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英语笔译 李思源 Li Siyuan 202170081575 CE

A study of Howard Goldblatt's Translation: Life and Death are Wearing Me Out as an Example Li Siyuan

Abstract

The translator of Mo Yan, a contemporary Chinese novelist, was instrumental in helping his works spread abroad and winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. With the improvement of the translator's subjective status and the frequent awards of Howard Goldblatt 's translations, the academic circles have attached great importance to the display of the translator's subjectivity in Howard Goldblatt's translations in recent years. This paper focuses on the figurative rhetoric in the book, through the establishment of a parallel corpus[?], combined with the examples in the English translation of Goldblatt, to explore the translation method of the figurative rhetoric in the English translation of the work.

Key words

Life and Death are Wearing Me Out; translation strategy; Howard Goldblatt

Introduction

In today's world, cultural exchanges between different countries and regions show a new trend, and language differences no longer become the barrier of cultural exchanges among countries. Since entering the new era, there have been a large number of excellent Chinese literary works that have been skillfully translated by translators to show a thriving posture. Howard Goldblatt (1939 --), a famous American Sinologist, is one of the most important translators. Goldblatt and his translation have attracted much attention in the translation field and aroused heated discussion from all walks of life. Goldblatt is the most active and accomplished translator in translating modern and contemporary Chinese literary works into English (刘再复, 1999:22). He has translated more than 60 Chinese works of Chinese writers, making great contributions to the introduction of Chinese literature into the world and the attention of the West. Goldblatt is also a translator who is good at systematic operation. He not only considers the factors of the text, but also considers the readers' acceptance and the receiving environment Multi-factors (魏泓，赵志刚, 2015：110). Goldblatt's translation of Mo Yan's literary works is particularly notable among his many translation works. Mo Yan, a contemporary Chinese writer, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in October 2012. In his works, ghost stories and strange anecdotes emerge in an endless stream, with "unrestrained" style creation, full of imagination, especially a variety of metaphors, add a lot of vitality and vitality to his works, but also reflect mo Yan's unique personal experience. The reason why Mo Yan won the prize is not only because of his profound literary foundation, but also because of the accurate and exquisite translation of his works by many translators. Goldblatt is regarded as "the official translator of The English version of Mo Yan's works" (张继光,张政，2015：102), and it is with his translation that Mo Yan has such a great influence in the West. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out is one of Mo Yan's representative works. The novel is full of magic color, and the transformation of a large number of metaphors has become mo Yan's excellent means to lay out plots and depict characters, bringing readers extraordinary wonderful experience and creating mo Yan's imaginative world. Goldblatt uses various translation strategies flexibly in the English version of Life and Death are Wearing Me out, giving full play to his own subjectivity and arousing the interest of foreign readers. This paper focuses on the translation of metaphors in Life and Death are Wearing Me out from the perspective of the translator's subjectivity.

Literature Review

As Mo Yan's novels have achieved such a high achievement in the world literary circle, we should not only admire them, but also think about how Chinese literature can truly go global. There is no doubt that this is closely related to the translator. Goldblatt, as the official translator of Mo Yan's novels, has made outstanding contributions to the introduction of Chinese literature to the world. Therefore, studying the author's translation strategy can undoubtedly provide ideas and inspirations for other translators. In the field of literary translation, "faithfulness" and "treason" have always been a controversial topic. It was not until the creation of the concept of "creative treason" that the dispute was settled. "Creative treason" leads people to focus on "culture". Chinese scholar Professor Xie Tiantizhen agrees with the concept of "creative treason" and gives a systematic and comprehensive explanation of it in his book Translation and Introduction. Professor Xie points out that the concept of "creative treason" especially captures the soul of literary translation (Xie Tiantizhen, 2012:33). "Creative treason" emphasizes that translated literature cannot be equated with literature, which confirms the important contribution of translators to re-creation. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, western translation studies conducted a study of cultural turn, and completed the cultural turn in the late 1990s. In literary translation, Ezra Pound (1885-1972), a famous American poet and translator, proposed the concept of "translatability of history" and the principle that "a translated work is a new work" (Zhao Lina, Zou Degang, 2012:58). However, For nearly a century, "faithfulness" has occupied an absolute position in translation. The ancient Chinese translator Zhi Qian (about the 3rd century) and other scholars believe that "The only important thing is convening the original meaning." and emphasize that under this principle, translation should convey the meaning of the original text without adding any other modifications (Wang Fumei, 2011:79). In the late Qing Dynasty, Ma Jianzhong (1845-1900), a Chinese diplomat and scholar, proposed "good translation", that is, a translation that accurately conveys the verve of the original text on the basis of ascertaining the meaning of the original text is "good translation" (Gu Weixing, 2007:82). To sum up, "treason" and "faithfulness" seem to be a pair of contradictions, and there is no absolute good or bad. In the unexpected new language environment, "treason", but not a random one, can reflect the connotation, that is, to express the essence of the original text "faithfully" and the intention of the original author is the key. The advent of "creative treason" is a very valuable concept in the field of translation and provides a new way out of the translator's dilemma.

Methods and Theories

Hans J. Vermeer is one of the founders of the functionalist Skopos theory of translation, and he proposed the famous Skopos Theory of translation. Skopos theory holds that translators should follow the principle of purpose, coherence and fidelity in the process of translation. Literary translation is different from text translation of other paradigms. The principle of purpose requires literary translation to convey the emotion and meaning of literary works based on the aesthetic characteristics of literature itself and the characteristics of literary genre. The coherence principle requires that literary translation should focus on the comprehension and acceptability of the target language readers. The fidelity principle requires literary translation to give consideration to the translation of cultural images in the process of translation. "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out" is 550, 000 words long, and genre, plot, language and perspective are all crucial. As Mo Yan said in his Nobel speech, "he considers himself just a storyteller". Only by following the three principles of Skopos theory can the essence of storytelling be preserved in translation. Skopos means "purpose, objective, intention, function" in Greek. According to the theory, the primary principle determining any translation process is the purpose of the whole translation action.According to Vermeer's theory, "Translation is a comparison of cultures. Due to the close relationship between language and culture, translation between two languages is faced with a thorny problem: how to translate culture, especially culture-loaded words in literary works bearing cultural factors? In fact, translators are the decision-makers in choosing translation strategies,As a matter of fact, the translator is the decision maker in choosing translation strategies so as to transfer the cultural connotation of translation from the original to the target text. Most translators use cultural knowledge to understand source cultural phenomena." In other words, the translator should meet the needs of the target readers to the greatest extent.Through text analysis, we can learn from the translator's translation of many "difficult problems" to deal with the ingenuity of translation. As far as Goldblatt's translation is concerned, on the whole, the translator adopts the strategy of foreignization in the relevant content of Chinese traditional culture. But the translator has not completely given up the subject status of the translator. In the part where translators think it is necessary to consider the original author, translator and reader, domestication strategy is also adopted appropriately.

An introduction to the translator's subjectivity

Traditional translation theories tend to explore the linguistic aspects of the target text, emphasizing to minimize the translator's influence on the target text so that the target text can faithfully convey all the information of the source text, while the subject factor of the translator has not received enough attention. Since the 1960s, with the "cultural turn", translators' dominant position has been gradually recognized and respected, and the passive situation that translators have long been regarded as "translation machines" has been improved. The translator's subjectivity in the process of translation is a creative process that requires a great deal of energy, just like the craftsman polishing the original stone into jade. In this process, the translator's subjectivity manifests itself in the cultural purpose of translation, the choice of translated texts, the translation strategies, the understanding and interpretation of the work and the artistic re-creation of the language level of the work. But the process of translation by social cultural concept, the level of language, cultural framework and model, readers accept and look forward to the restriction of subjective and objective factors such as the aesthetic, so the translator must put herself in the era of big cultural background, jump out of previous translations for understanding of the language words and the conversion of two languages barriers, play the role of translation culture communication between the two countries. Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, as the representative work of Mo Yan, the first Nobel Prize winner in Literature, contains many culture-loaded words with strong national characteristics. Such unique cultural characteristics will cause obstacles in translation due to the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, so translators need to understand the culture behind the source language. Eugene A. Nida, An American linguist, translator and translation theorist, In The Theory and Practice of Translation, 1914-2011) divides cultural factors into Ecological Culture and Material Culture There are five categories of Culture, Social Culture, Religious Culture and Linguistic Culture（Nida: 2004).

