COMPLETE-GHOST-Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio(sel)-ct

[earthcalling]

A selection* from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (volume 1), by Pu Sung-ling. Translated by Herbert Allen Giles.

All audio files can be found on our catalog page: http://librivox.org/strange-stories-from-a-chinese-studio-selection-volume-1-by-pu-songling/

* Note that the stories have been chosen to match those in the parallel Chinese project here.

"Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" or "Strange Tales of Liaozhai" is a collection of nearly five hundred mostly supernatural tales written by Pu Songling during the early Qing Dynasty. It was written in Classical Chinese rather than Vernacular Chinese.

Pu is believed to have completed the majority of the tales sometime in 1679, though he could have added entries as late as 1707. He borrows from a folk tradition of oral storytelling to put to paper a series of captivating, colorful stories, where the boundary between reality and the odd or fantastic is blurred. The cast of characters includes vixen spirits, ghosts, scholars, court officials, Taoist exorcists and beasts. Moral purposes are often inverted between humans and the supposedly degenerate ghosts or spirits, resulting in a satirical edge to some of the stories. Ghosts and spirits are often bold and trustworthy, while humans are on the other hand weak, indecisive and easily manipulated, reflecting the author's own disillusionment with his society.

(Summary from Wikipedia)

1. How to claim a part, and 'how it all works' here
   To find a section to record, simply look at point 5. below at the sections. All the ones without names beside them are “up for grabs.” Click "Post reply" at the top left of the screen and tell us which section you’d like to read (include the section number from the left-most column in the reader list, please). Read points 6. to 8. below for what to do before, during and after your recording.
2. New to recording?
   Please read our Newbie Guide to Recording!
3. Is there a deadline?
   Target completion date of this project: end June 2008 – but try to send your recordings as soon as you can. If you cannot do your section, for whatever reason, just let me know and it’ll go back to the pool. There’s no shame in this; we’re all volunteers and things happen.
4. Where do I find the text?
   Source text (please only read from this text!): Please read from the text link for each section in the magic window. These also give the intro/outro, the footnotes (exactly as they should be read), the ID3 tags and filename for the section.
   for the curious, the source text is: http://www.archive.org/details/strangestoriesfr00pusuuoft
5. Please claim sections (the numbers in the first column below)!
   If this is your first recording, please let me know under which name or pseudonym you'd like to appear in the LibriVox catalogue. We can also link to a personal website/blog.
   

   Magic Window:

   
   
   BC Admin
   
6. BEFORE recording:
   Please check the Recording Notes:
   http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6427#6430
   
   Set your recording software to:
   Bit Rate: 128 kbps
   Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
   Mono
7. DURING recording:
   
   Please read the intro, text, footnotes and outro exactly as they are given in the text link for each section in the magic window.
   
   Please leave 5 seconds silence at the end of your recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes!
   
   Also, please remember to check this thread frequently for updates!
8. AFTER recording:
   Need noise-cleaning?
   Listen to your file through headphones. If you can hear some constant background noise (hiss/buzz), you may want to clean it up a bit. The new (free) version 1.3.3. of Audacity (Mac/Win) has much improved noise-cleaning. See this LibriVox wiki page for a complete guide.
   
   Save files as
   128 kbps MP3
   
   Please use the filename as given in the text link for each section in the magic window.
   
   Example:- chinesestudio_vol1_##_pusungling.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is your section number. (e.g. chinesestudio_vol1_01_pusungling.mp3)
   
   ID3 V2 tags
   (To find out more about ID3 tags, go to our wiki: http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/WhatIsID3)
   Add the following tags to your .mp3 file (how you do this depends on which software you use – if you are unsure about ID3 tags, send me a message). Please mind upper and lower case!
   
   Please enter the ID3 tags as given in the text link for each section in the magic window.
   
   Please ignore tags for Genre and Track Number - these will be filled in automatically at the cataloguing stage.
   
   Transfer of files (completed recordings)
   Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file.
   Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.
   • Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader (when your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please post it in this thread):
     http://upload.librivox.org
     
     (If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
     You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: ct - caeristhiona
   • If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.

Proof-listening a translated text
-- Please check against the online text several times per section, to make sure the specified translation has been used. (Some translations, even of the oldest books, are still in copyright.)
-- Do the intro and disclaimer match the instructions in the text link for the section?
-- Are there any long silences or pauses that ought to be edited out? If so, note the time.
-- Are there any stumbles or repeats that ought to be edited out? If so, note the words and the time.
-- Is there excessive background noise, a constant hiss or buzz that detracts from the reading?
-- Did you need to turn your volume up unusually high to listen to the recording? (Or did you find the recording too loud?)
-- Are the footnotes read, as given in the text link for the section?
-- Are the correct closing words used at the end of the recording, as per the text link for the section?
-- Are there 5 seconds of silence (10 if the recording is more than 30 minutes long) at the end of the file?

Any questions?
Please post below or PM me.

[Jc]

Could you add a section 00 please? I"d like to read the intro

Thanks

[earthcalling]

Done, Jc, and it's yours.

David

[earthcalling]

OK, I've got us started by reading the first story.

[genecode]

Thanks both, Jc and David!
Can I do the PL for this project(apart from those read by myself)?

