The official translation being genuinely bad is reassuring. I read a whole load of fanfics that are objectively badly written and have no problem with them, so I was disappointed with myself for not enjoying it at all. I cannot imagine that a book that is so popular would have ever been so dreadful in its original language though. It's almost enough to make me want to learn Chinese, just so I could appreciate it properly, but I suspect my motivation would not last long enough.