Cultural transmission in translation

As a translator, Goldblatt is familiar with western culture and readers' preferences, and has a great deal of experience in translating Chinese literature, so he has made great efforts to overcome cultural barriers and promote the spread of Chinese culture to the West.Ecological culture refers to all the activities and achievements of human beings in protecting the ecological environment and pursuing ecological balance in their practical activities, as well as the values and ways of thinking that people form in the process of communicating with nature. Ecological culture has a profound influence on all ethnic groups, especially national customs and habits will have their own characteristics. If the translator does not understand the foreign cultural background, it can be said that the translation of ecological culture is full of thorns. 例1.原文:去时他们徒步, 回来时却乘坐着一台洛阳造“东方红”牌链轨拖拉机。拖拉机马力巨大, 本来是用来牵引犁铧犁地或是牵引收割机割麦的, 现在却成了县城红卫兵的交通工具。(Mo Yan,2012:164) The original text presents the geographical ecological environment at that time, tractor was the main means of transportation. 译文:They went by foot but returned on an East Is Red caterpillar tractor made in the city of Luoyang. Given its high horsepower, it was intended for farm work-plowing and harvesting, but had been appropriated by Red Guards for transportation.(Goldblatt,2012:195) The original text is translated one by one to show the original ecological scene. 例2.原文:方六大爷叮嘱他们:牛歇了一冬, 筋骨疲劳了, 第一天, 悠着点, 顺上套就行。(Mo Yan: 179) The original text shows the backward means of production at that time, using cattle to plow the land. 译文:Those animals have rested all winter and aren’t in shape, Fang Liu said, so go easy on them the first day.(Goldblatt: 209) 译文对原文的生态意象进行对应。此处表现出在没有影响外国读者理解这种“生态文化”的前提下, “创造性叛逆”地将“牛”译为“animal”, 将“筋骨疲劳了”意译为“aren’t in shape”, 将“第一天, 悠着点, 顺上套就行”意译为“so go easy on them the first day”。 例3.原文:这里通风透气, 采光良好, 所有建筑材料都是环保型的, 绝对没有有害气体。(Mo Yan: 204) The original text shows the good ecological environment at that time. 译文:They were airy, sunny, and constructed of environmentally appropriate materials that gave off no noxious fumes.(Goldblatt: 234) 译文采用意译的方法。译文中将“通风透气”“采光良好”用简单词汇“airy” (通风的) 和“sunny” (阳光充足的) 表达, 将“所有建筑材料都是环保型的”创造性地译为“constructed of environmentally appropriate materials” (由环保材料构成) 。 例4.原文:整个杏园猪场里弥漫着酒香, 金龙厚颜无耻地说这是他试验成功的糖化饲料的味道, 这样的饲料使用精料很少, 但营养价值奇高, 猪吃了不吵不闹, 不跑不跳, 只知道长膘睡觉。(Mo Yan: 231) The text presents the ecological topics that farmers were concerned about at that time. 译文:The smell of alcohol in the air was unmistakable, but Jin Long brazenly announced that what they smelled was a newly perfected fermented feed.He told everyone that the new feed required very little high-quality ingredients, but the nutritional value was surprisingly high and kept the animals from acting up or running around.They ate, they slept, and they put on weight.(Goldblatt: 256) 　译文中将“整个杏园猪场里弥漫着酒香”译为“The smell of alcohol in the air was unmistakable”, 将“糖化饲料的味道”译为“a newly perfected fermented feed”, 将“这样的饲料使用精料很少”译为“the new feed required very little high-quality ingredients”, 将“猪吃了不吵不闹, 不跑不跳, 只知道长膘睡觉”译为“kept the animals from acting up or running around.They ate, they slept, and they put on weight”。译文采用翻译中的归化策略和意译的方法, “创造性叛逆”地进行很好的翻译。 Mo Yan took Gaomi County of Shandong Province as the creation background of Life and Death Are Wearing Me out. His work fully reflects the ecological environment of the junction of Jiaodong Peninsula and Shandong Province, where the climate is pleasant, the four seasons are distinct, the rainfall is concentrated, and the rain and heat are at the same time. Goldblatt handles the relationship between "faithfulness" and "treason" well, conveys the local flavor of the original and spreads the ecological culture of the original.

A Study on Detailed Translation

Material culture refers to material production, material life and its behavior and results, including labor tools, food, housing, clothing, clothing, daily utensils, etc. Material culture also plays an important role in the integration of Chinese civilization and world culture. Although a substance does not necessarily have its equivalent in different cultures, if it is "fumbled" or "fumbled", the original meaning of the text will be misinterpreted, which is not conducive to the communication between Chinese and Western cultures. Therefore, translation needs to strive for accuracy, to avoid misunderstandings among readers and affect cultural communication and exchange. 例5.原文:我们有三亩二分地, 有小公牛一头, 有木轮车一辆, 有一犋木犁、一把锄头、一张铁锨、两把镰刀、一把小镢头、一柄二齿钩子, 还有一口铁锅、四个饭碗、两个瓷盘、一个尿罐、一把菜刀、一把锅铲, 还有一盏煤油灯, 还有一块可以敲石取火的火镰。(Mo Yan: 103) The original text presents the state of backward production tools and daily necessities at that time. 译文:We owned three-point-two acres of land, a young ox, a cart with wooden wheels, a wooden plow, a hoe, an iron shovel, two scythes, a little spade, a pitchfork with two tines, a wok, four rice bowls, two ceramic plates, a chamber pot, a cleaver, a spatula, a kerosene lamp, and a flint.(Goldblatt: 123) Literal translation is adopted to maintain the cultural characteristics of the original text. 例6.原文:互助提着一桶饲料到达圈门。她戴着一片白色的遮胸巾, 巾上绣着“西门屯大队杏园养猪场”的鲜红字样。她还戴着两只白色套袖, 一顶白色软帽, 那样子很像糕点店里面的面案师傅。(Mo Yan: 199) The original text presents the age and costume characteristics of material scarcity at that time. 译文:Hu Zhu walked up to the gate with a bucket of feed wearing a white apron with“Ximen Village Production Brigade Apricot Garden Pig Farm”embroidered in big red letters.She also had white protective sleeves covering her arms and a soft white cap on her head.She looked like a baker.(Goldblatt: 230) 　原文中“圈门”应该是“猪圈门” (sty, pigsty, hog-lot, hogcote, hogpen, pigpen) , 译文创造性叛逆地译为“gate”;译文将“遮胸巾”创造性地译为“apron”。译文注重服饰传神, 形象生动地再现原文的服饰文化。但出于对外国读者的考虑, 将“两只白色套袖”创造性地译为“white protective sleeves covering her arms”, 并与后面的“一顶白色软帽”“a soft white cap on her head”表达方式一致。 例7.原文:我的房子后边是一棵大杏树, 半个树冠笼罩在圈舍的上空。圈舍是敞开式的, 后檐长, 前檐短, 阳光可以无遮拦地照射进来。圈舍的地面全部用方砖铺就, 角落有洞, 洞上架铁箅子方便粪便流出。(Mo Yan: 204) The original text presents the enclosure architecture and the ecology around the enclosure at that time. 译文:The canopy of an apricot tree at the rear shaded half my pen.I lived in a shed that was open in the front, where the eaves were short, and the rear, where the eaves were long, so there was nothing to keep the sunlight from streaming in.The floor was laid with bricks, and there was a hole in one wall, covered by an iron gate that made it easy for me to relieve myself without dirtying my quarters.(Goldblatt: 234) 译文对原文中“方砖 (square brick;square tile;quadrel;square stone) ”的形状省略, 用“brick”译出。将“洞上架铁箅子”创造性叛逆地译为“iron gate”。译文采用直译与创造性意译相结合, 保持原文的物质文化特色。 Life and Death are Wearing Me Out tells the story of the changes of Rural China from 1950 to 2000, and illustrates the eternal topic of farmers and land. Through "faithfulness" and "treason", the translation vividly reproduces the material things such as clothes, production tools and daily necessities of the original text.

