagues and Collections (ed., 2012)^[31]
• 2012 The Music of Ink (Saffron Books)
• 2010 A Catalogue of the Japanese Coin Collection (pre-Meiji) at the British Museum, with special reference to Kutsuki Masatsuna (co-ed. with Shin'ichi Sakuraki, Peter Kornicki, with Nobuhisa Furuta, Timon Screech and Joe Cribb, 2010)^[32]
• 2008 Chairman Mao Badges: Symbols and Slogans of the Cultural Revolution (2008)^[33]
• 2008 Handbook to the Collections of Sir Aurel Stein in the UK (co-ed. with John Perkins, 2008)^[34]
• 2007 Catalogue of the Collections of Sir Aurel Stein in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (co-ed. with Eva Apor, 2007),^[35] and its Supplement (co-ed. with Eva Apor, 2009)^[36]
• 2007 Textiles from Dunhuang in UK Collections (co-ed. with Zhao Feng and others, 2007)^[37]
• 2004 Money on the Silk Road: The Evidence from Eastern Central Asia to c. AD 800, with a catalogue of the coins collected by Sir Aurel Stein (2004)^[38]
• 2004 Sir Aurel Stein in The Times (ed., 2004)^[39]

Book-length translations (novels)

• 2022 Dinner for Six, by Lu Min, co-translated with Nicky Harman (Balestier Press, 2022) -- 鲁敏：《六人晚餐》
• 2021 Dragonfly Eyes, by Cao Wenxuan (Walker Books, 2021) -- 曹文轩：《蜻蜓眼》^[40]
• 2017 The Ventriloquist's Daughter, by Lin Man-Chiu (Balestier Press, 2017) -- 林满秋：《腹语师的女儿》
• 2015 Bronze and Sunflower, by Cao Wenxuan (Walker Books, UK, 2015; Candlewick Press, USA, 2016) -- 曹文轩：《青铜葵花》
• 2012 Jackal and Wolf, by Shen Shixi (Egmont, UK, 2012) -- 沈石溪：《红豺》

External links

• Helen Wang - British Museum staff page
• Helen Wang on Academia
• Chinese Money Matters
• Helen Wang on Paper Republic
• Chinese Books for Young Readers

Notes and References

1. Web site: Helen Wang (Biographical details) . . 25 January 2018 .
2. Book: Zhao . Henry . Cayley . John . Under-Sky Underground: Chinese Writing Today, No. 1 . Wellsweep . 1994 . 0-948454-16-4 . 245 . registration .
3. Book: Wang, Helen . Chairman Mao badges: symbols and slogans of the Cultural Revolution . British Museum . 2008 . 978-086159-169-5 . iv and v .
4. Web site: Catalogue Senate House Library: Wang, Helen Kay . 25 January 2018 .
5. Web site: Helen Wang. British Museum. 5 December 2017.
6. Web site: Council. 2014-05-23. The Royal Numismatic Society. en-US. 2019-10-02.
7. Web site: NEWS - IASSRT. 杭州大美. Iassrt.org. 5 December 2017.
8. Web site: Helen Wang - The British Museum - Academia.edu. Britishmuseum.academia.edu. 5 December 2017.
9. Published in Henry Y.H. Zhao (ed.), The Lost Boat: Avant-garde Fiction from China (Wellsweep Press, 1993); and Henry Y.H. Zhao and John Cayley (eds), Under-sky Underground (Wellsweep Press, London, 1994)
10. Web site: Helen Wang. Eric. Abrahamsen. Paper Republic. 5 December 2017.
11. Web site: Competition - Writing Chinese. Writing Chinese. 5 December 2017.
12. https://numismatics.org.uk/honours-and-awards/the-societys-medal/
13. https://numismatics.org.uk/honours-and-awards/the-lhotka-memorial-prize/#:~:text=It%20is%20awarded%20to%20the,the%20previous%20two%20calendar%20years. Accessed 1 July 2024.
14. https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2023/01/2023-batchelder-award-honors-harpercollins-just-girl-true-story-world-war-ii
15. https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists/ncb
16. https://www.nctasia.org/award/dragonfly-eyes/ Accessed 16 Feb 2023
17. https://www.cbcbooks.org/readers/reader-resources/notable-social-studies-list/
18. https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/WebVault/SLJ/EDIT23/USBBY-2023-SLJ-download.pdf
19. Web site: Annonce des séances . Société française de numismatique . 13 January 2020.
20. Web site: 2019 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Winner and Honor Books Announced. Hildebrandt. Rachel. 2019-01-25. en. 2019-01-30.
21. Web site: Bronze and Sunflower wins the 2017 Marsh Award. Esu.org. 5 December 2017.
22. Web site: Shanghai recognises UK translator Wang's 'special contribution' to literature - The Bookseller. Thebookseller.com. 5 December 2017.
23. Web site: 2017 Finalists: young readers - Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Reviews. 5 December 2017. 27 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170927202833/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2017/finalists/young-readers/. dead.
24. Web site: BFYA Nominations. NGILBERT. 2 August 2012. Ala.org. 5 December 2017.
25. Web site: Notable Children's Books of 2017. 27 November 2017. 5 December 2017. The New York Times.
26. Web site: csmcl. Csmcl.org. 5 December 2017.
27. Web site: Sixteen books awarded English PEN grants | the Bookseller.
28. Web site: Chinese Numismatics: The World of Chinese Money HELEN WANG, FRANÇOIS T .
29. Web site: Kunsttexte.de - e-Journal für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte: Aktuelle Ausgabe.
30. Textiles as Money on the Silk Road?. Helen. Wang. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 2013. 23. 2. 165–174. 5 December 2017. Cambridge Core. 10.1017/S135618631300014X. 161601429.
31. Web site: Sir Aurel Stein, Colleagues and Collections. British Museum. 5 December 2017.
32. Web site: Catalogue of the Japanese coin collection at the British Museum. British Museum. 5 December 2017.
33. Web site: Chairman Mao badges. British Museum. 5 December 2017.
34. Web site: Handbook to the Stein collections in the UK. British Museum. 5 December 2017.
35. Web site: Catalogue of the Collections of Sir Aurel Stein in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Comp. by John Falconer, Ágnes Kárteszi, Ágnes Kelecsényi, Lilla Russell-Smith. - Library - Hungaricana. Library.hungaricana.hu. 5 December 2017.
36. Web site: Supplement to the Catalogue of the Collections of Sir Aurel Stein in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Comp. by John Falconer, Ágnes Kárteszi, Ágnes Kelecsényi, Lilla Russell-Smith. - Library - Hungaricana. Library.hungaricana.hu. 5 December 2017.
37. Web site: Dunhuang textiles in the UK. British Museum. 5 December 2017.
38. Web site: Money on the Silk Road. Oxbowbooks.com. 5 December 2017.
39. Web site: Sir Aurel Stein in The Times - EAPGROUP - Saffron Books London - Titles & Ordering - Free Downloads - Ordering Info - Author Guidance - Titles A-Z - Authors A-Z. saffronbooks.com. 5 December 2017.
40. Web site: A round-up of new fiction for the young in age, and the young at heart.