Oh, cool! I'm actually much less familiar with Xiang Zuotie than I probably should be -- Joel Martinsen suggested Xiang for our first issue, and I volunteered to do the stories more or less at random, not having read anything of his before -- but I'd assume that he's probably read 'Labyrinths' or 'Ficciones' in translation. Borges is pretty well known to people who are conversant with international literature, and he's popular despite what I find to be kind of awkward Chinese translations.

Stylistic proximity: I could go on and on about this, but when I detect (or am specifically told about) a similarity, then I'll ideally try to evoke that in the translation. It's probably easier in the case of Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (who are beautifully translated in English) than in the case of authors who originally wrote in regionally or temporally specific English. Mo Yan, for instance, is heavily influenced by William Faulkner, but a translation of 'Red Sorghum' into southern American English would probably be offputting. Though then again, Brian Holton's translation of 水浒传 into Border Scots is miles better than any other translation of the novel I've seen...