Translation Studies of Socio-cultural and Religious Cultures

Social culture is the synthesis of people's values, thoughts, attitudes, moral norms, customs and social behaviors, etc. It is a specific culture that people living in a certain society will inevitably form over time. Therefore, excellent social and cultural translation can reflect the unique culture of the source country. 例8.原文:他们时而好得如同亲兄奶弟, 在酒馆里猜拳行令, 在发廊里玩弄野“鸡”, 在旅店里搓麻抽烟, 在广场上勾肩搭背, 如同四只用绳索连络在一起的螃蟹。(Mo Yan: 483) 译文:Some of the time they were like four loving brothers, drinking and gambling together in bars, dallying with wild“chicks”in hair salons, and playing mah-jongg and smoking, arms around each other, in the public square, like four crabs strung together.(Goldblatt: 479-480) 译文直译与意译相结合, 注重文化传递, 如将“亲兄奶弟”“猜拳行令”“勾肩搭背”创造性地意译为“loving brothers”“drinking and gambling”“arms around each other”;将“玩弄野‘鸡’”直译为“dallying with wild‘chicks’”。 例9.原文:他是有妇之夫, 你是黄花闺女。他这样做是不负责任, 是衣冠禽兽, 是害你。(Mo Yan: 426) 在汉语中“有妇之夫”和“有夫之妇”refer to those who have a family, “黄花闺女”refers to unmarried girls, sometimes virgins, “衣冠禽兽”refers to those who are merely human in appearance but behave like animals, and refer to those who are morally corrupt. 译文:He’s a married man, you’re a young maiden.That’s completely irresponsible of him, he’s a brute and he’s hurt you.(Goldblatt: 429) Through literal translation and free translation, simple words are used to effectively convey the meaning of the original text. Chinese like "四言八句", such as "有妇之夫", "黄花闺女" and "衣冠禽兽", profound meaning; English likes to be concise. Therefore, the translation adopts the "domestication" translation strategy, which fully considers the reading comprehension of the target readers on the basis of directly and accurately conveying the original meaning. Goldblatt is well versed in Chinese culture and has effectively helped foreign readers understand China's unique social culture through literal translation and free translation. Religious culture refers to the culture formed by a nation's religious consciousness and belief and the influence of foreign religions (such as Christianity, Catholicism and Islam) on a country. Mo Yan's novel Life and Death are Wearing Me Out describes the transformation of Chinese society from 1950 to 2000 from the perspective of donkey, ox, pig, dog, monkey and big-headed baby through Simon's injustice and death to six reincarnation. Goldblatt's translation helps Chinese culture to enter the sight of foreign culture.

Conclusion

Goldblatt has translated and published more than 50 novels by more than 30 Chinese writers. His translations are well known overseas and he has become a translator of modern and contemporary Chinese literature, making remarkable contributions to the overseas dissemination of Chinese literature. In his translation practice, Goldblatt constantly explores the strategies between "faithfulness" and "creation", "faithfulness" and "treason". Goldblatt understands the cultural differences between Chinese and English, and on the basis of "faithfulness", he "recreates", emphasizing the receptiveness of the target language readers and exploring the true meaning of "creative treason". Goldblatt is the most English translator of Mo Yan's works. His "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out" was recommended by The Washington Post as the world's best literary work, and Mo Yan won the first American "Newman Literary Award" for this work. It is worth mentioning that Goldblatt made some contributions for Mo Yan to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The success of Goldblatt's translation is not only due to his profound English and Chinese language and literary foundation, but also due to the following factors: first, his love for Chinese literature; Second, a strong sense of responsibility to the translated readers. Of course, although Goldblatt has always been adhering to the principle of "faithfulness", there are still some problems in his translation, such as excessive "treason" and over-emphasis on the acceptability of readers. Therefore, the loss of Chinese cultural elements is worth discussing.Since the languages of different countries or nations are rooted in their unique cultures, literary translation can be understood as the mutual dissemination of cultures of different countries, nations and regions.The wide spread of Mo Yan's novels in the English-speaking world, to some extent, not only promotes traditional Chinese culture and contemporary Chinese culture, but also contributes to the increase of soft power of Chinese culture. The essence of cultural soft power is the influence of a value system on the world and the recognition degree of the world. In order to achieve the purpose of disseminating Chinese culture, Goldblatt retained Chinese cultural elements as much as possible by combining various translation strategies.

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英语笔译 李婷 Li Ting 202170081576 MW

On the Translation of The Border Town from the Perspective of Eco-Translatology—Taking Gladys' Edition as an Example Li Ting

Abstract

The novel The Border Town conveys the beauty of human nature through narration, and constructs an ecological system of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The work is full of infinite charm, whether it is to reveal the true temperament of the people in hometown, or to depict the folk customs with strong vitality. For this kind of text, how to vividly reproduce the author's emotions and faithfully convey the cultural implication and landscape description of the original text is a challenge for translators.

The Border Town mainly describes the scenery of Western Hunan, which is the window for the outside world to know western Hunan. This paper takes Gladys' edition as an Example. At that time, Gladys and her husband Yang Xianyi tried their best to convey the unique connotations of the original text to the readers. Under the premise of pursuing the truthfulness of the translation, the pragmatic degree of the translation was maximized to enhance the adaptability of the social dimension of the translation. Based on this, this paper chose Gladys & Yang couple's English edition to analyze, and combined with the theory of Eco-Translatology, from the dimension of language, culture, communicative dimensions to analyze the characteristics of the translation. This paper holds that the interpretation and analysis of The Border Town and its prose from the perspective of ecological translation will have different results.

Key words

The Border Town; Eco-Translatology; three-dimensional transformation

Introduction

The Border Town is the representative work of Shen Congwen, a famous modern writer. The work is based on the background of Chatong in the 1930s, a border town on the border of Sichuan and Hunan, and the love story of Emerald, the granddaughter of the old boatman, and the two sons Tianbao and Nuosong of the wharf-master, as clues. It describes the Western Hunan unique local conditions and customs and the love tragedy of Emerald, praises the human nature of good and the purity of the mind. Shen Congwen's aesthetic ideal is also placed in the novel. Through depicting the pure love between men and women, the deep affection between grandparents and grandchildren, and the kind interaction between neighbors, the beauty of landscape, customs and human nature in the western Hunan world is highlighted. (Deng Gaofeng 2014, 120-123)

The Border Town occupies a prominent position in the history of modern Chinese literature. In June 1999, Asia Weekly (《亚洲周刊》), a Hong Kong magazine, published a list of top 100 Chinese Novels of the 20th Century, in which Lu Xun's collection Call to Arms（呐喊） ranked first and Shen Congwen's novel The Border Town ranked second. However, in terms of a individual novel, The Border Town ranked first. (Deng Gaofeng 2014, 120-123)

As we all know, it is precisely because of the special literary status and significance of The Border Town that many scholars at home and abroad have been doing vigorous and enduring research on Shen Congwen and his The Border Town. However, it is a pity that the translation studies of The Border Town, especially its English translation studies, have not attracted enough attention, especially from scholars at home and abroad. Obviously, this situation does not conform to the current general trend of Chinese culture to the outside world, and does not conform to the national strategic direction of "Chinese culture going out". In view of this, it is very necessary to study the English translation of The Border Town. (Deng Gaofeng 2014, 120-123)

This paper consists of four parts: The first part is a literature review, which briefly introduces the different perspectives of the translation of The Border Town and the analysis of the translation by different scholars. The second part presents the theoretical framework, which explains the basic theories of ecological translation, including three-dimensional transformation and the concept of the degree of holistic adaptation and selection. The third part is case analysis. This chapter will analyze several typical cases from the perspective of "three-dimensional transformation" to illustrate the application of ecological translation theory in the Gladys' English translation of The Border Town. The last part is the conclusion, which summarizes the research results.