And Cloud Mountain mentioned he would read some in English,too. 8) 8)

Btw, David, I'd love to write short book reviews in both Chinese and English on Pu and Giles' books, as well as serving as a short introduction to the series of these selections. I'd love to include them in the recordings. What do you think?

Of course I will put these two short articles in public domain.

[Cloud Mountain]

I'll be happy to ask that you reserve Sections 5 & 6 for me.
It will be some time before I get to them
Do not see a proposed completion date. I must be missing it somewhere.
Did I also miss how we are handling footnotes? Say, "Footnote 1." Then read the footnote. "End of Footnote 1" Continue reading text… ?

[genecode]

Oh, that's a good question and something we really need to deal with before hitting the road!
The English text we read from is the 1916 version of Giles' translation scanned and uploaded to Internet by independent scholar Todd Compton. The original contents of that book written by Giles is, of course, in public domain; however, Mr. Compton did write a preface for it(which we won't read).

In his preface, Mr. Compton said he
"decided I would read P’u Sung-ling’s Strange Stories, and then, since it wasn’t available on the web (as far as I could see), thought I would scan it as I read it, and put it on my website. I include Giles’ notes, introduction and appendices. The notes for each story are found after the story."
And again, he continued:
"I have tried to follow Giles’ text exactly, including diacritical marks. In proper names, the apostrophe sometimes is ‘ and sometimes ’. Since accent marks in Giles’ transliteration system always refer to the letter before, it actually makes no difference whether the apostrophe is “forward” or “backward”-looking. (In Giles’ text, the apostrophe is always ‘.)

My editing is minimal. However, Giles uses very big paragraphs, and I thought the book would be more readable if these were broken up into smaller paragraphs. Very occasionally, I add a footnote, for which I use capital letters (e.g., [A], ), to distinguish it from Giles’ footnotes. "

Thus, I think handling the footnote would be a tricky matter as we need to pick up the original Giles' footnotes carefully from those of the scanner's.

To scan a book's quite a painstaking job and since Mr. Compton did leave an email address there, I think it would be polite and proper to contact him and let him know we intend to read this book he scanned in public domain.

I just wrote to him...

I'll be happy to ask that you reserve Sections 5 & 6 for me.
It will be some time before I get to them
Do not see a proposed completion date. I must be missing it somewhere.
Did I also miss how we are handling footnotes? Say, "Footnote 1." Then read the footnote. "End of Footnote 1" Continue reading text… ?

[genecode]

Do not see a proposed completion date.

So far David set Target completion date of this project: end June 2008

[earthcalling]

Great to have you on board, Alan!

On footnotes, this is in the first post:-

Please read any numbered* footnotes at the end of the story, adding at the beginning of the footnote the word or phrase it explains. For example: "Guardian angel - The tutelar deity of every Chinese city."
* There may also be lettered footnotes, which are not Giles's and should not be read.

If that's not clear enough, listen to my section 1 and all will be revealed...

Vivian - It would be good to have your summary for the catalogue page (as you can see, I've taken something from Wikipedia). The purpose of the summary is to encourage people to listen - rather like the blurb on a book jacket - so it's good to be interesting and concise.

However, we can't include a recording of that in the audiobook. We record the original text, with no changes or additions. If your review would work as a stand-alone piece, you could of course record it and place it elsewhere, such as archive.org. Sorry about that...

David

[genecode]

That's all right, understand, David.

About the footnotes, I thought it was quite complicated...
Nice, I would just follow your example then

[earthcalling]

You're right, though, it is complicated. I considered setting up a separate page (using googledocs) for the text of each story, where I could also lay out the intro and outro, footnotes, ID3 tags and filename for each story. That way, there'd be no doubt about what the reader was to do.

If you guys think that would be helpful, I'll do it. The only reason I didn't do it straight away last night is that it's a big job. I thought if I could avoid it, I would.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

David

[genecode]

The only reason I didn't do it straight away last night is that it's a big job. I thought if I could avoid it, I would.

Uh, Is it?
Anyways, if there is anything I can help, please tell me.
I don't mind spending time on this book at all.
Personally, I am making footnotes of every Giles' story and its footnotes myself recently as I am writing some articles about this book in Chinese for my bread earning job.

[earthcalling]

Well, not really. Ahem. And probably better to put time into this than correcting mistakes later. At least if the instructions are crystal clear, I can blame the readers if they don't follow them.

(Reminds me of a scene in a great comedy show here called Gavin and Stacey. Stacey is about to travel from Wales to London, for a 'blind date' with Gavin. Her uncle has bought her a rape alarm, and wants to demonstrate to her how to use it, but she's not interested. His final argument is: "If you let me give you a demonstration, I'll be able to rest easy, because at least if you do get raped it will be your fault and not mine." You know what he means, but what a terrible thing to say!)

So here goes....

David

[earthcalling]

Woops, got distracted there....

Here's an example:- http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc8nbfdx_33g3b9g8cz

[earthcalling]

Jc - I'm working on the Introduction now. It's peppered with footnotes, which I'm working out how best to deal with. Best not to start recording until I post a link to the text. Thanks!

David