Review Reports

On Gold Mountain Blues’ Suspected Plagiarism

 Wang, Ning

Professor & Doctorial Supervisor

Director, the Academic Committee of the Department of Foreign Languages

Tsinghua University

Member of the Academy of Latinity

Vice-President, the Association of Comparative Literature of China 

1．         A Review Report

On Gold Mountain Blues’ Suspected Plagiarizing of The Concubine’s Children

According to the evidence provided by independent critic Cheng Xingbang, published in Nanfang Daily (December 26, 2010) ,that Gold Mountain Blues is suspicious of plagiarizing Denise Chong’s English book, a creative non-fiction, The Concubine’s Children，I have had a comparative reading of the two works. Now I just submit my review report as follows.

The English book, The Concubine’s Children, was written by Denise Chong, a third generation Chinese-Canadian writer, and published in Toronto by Penguin Canada in 1994. Zhang Ling’s Chinese novel, Gold Mountain Blues, was published in 2009 in China. Cheng Xingbang points out that there are many similarities between the two works in structure, contents, plot designing and detailed descriptions of episodes as well as characterization. I have carefully compared the Chinese translations of the 11 listed areas covering 34 pages with the English work, The Concubine’s Children (Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2006 Edition), and I confirm that the translation is both precise and relevant.

In Zhang Ling’s novel, Gold Mountain Blues, which was published 15 years later than The Concubine’s Children, some main characters’ personalities, story line developments, and many detailed descriptions are highly similar or identical to those in Denise Chong’s work. The differences are that some main characters’ life stories in The Concubine’s Children are rearranged in Gold Mountain Blues so that the similar plots reoccur in two generations, father and son or mother and daughter, instead of in one. Those plots and contents are real attractions in The Concubine’s Children.

Those similarities found in Gold Mountain Blues originated from the artistic creations by the author of The Concubine’s Children. Such artistic creations are protected intellectual properties of the author, and are not “common materials” freely available to everyone. Some of the infringed contents are not only on the level of language, but involve taking the original ideas and artistic creations. It is evident that this Chinese novel has plagiarized the English novel.

2.       A Review Report

On Gold Mountain Blues’ Suspected Plagiarizing of Disappearing Moon Café

According to the evidence provided by independent critic Cheng Xingbang, published in Xinmin Weekly (January 3 issue, 2011), that Gold Mountain Blues is suspicious of plagiarizing Sky Lee’s English novel, Disappearing Moon Cafe (Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1990) ，I have had a comparative reading of the two works. Now I just submit my review report as follows.

The English novel, Disappearing Moon Café, by Sky Lee, a third generation Chinese-Canadian writer, was published in Canada in 1990.  Zhang Ling’s Chinese novel, Gold Mountain Blues, was published in 2009 in China. Cheng Xingbang points out that there are many similarities between the two works in structures, contents, plot designing and detailed descriptions of episodes as well as characterization.  He has listed 20 areas with comparisons between the Chinese and the English works.  I have carefully compared the Chinese translations of the 20 areas with the original English work and I confirm that the translation is both precise and relevant.

The plots and descriptions in the passages listed by Cheng Xingbang are the most well written and very touching parts of Disappearing Moon Café. They appear in the Prologue and the Epilogue of the novel, covering 30 pages.  Zhang Ling’s Chinese novel, Gold Mountain Blues, published 19 years later, demonstrates many similarities and sameness in story lines, character developments, and detailed descriptions.

Those 20 areas, listed as similarities in Gold Mountain Blues, originated from the artistic creations by the author of Disappearing Moon Cafe.  These artistic creations are protected intellectual properties of the author, and are not “common materials” freely available to everyone. Some of the infringed contents are not only on the level of language, but involve taking original ideas and artistic creations. It is evident that this Chinese novel has plagiarized the English novel.

3.       A Review Report

On Gold Mountain Blues’ Suspected Plagiarizing of Paul Yee’s Works

According to the evidence provided by independent critic Cheng Xingbang, that Gold Mountain Blues is suspicious of plagiarizing a number of novels by Chinese-Canadian writer Paul Yee, I have had a comparative reading of Gold Mountain Blues and the works by Paul Yee. Now I just submit my review report as follows.

Paul Yee’s works, as mentioned by Cheng Xingbang, include Ghost Train, Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 1996; The Bone Collector’s Son，Marshall Cavendish, NY, 2004;Dead Man’s Gold，Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2002;The Curses of Third Uncle，James Lorimer & Company, Toronto, 1986; and Tales from Gold Mountain，Groundwood Books/Douglas & McIntyre, Toronto, 1989.

Cheng Xingbang points out many similarities and sameness between Gold Mountain Blues and the above works by Paul Yee in contents, plots, detailed descriptions, and characterizations. He has listed 5 passages from The Bone Collector’s Son, 8 passages from Dead Man’s Gold, and 3 passages from The Curses of Third Uncle, and made comparisons with the Chinese-English translations. I have checked carefully the 16 listed areas and I think the translations are faithful to its English origins.

The suspected contents of plagiarism in Gold Mountain Blues are found from many of Paul Yee’s works. In comparative analyses, it is obvious that Gold Mountain Blues is highly similar to Paul Yee’s works in many of his creative ideas, plots, and detailed descriptions.  Some of the highly similar contents are not only on the level of language, but in taking the original ideas and artistic creations directly.  The infringed areas are artistic creations which are protected intellectual properties of the author, and are not “common materials” freely available to everyone.  It is evident that this Chinese novel has plagiarized Paul Yee’s English novels.