Literature Review

As the most famous novel of Shen Congwen, The Border Town is a model of his idealism. It has been translated into many languages and published in more than 40 countries such as Japan, the United States, Britain and the former Soviet Union, and has been selected into university textbooks in more than 10 countries or regions such as the United States and Japan.

Up to now, there have been four English translations of Shen Congwen's representative work The Border Town (1934), which is a rare phenomenon in the history of foreign translation of modern Chinese literature. The first translation Green Jade and Green Jade (literally translated as Cui Cui) is co-translated by Emily Hahn (项美丽) (1905-1997), an American writer and translator, and Shao Xunmei (邵洵美) (1906-1968, pen name Shing Mo-lei). It was serialized in Tien Hsia Monthly (《天下月刊》) in 1936. (Xie Jiangnan & Liu Hongtao, 2015)

The second translation was co-translated and edited by Chingti (金堤)& RobertPayne (白英) and published by George Allen & Unwin in 1947 as The Frontier City. The translator, Chingti is Chinese, while RobertPayne is a British poet, war correspondent and reportage writer. RobertPayne came to China in December 1941 and left China in August 1946 for about five years. He came to Kunming in early September 1943 and was later employed by the Southwest Associated University (西南联大) as a professor to teach English literature. During this period, he cooperated with Chingti (a student of the Southwest Associated University) to translate a collection of Shen Congwen's stories entitled Chinese Land (中国土地), which included many of Shen Congwen's novels. (Deng Gaofeng 2014, 120-123) The third translation The Border Town and Other Stories (《边城及其他》) is a combined translation by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, a couple of great translators in China. In 1981, Gladys Yang translated Shen Congwen's collection of The Border Town and Other Stories. Later, This collection was listed in Panda Books, then published by Chinese Literature Magazine (Xie Jiangnan & Liu Hongtao, 2015)

The fourth translation is by American scholar Jeffrey C. Kinley, published in 2009 by Harper Collins Publishers of New York. This is the first separate edition of the English translation of Shen Congwen's works. Translator Kinley is a professor of history at St. Johns University (圣若望大学), a doctor of Harvard University, a famous Historian and Sinologist in the United States, as well as an expert on Shen Congwen's literature. He once made seven trips to Hunan, visited Mr. Shen Congwen more than a dozen times, and wrote The Odyssey of Shen Congwen (《沈从文传记》), which was more than 300,000 words long. (Deng Gaofeng 2014, 120-123)

Shen Congwen and The Border Town have always been the subject of study by scholars at home and abroad. However, compared with the vigorous research on Shen Congwen and the Western Hunan culture by scholars at home and abroad, the research on the English version of The Border Town is very weak. Up to now, only 70 relevant research papers and journals can be retrieved by searching in CNKI for the English translation of Shen Congwen's works with the keywords of “English translation of The Border Town”. If these 70 papers are classified according to the research angle, they can be roughly divided into the following three categories.

The first is the aesthetic study of translation. Qu Tianhua (2020,94-96) explored the English translation style of Gladys’ The Border Town from the perspective of translation aesthetics, while Feng Lei (2013) explored the artistic representation in Kinley's English translation of The Border Town from the perspective of translation aesthetics. Both articles deal with the aesthetics of literary translation. The second category focuses on the linguistic study of translation. Yan Hong and Dong Chunxiao (2018,122-123) discuss the translation of fuzzy language in the English translation of The Border Town from the perspective of fuzzy linguistics, and analyze and compare the different translation methods of fuzzy language in different situations. Deng Jie (2021,178-179) discusses the function of local language in literary works through case studies of two English translations of The Border Town, and summarizes the different strategies and methods adopted by different translators in translating local language. The third category focuses on translation strategies. Xiang Rengdong (2019,91-95) interprets the translation of The Border Town by Gladys and Chingti & RobertPayne from the perspective of skopos theory in order to find out the reasons for its translation and the translation strategies adopted by the translators in different times. Wang Fang (2012) studied the English version of The Border Town by Gladys from the perspective of context, comparatively analyzed the translation of implicit cohesion in the original work, and summarized the translation methods of implicit cohesion. Tang Yi (2015) takes the thick translation in the English translation of The Border Town as a starting point to describe the characteristics of thick translation in Kinley's translation, indicating that the phenomenon of thick translation is widespread in The Border Town. On the other hand, in the process of interpreting Kinley's thick translation, it has been proved the rationality of this translation strategy and the value of thick translation strategy for the English translation of The Border Town .

All in all, from the perspective of ecological translation to study the English translation of The Border Town is less, especially to Gladys’ edition, so this article has a certain sense, enriching the English study of The Border Town and giving people more inspirations.

Methods and Theories

In studying the English version of Gladys’ The Border Town, this paper makes a case study from the perspective of ecological translatology. This chapter not only introduces the origin of Eco-Translatology, but also introduces some core concepts involved in Eco-Translatology.

1.The Origin of Eco-Translatology

Fang Mengzhi (2017:98) points out: "Due to the complexity of translation phenomenon, multidisciplinary research becomes inevitable. Multidisciplinary research emphasizes the unity and agreement of knowledge and requires the production of new knowledge that can help solve translation problems." Eco-Translatology is a translation theory proposed by Professor Hu Gengshen, who combines ecological thinking with translation theory and holds that translation is related to the biological world. Chen Feifei (2015) also believes that "Translation is the conversion between different languages, and a language represents the unique cultural connotation of a nation. Culture is the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth deposited by human beings in the long-term social and historical development process. As a product of biological evolution, human beings are an important component of the biological world. Therefore, it can be seen that there is a chain of interlocking relations among translation, language, culture, human beings and the biological world, which presents the interconnected relationship between translation activities and the biological world.

Although ecological translation originated from the East, it also borrows from the Western theory of Darwinism. "Natural selection and survival of the fittest" and other Western concepts can be said to be the theoretical support of Eco-Translatology. "Translation is adaptation and selection" is also one of the core concepts of ecological translation, because translation practice inevitably involves the selection, deletion and reservation of the target language. However, the spirit behind it coincides with the concepts of "harmony between man and nature" and "moderate harmony" in Chinese philosophy. Therefore, if the seed of Eco-Translatology is Darwinism, the root and bud of it is adaptation and selection theory, the foundation is traditional Chinese ecological civilization, the main body is the macro, meso and micro theoretical system of Eco-Translatology, and the branches and leaves are the increasingly close platform for international translation research dialogue, and the fruit is an outstanding and plain discourse system of translation studies with unique and profound Chinese ecological wisdom and a combination of Chinese and Western academic standards. (Meng Fanjun 2019, 48-49)

2.Some Core Concepts

In general, ecological translation theory provides a new perspective for translation studies, and can be used for reference to the scientific principles and research methods of ecology to reanalyze translations and guide translation practice. There are many core concepts involved in ecological translation, and only a few important concepts relevant to this study are briefly introduced here.

2.1 Translation as Adaptation and Selection

The idea also stems from Darwin's theory of "natural selection and survival of the fittest". In fact, in translation practice, translators also need to constantly make choices to adapt to and conform to the target language culture or the requirements of sponsors. In the process of translation, translators need to modify the wording and style of the translation to meet the requirements of the current era, which also reflects the core concepts of adaptation and selection. The translator's adaptation to the target language environment is similar to that of human beings to the nature. Human beings can only better adapt to the environment and survive only by constantly and rationally changing themselves. The same is true for the translator. Both intralingual and extralingual factors must be adapted and selected, so that the translation can survive and last for a long time.

2.2 Three-dimensional Transformation

Eco-Translatology believes that translation is the translator's selection activity to transplant the text to adapt to the translation ecological environment. In the process of translation, the translator should not only consider the conversion between two words, but also consider the three aspects of language, culture and communication. Three-dimensional transformation is the transformation between language, culture, and communication. It was also mentioned that there is a close relationship between translation and language, culture, and human beings. This is the translation method proposed by Professor Hu Gengshen. That is to say, the translator takes the initiative in the translation process and converts between the three dimensions to ensure the accuracy of the translation. Next will be explained one by one.

The first is linguistic dimension, which means that translators need to make adaptive selection and transformation of source language forms, including the transformation of vocabulary, syntax, rhetoric, style and other aspects. In fact, this is an inevitable conversion in the process of translation. There are huge differences between Chinese and English in terms of vocabulary and sentence patterns. For example, Chinese tends to use four-character words, and most of them are subject-free sentences and run-on sentences, while English focuses on simplicity, strict sentence structure, and mostly is complex long sentences with complete subject and predicate; Chinese often uses verbs while English is more static and so on. Based on these differences, the translator must take into account the language habits of the target language to convert the source language form. (Liu Chaowu & Yao Mengyan 2021, 23-25)

Secondly, cultural dimension, that is, translators need to take into account the effective transmission of cultural connotations of different languages involved in translation. As Edward Hall (1976) said, "Every aspect of human life is influenced by culture". Therefore, the intralingual factors should be considered, and the extralingual factors should not be ignored. English and Chinese have different culture background, which leads to the different cultural imagery of the same meaning. Namely, the concept of lexical meaning is the same, but its connotation meaning and associative meaning is different. Such as the word "dog", Chinese commonly used in some derogatory collocation, such as "worse than pigs or dogs (猪狗不如)", "hired thug (狗腿子)" and so on, while the word in the English language is often commendatory. For example, “Love me love my dog (爱屋及乌)”. Therefore, translators must pay attention to the differences between Chinese and English cultural dimensions in translation, so as to translate an appropriate version of the original.

Finally, there is the communicative dimension, which means that translators should pay attention to the communicative intention of the source language and consider the context, then make adaptive choices for translation. Only by attaching importance to the communicative intention of the text can the content and form of the text be appropriate. (Liu Chaowu & Yao Mengyan 2021, 23-25)

2.3 The Degree of Holistic Adaptation and Selection（整体选择适应度）

The degree of holistic adaptation and selection is the evaluation standard of ecological translation set up by professor Hu Gengshen. It refers to the sum of the adaptability of the translator in the three dimensions of language, culture and communication when translating, taking into account other factors in the context. This evaluation criterion is influenced by three factors, namely the degree of multidimensional transformation, reader feedback and translator quality. The first degree of multidimensional transformation has been described previously and is skipped here. The second is reader feedback. Readers here are not only target language readers, but also experts, scholars, publishers, sponsors, critics and so on. To some extent, their feedback reflects the quality of the translation. The third is the quality of translators. It can be said that the translator's quality is the key factor affecting the quality of translation. The translator's qualities include bilingual ability, cross-cultural sensitivity, familiarity with the subject, background knowledge, translation experience, market insight and translation attitude. These aspects can control the quality of translation to some extent. (Chen Feifei, 2015)

The process of literary translation is the process of the translator's adaptation and selection. Translation should be carried out in the context of translation, and the different translation dimensions mentioned by ecological translation theory should be applied in the process of translation. Literary translation has high requirements for translators, who should be faithful, expressive and elegant when translating literary works. When translating literary works, translators should not only consider the faithfulness and expressiveness of the translation, but also consider the elegance of the translation, the language and cultural habits of the translation readers and the communication purpose of the translation. (c.f: Liao Peiyan 2020, 26-28)

Case Study

Eco-Translatology specifically expounds the function of adaptation and selection theory in interpreting translated texts, which mainly consists of four parts: first, the translation process, i.e. the alternating cycle of translator adaptation and translator selection; Second, translation principles, namely multi-dimensional selective adaptation and adaptive selection; The third is the translation method, namely "three-dimensional transformation" (linguistic dimension, communicative dimension and cultural dimension); The fourth is the evaluation criteria, that is, the degree of multidimensional transformation, reader feedback and translator quality. Therefore, this paper takes Gladys’ English translation of The Border Town as the research object and analyzes its translation features from the perspective of three-dimensional transformation. (Hu Gengshen, 2011)

1. Linguistic Dimension

The different characteristics of English and Chinese lead to the different ecological environment of translation. Translators must make adaptive choices in the translation of the language form of the source language, which usually occurs in vocabulary, syntax, rhetoric and other aspects. At this point, translators need to give full play to their subjective initiative and use such translation strategies as addition and combination. (c.f: Liu Chaowu & Yao Mengyan, 2021:23-25)

Example 1:

Source Language (SL)：小溪既为川湘来往孔道，限于财力不能搭桥，就安排头渡船。这渡船一次连人带马，约可以载二十位搭客了一只方头渡船。这渡船一次连人带马，约可以载二十位搭客过河，人数多时则反复来去。（Shen Congwen，2011）

Target Language (TL)：The water level fluctuates considerably, and while there is no money to build a ferry has been provided, a bridge which holds about twenty men and horses--more than that and it has to make a second trip. （Shen Congwen，2011）

The sentences in the original text are scattered into six sub-clauses. The translation connects the whole sentence through some conjunctions, such as “and”, “while”, “which” and “that”, and processes the second sentence of the original text into an attributive clause. Pronouns are used to replace nouns, so that the sentences before and after are connected more closely. At the same time, The translator in the first sentence uses liberal translation to translate “小溪既为川湘来往孔道” to “The water level fluctuates considerably”. Instead of mechanical translation and word-for-word translation in the original text, the translator uses flexible translation methods. This is precisely the linguistic dimension of Eco-Translatology. In terms of sentence pattern, the translator skillfully deals with sentence pattern in the process of translation, and processes the scattered Chinese sentences into a long English sentence. The linguistic dimension method of ecological translation requires the translator to adapt to the selection of language style and sentence pattern, sentence expression style. Therefore, it can be seen that Gladys translated The Border Town from the linguistic dimension of ecological translation. (c.f: Liao Peiyan 2020, 26-28)

Example 2:

SL：翠翠误会了邀他进屋里去那个人的好意，心里记着水手说的妇人丑事，她以为那男子就是要她上有女人唱歌的楼上去，本来从不骂人，这时正因等候祖父太久了，心中焦急得很，听人要她上去，以为欺侮了她，就轻轻的说：“悖时砍脑壳的！”（Shen Congwen，2011）

TL: Emerald's ears were still tingling from the boatmen's coarse talk so that she misunderstood this well-meant invitation and thought he wanted her to go to the building where a woman was singing. She had never flown out at anyone before, but now, troubled by her grandfather's long delay and afraid she was being insulted, she swore under her breath: “To hell with this hooligan! ”（Shen Congwen，2011）

"悖时砍脑壳的！" this sentence is an exclusive dialect cursing for the Western Hunan women. In the original text, the ecological environment describes Emerald waiting anxiously for her grandfather by the river, and the Second Master, Nuosong, invited her to come in when they saw her. However, Emerald thought she had been insulted and misunderstood the man's kindness, so she said this in a desperate manner, which also showed Emerald's simplicity and loveliness. If the translator does not understand the cultural connotation of this sentence, he will make a joke, which will make the target language readers do not understand, resulting in the ecological imbalance of the translation, leading to the failure of conversion. In order to make this cultural connotation "survive" in the translation ecology, the translator translated it into "To hell with this hooligan!" which is more familiar to Western readers, so as to realize the conversion of language dimension. (c.f: Shao Yanshu, 2019)

2. Cultural Dimension

Wang Zuoliang (1989), a famous Chinese translator, once said, "Translation is not only about language, but also about culture... The translator must be a man of culture in the true sense." Translation is the communication between two cultures. Only by being familiar with both cultures can translation play a role in its cultural context. In a sense, translation, as a social activity of human beings, not only transmits information, but also disseminates culture. Through the ages, people have different definitions of culture, but basically there is a consensus that culture is all the spiritual activities and activity products of human beings compared with politics and economy. Due to the different cultural backgrounds of English and Chinese, translators must consider the target readers in translation, fill in the cultural gaps and achieve the integration of the target readers and the original vision, so as to achieve a higher degree of holistic adaptation and selection. This paper involves a lot of culture-loaded words, and translators need to use annotation, explanation and other strategies to translate.

Example 3:

SL：贯串各个码头有一条河街，人家房子多一半着陆，一半在水，因为余地有限，那些房子莫不设有吊脚楼。（Shen Congwen，2011）

TL： On the frontage between the wharves space is so limited that most houses are built on stilts overhanging the water. （Shen Congwen，2011）

"吊脚楼" is a unique building in rural Western Hunan. People in other parts of China probably don't know what it is, let alone Western readers. Here, Gladys paraphrases it as "houses are built on stilts overhanging the water". By considering the overall translation environment, this not only preserves the uniqueness and cultural connotation of the word "吊脚楼", but also enables Western readers to know what it is.

Example 4:

SL：这是两年前的事。五月端阳，渡船头祖父找人作了代替，便带了黄狗同翠翠进城，到大河边去看划船。（Shen Congwen，2011）

TL： Two years before this, on the fifth of the fifth month, her grandfather found someone to mind the ferry while he took Brownie and Emerald into town to watch the dragon-boat race. （Shen Congwen，2011）

Of the original "端阳" the translator has processed it as "the fifth of the fifth month". Foreign readers do not understand the traditional Chinese festival, so they cannot use the Pinyin annotation method to translate it literally, so it is best to translate it as the present common translation name is "the Dragon Boat Festival", but considering the period of Gladys’ translation, the English translation name of the Dragon Boat Festival has not been determined, so it is acceptable for the translator to translate it as an interpretation. Then there is “划船”. If you translate it literally, foreign readers will mistake it for ordinary rowing, because there is no Dragon Boat Festival in foreign countries, so the concept of dragon boat racing is not in the minds of foreign readers. So here the translator treats it as "watch the dragon boat race." It plays the role of translation and dissemination of culture. When reading this translation, foreign readers can get a good understanding of Chinese traditional festivals and folk customs. This is the cultural dimension of ecological translation. In the translation process, the problem of cultural transmission must be properly handled. (c.f: Liao Peiyan 2022, 26-28)

Example 5:

SL：傩送美丽得很，茶峒船家人拙于赞扬这种美丽，只知道为他取出一个诨名为“岳云”。（Shen Congwen，2011）

TL： And Nuosong was such a fine-looking boy that the Chatong boatmen nicknamed him YueYun.（Shen Congwen，2011）

Note: Son of Yue Fei, a brave patriotic general of the Song Dynasty, who fought against invaders. Yue Yun is presented on the stage as a handsome and courageous young fighter.

When translating the word "岳云" with cultural connotation, the translator adopted the method of transliteration and annotation. Because foreign readers have no concept of the image of "岳云", the translator did not confuse foreign readers, then explained it out with annotation and filled the cultural gap.

3. Communicative Dimension

In order to transmit information effectively, translators need to pay more attention to the communicative intent of the original text when transforming the communicative dimension. Different from the linguistic dimension, the communicative dimension emphasizes the effect obtained by the translation rather than the content conveyed by the translation. Making adaptive choices in the translation of pronouns and conjunctions, translators can accurately convey the communicative intent and style of the original text. (c.f: Liu Chaowu & Yao Mengyan 2021, 23-25)

Example 6:

SL：女孩子的母亲，老船夫的独生女，十五年前同一个茶峒军人唱歌相熟后，很秘密的背着那忠厚爸爸发生了暧昧关系。（Shen Congwen，2011）

TL： The girl's mother, his only daughter, seventeen years ago had a love affair behind her father's back with a soldier at Chatong who serenaded her. （Shen Congwen，2011）

"暧昧关系" in Chinese refers to a vague and unclear relationship between a man and a woman without commitment. Shen Congwen used this very vague word to imply an implicit meaning, and the translator should not break this vague beauty. At the same time, through intensive reading of the original text, it can be found that the "暧昧关系" in the original text may also imply that the two have had a sexual relationship. Later, there is also a hint that they have a child, namely Emerald. Therefore, the "Love affair" used by the translator not only includes the relationship between men and women at different levels, but also does not lose the vague artistic conception of the original text.

Example 7:

SL：近水人家多在桃杏花里，春天时只需注意，凡有桃花处必有人家，凡有人家处必可沽酒。（Shen Congwen，2011）

TL： Most homesteads near the water are set among peach and apricot trees, so that in spring wherever there is blossom you can count on finding people, and wherever people are you can count on a drink. （Shen Congwen，2011）

Although this sentence in the original text is scattered, it also has its inherent logic. The translator uses a series of cohesive means, such as “so that” and “wherever” to connect the sentences before and after, and also directly translate the implied subject “you”. It is very in line with the expression habits of English, which not only conveys the meaning of the original text, but also realizes the communicative intention of the original text.

Conclusion

Eco-Translatology theory is to regard the process of translation as a whole. Translation is not a single process, but can also derive a series of translation strategies and translation methods. In order to produce a good translation, the translator must constantly adapt and select and comprehensively consider the problem in such a large environment. The three dimensions of language, culture and communication do not exist independently, but are parallel and interrelated. Translators need to adapt to the target language environment when translating, and try to keep the content and form, meaning and style consistent with the original text, so as to achieve a higher degree of holistic adaptation and selection. At the same time, it is of certain research significance to guide the English translation of Chinese prose with ecological translation theory, which can make the translator realize that when translating, not only should the language form of the translated text and the transmission of some cultural-loaded words be considered, but also the target reader's acceptance level should be paid attention to.

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英语笔译 李欣 Li Xin 202170081577 CE

The dissemination of Chinese Classics in modern media Li Xin

Abstract

With the advent of the new media era, there are both opportunities and challenges for the publication and dissemination of Chinese classics. The driving force of new media uses "Internet technology" as its core, and has reconstructed the consumption pattern of human society and culture. For such "heavyweight" publications as cultural classics, only by ways like "going out" and "cross-cultural communication" can they create greater economic, cultural and social benefits. Objectively, it is necessary to study the new forms and characteristics of Chinese classics publication and external dissemination from the new perspective of industry, to analyze new problems occurred during disseminating, and to study new strategies that can promote external dissemination, so as to expand the influence of Chinese classics in the world, and enhance the voice of Chinese culture in international exchanges.

Key words

new media; Chinese classics; communication and innovation

Introduction

Chinese traditional culture has a long history. It is a unique culture that reflects the characteristics and style of the nation and is brought together by the evolution of Chinese civilization. Due to the limitation of communication technology in different eras, the dissemination and inheritance of traditional culture show different characteristics. With the development of the times, we have entered the information age, and highly developed computer technology and network technology have become the most commonly used new information dissemination and storage tools. According to the 41st Statistical Report on Internet Development in China released by the China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2017, the number of Internet users in this country reached 772 million, and the penetration rate reached 55.8%. Among them, 753 million Internet users use mobile phones to access the Internet, accounting for 97.5% of the online population. The high development of the Internet has given traditional culture a new carrier and mode of dissemination. It must adapt to the development of the times in order to obtain the best dissemination effect.

The dissemination of classics in the new media era

With the development of network technology, the dissemination of traditional culture is undergoing an essential leap, and the forms of cultural dissemination have become rich and diverse. It is necessary to make good use of these new forms to help the dissemination of traditional culture. The following text will introduce several new forms of the dissemination of classics in the present era.

1) Digital storage of Chinese classics. The inheritance of traditional culture requires the preservation and inheritance of books and documents. In the past, it was mainly recorded by means of paper books. However, with the rapid development of computer technology, digital databases have become the main place for document collection, storage, processing and dissemination. All documents can be converted into coded forms and stored in computers, and then classified, processed and managed by computers. Form a massive information base. At present, the most used databases is the "Basic Chinese Ancient Books Library", which is the largest and most complete collection of literature and classics in Chinese history. The digital storage of classics can help the preservation and inheritance of traditional culture. On the one hand, it can collect massive information, which is the continuation of traditional libraries. On the other hand, it has the function of quick search and query,providing a convenient platform for people learning history and culture.

2) Video communication of classics and cultural products. Technological progress has also provided technical conditions for the inheritance and promotion of classics and cultural products. On the one hand, the digital and high-fidelity storage of some cultural products can be easily achieved through technical means. For example, the objects, art forms, and humanistic stories described in the classics can be filmed and recorded by people, and the text content can be videoized,and thoese videos could be made into DVDs and VCDs, in this way, cultural consumers can not only enjoy various stone carvings, paintings, writing, handicraft products, etc., which embody the wisdom of ancient people, but can also enjoy arts like dances, music and dramasthat inherit traditional Chinese culture. On the other hand, with the maturity of live broadcast technology, webcasting, this new form of communication, has also become a booster for the inheritance and development of traditional culture. Real-time live broadcast can not only fully and truly display various traditional cultural products, but also stimulate the participation and enthusiasm of the audience, and achieve a good communication effect. For example, from June 4th to June 9th this year, the Museum of Prince Kung’s Mansion(恭王府博物馆) of the Ministry of Culture, together with a number of units, launched the 2018 “Splendid China—China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Costume Show” series of activities, and actively cooperated with major online broadcasts platforms such as Qianfan Live（千帆直播）, KK Live（KK 直播）, Xiuse Live（秀色直播）, etc., and the number of hits of the online live broadcast in just the first three days has exceeded 28 million. In 2017, the Chinese intangible cultural heritage costumes show held in Prince Kung's Mansion , there were more than 400 sets of clothing on display, with nearly 4,000 audiences, and more than 20 million viewers on various online platforms. The scope and effect of communication far exceeded the scene. It can be said that the video transmission of traditional cultural works has made up for the regret that vocal music and performing arts cannot be reproduced, so that people can break through the shackles of space, stay at home, and enjoy those videos through the Internet or computer anytime and anywhere they want . It provides more convenient conditions for traditional culture‘s inheritance and development.

3) The circle spread of classics. The progress of the Internet has made the communication between online people convenient and frequent, forming network groups one by one. When netizens consciously form a group because of a certain topic or event, there will be network circles of communication. Although it is said that the formation of network groups is random and free, cohesiveness is weak, and it lacks restraint, it is easy to dissolve, but it is extremely infectious. QQ groups, WeChat official accounts, WeChat groups, fixed boards on forums, etc., can all become fixed circles. On the Internet, there are many groups with classics as a common topic, such as classic novel groups, poetry and song groups, etc. The existence of these groups has also played a huge role in the spread of classics.

4) Interactive communication of computer networks. One of the characteristics of network communication is its strong initiative. In the process of communication, there is interaction between the audience and the media, and between the audience and the audience. The audience can become both the receiver of information and the disseminator of information. Information can be obtained through the media, and information can be released through the media. This kind of interactive communication has brought new requirements to the communication of classics, that is, cultural communication needs to take into account the dual needs of the public and individuality, to satisfy both the interests of the public and the tastes of the minority, which makes the form of classics show unprecedented richness. Taking "China in Classics" （电视节目《典籍里的中国》）as an example, the program sets up multiple stages to show the "historical space" in the classics and the "real space" outside the classics,in order to achieve the effect of time travel. In the historical space, the program adopts the filming technique of films and televisions, which vividly restores the stories of the classics and makes them more visualized. In addition, the programming division also joined forces with the National Theatre and the Chinese Academy of History to bring traditional classics to the screen through innovative methods. through sophisticated costume，make-up and props, high-level photography and post-production, omni-media presentation, and multi-platform promotion the programming division have reached a new high of audience rating, making people pay more attention in calssics. There are different scenes and stories on different stages, combined with a large number of authentic props and a huge high-definition electronic screen, so that the audience can watch the drama in 360 degrees, and it also enables the audience in front of the screen to feel the drama story more deeply, Increasing the audience's sense of substitution.

New features of the publication and dissemination of Chinese classics in the new media era

In view of the "high context" positioning of Chinese culture in the media perspective, although China is a big country in the production of cultural classics, it has not yet reached the level of a powerful country in publishing and disseminating cultural classics. In order to allow mankind to share the fruit of Chinese civilization, it is urgent to innovate the existing ways to publish and disseminate ancient books; the arrival of the new media era has provided new opportunities for the publishing and dissemination of Chinese classics, and the publication and dissemination have already been showing new characteristics. 1) The high-efficiency characteristics of publication and dissemination formed by new technologies New technology has greatly improved the efficiency of publication and dissemination. On the one hand, for readers of classics, after the "print" has become "digital", Internet technology has let all kinds of calssics disseminate faster, and given calssics wider dissemination space. Converted into data and information storage, the heavy paper book of Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Gover （《资治通鉴》） only requires a few megabytes of space, and readers can quickly obtain the required content through retrieval, saving a lot of time and energy, thereby improving the transmission efficiency. On the other hand, for the producers of classic books, in the process of publications supported by new technologies, a large number of information about sales，returns and evaluation could become a good market support for the publication and external distribution of classics. Due to the needs of economic interests, the traditional publishing industry needs to do a lot of preparatory work before the establishment of the project, especially the publication market demand survey, scale estimation, etc., which are not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also limited by technical means and sampling scope. The results obtained often do not match the actual needs. With the help of the new media, the disadvantages of inaccurate demand data and blind publishing direction under the traditional publishing model can be effectively avoided. For example, publishers can collect demand information through an online questionnaire on "readers' favorite cultural classics", combined with the sales and evaluation data of the book sales platform to determine the editing angle, so as to improve the satisfaction of the publishing market of classic books and improve the operation efficiency of the publishing industry.

2) The fusion characteristics of publishing and dissemination formed by the new environment Objectively, the new media era is also a typical "image-reading era". Images, videos, animations and other forms of communication are far more breathtaking than the impact of words, and the content of Chinese cultural classics lacks the "image-reading function"—— Under the concept of "text carries the Tao"（文以载道）, the text description is more profound, and the image performance is superficial; but it is undeniable that there are rich cultural resources in Chinese classics, including literature, history, politics, science and technology, etc., providing rich materials for the creation of other cultural products, such as film, television, opera and other cultural carriers, which have been provided a better audio-visual experience in the new media environment, and its cultural communication influence is even far higher than the original work. Taking China's "Four Great Classics" as an example, it has been regarded as a classic for many years after it was adapted from the form of cultural classics publication to the form of TV series. The reason why those TV series remain popular in years is that, in addition to the fact that the adapted TV series is very loyal to the original work and well inherited the cultural essence, historical background and values contained in the classics, the more important thing is that through adaptation, a single text is transformed into a richly expressive audio-visual form, giving the audience a refreshing experience, which is not available in the form of publication; at the same time, the adapted literary classics film and television dramas create classic characters,and have realized the in-depth development of the value of classics, among them, there are many famous experts and scholars with cultural attainments guiding those dramas. For example, the 87th edition of "Dream of Red Mansions" was guided by Zhou Ruchang（周汝昌）, Shen Congwen（沈从文）and others. This is essentially a kind of improvement and enrichment of classics. Many content of the classics has been adapted and transformed into a more suitable form of communication in the new media environment, which can arouse the audience's attention to the original work and increase the sales of classics This transformation of carrier form will not weaken the value of classics, but can help realize the integration of values in communication.

New ideas for publishing and disseminating Chinese cultural classics in the new media era

1) Aim to enhance the influence of Chinese culture The era of new media presents a state of aggregation of multiple cultures in the same social space, and under the influence of the infiltration of different values, it is inevitable that it will affect the "purity" of traditional Chinese classics, and even appears "mutation" and "subversion". In the face of the challenges of cultural communication in the new media era, on the one hand, we cannot blindly avoid it, work behind closed doors, or attribute the phenomenon of "cultural erosion" to the development of Internet technology, and just let it go and do nothing. Instead, we should actively face it and strive for the right to speak in the new media era by building up cultural self-confidence, enhancing China's cultural soft power. On the other hand, we must be soberly aware that the current world structure is complex, international competition is fierce, and the essence of the ideological struggle is the competition between different cultures. In the context of the new media era, we must be good at tapping our own cultural advantages and integrate into the world cultural trend—the publication and dissemination of Chinese classics is an important way, it is not only a The essence of traditional Chinese culture, but also a wealth of knowledge shared by all human beings. Especially in the long historical process, the symbolic symbols formed by "Chinese culture" are mostly derived from classics, which have a relatively high degree of recognition in the world.

2)Get support through the supply-side reform of the publishing industry

Ⅰ. Optimizing the Operational Thinking of Each Link of the Publishing Industry Chain Every link in the publishing industry chain, including publishing houses and distributors, should fully recognize the shortcomings of the traditional publishing industry chain in the new media environment, and constantly explore the means to maximize the benefits of products and communication based on their own. In particular, we must pay attention to the huge impact of Internet technology on industries , realize the diversity of cultural classics through technological integration, and further enrich its market form, such as adding animation special effects technology, audio technology, video technology, etc. on the basis of digital technology to better adapt to The reading habits of new media users to optimize the user experience.

II. Strengthen the cultivation of outstanding publishing talents in the new media era In view of the systematicness and complexity of Chinese classics, the traditional publishing process often emphasizes that the relevant talents should have profound knowledge and the ability to control language and characters. However, in the new media era, we should also strengthen the training of technical talents, including in the fields of digital publishing technology, software development technology, information management technology, etc., and comprehensively promote the digital engineering construction of classics, so as to better realize the development,application and protection in the new media era. , such as the "National Books Museum" project developed by the "National Digital Library of China", it is worth learning from.

Ⅲ. Accelerate the integration of resources in the publication and dissemination of classics On the one hand, in the field of classics publishing, by summarizing and sorting out various methods and methods, China should explore digital development methods, multiple publishing methods, multimedia printed books presentation methods, visual image expression methods and intelligent voice reading methods etc.,to meet the integration needs of different types of technical resources in the same classics products. On the other hand, in the field of external dissemination of classics, taking into account the speed and breadth of dissemination, China should establish and improve the database of Chinese classics for other cultural backgrounds to achieve effective integration and efficient use of content resources.

3) Leading with innovative marketing and promotion models Compared with traditional media, new media subverts not only the communication medium, but also the production and consumption of cultural products in a broad sense.The two major market modules of publishing and dissemination have undergone tremendous changes, especially offline book sales channels (including cross-cultural communication) are facing collapse under the impact of online e-commerce sales platforms. At the same time, in the process of publishing and disseminating of classics in China, there are obvious disadvantages of "emphasizing publishing and ignoring marketing". The marketing of cultural classics is often concentrated in specific groups such as government departments, colleges and universities, and research institutions, which seriously restricts the role of innovative marketing models. Therefore, in the publication and dissemination of classics, we should actively turn to the "Internet model" based on innovative marketing and promotion models, including the effective integration, reorganization, and application of internet thinking, internet technology, internet policies and related supporting resources. Breaking the long-term situation of "single soldier fighting" and "separate management" in the publishing and external dissemination of Chinese classics, draw lessons from the marketing strategies of large international publishing groups, through division of labor and cooperation, complementary advantages and strong combination, we could establish a innovative marketing framework of "precise positioning and three-dimensional promotion" .

New strategies for publishing and disseminating of Chinese classics in the new media era

1) Based on cross-cultural communication and enhance reader's experience Chinese classics are all-encompassing and rich in content. So the actual needs of the target readers must be considered, before publication, editors must filtrate, organize and edit the content, and place them in the entire publishing industry chain to review and observe whether there are cultural classics products with homogeneity and strong competitiveness, and to avoid market risks based on this. In particular, the characteristics of cross-cultural communication must be considered in the process of "foreign dissemination". Chinese classics face "double obstacles" in the foreign dissemination; There is a reading and translation barrier between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese, and there is also a reading and translation barrier between Chinese and foreign languages. Therefore, in order to achieve the acceptance of Chinese cultural classics by more foreign readers, it is necessary to meet the translation needs in intercultural communication "Enhancing reader's experience" also needs to introduce new media variables. Internet technology promotes reading to become "fragmented", and cultural consumption pursues "fast food", which is unfavorable for the publication and dissemination of "voluminous work" , according to this change, we can further exert the advantages of new media electronic books retrieval, such as Historical Records（《史记》）, The Analects（《论语》）, Sun Tzu's Art of War（《孙子兵法》） and other classics, there is a good content decomposition mechanism in itself, which can be easily read by subdividing information resources, so as to enhance the reader's experience.

2) The content should focuse on simplicity and reduce the reading burden The so-called "simplicity" is not the same as "simple" or "simplification", but to "disconnect" the classics according to the principle of moderation, so that the publication status and dissemination status are more suitable for the needs of "going out". Publishing organizations must make choices when it comes to editing classics, and they must learn to focus on the big picture and let go of the small things, and fully consider the limited understanding of foreign Chinese classics readers, otherwise readers will be confused and lose interest in reading. In order to reduce the reading burden, the editors of cultural classics should follow the principle of "The greatest truths are the simplest.（大道至简）", and integrate thinking of Chinese civilization with thinking of foreign culture, to convey the richest connotations through the most refined words, and appropriately use symbolism to express those connotations. For the parts that need further explanation, the editors can use the "link" mode, providing the explanation on digital publishing platforms, or match necessary reading guides with the publication of cultural classics; on the whole, it is a high challenge for publishing and editing work.

3) Adapt to the Internet context and pay attention to the concept of community The new media era provides people an unprecedented free social environment, the space and time constraints are eliminated, and "interest" has become an important force for gathering communities. This new era have given birth to blogs, Weibo, forums, WeChat and many other media platforms,their appearance have helped establish the foundation of "cultural circles" for interest communities. and there are many readers at home and abroad who are interested in Chinese classics, which provides a good support for the publication and dissemination of classics. Based on this, in the process of publishing and disseminating Chinese classics, publishers should actively adapt to the internet context, actively integrate into interest communities, collect readers' demand information as the basis for topic selection and planning, and even select editors, translators, and writers from readers. The current domestic model of "crowdfunding and publishing books" is a good inspiration for the publication of Chinese classics. It breaks the gap between "publishing production" and "publishing consumption", Paving the way for dissemination—further, in the publication of Chinese classics and the exploration of foreign dissemination paths, we can actively seek some foreign individuals and institutions with attainments in traditional Chinese culture, and use the "unity" of the Internet context to eliminate "Differences" between Chinese and foreign cultures.

Conclusion

Chinese cultural classics are extensive and profound, as vast as stars, carrying the unique values and philosophical spirit of Chinese traditional culture, which has laid a solid foundation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In the face of the situation of "big but not strong" in the field of cultural classics publication in China. In the new media era, it is necessary to clarify the development direction of "going out", with the purpose of enhancing the discourse power of Chinese culture, actively carry out product supply-side structural reform, and innovate marketing and promotion models , to develop a path that adapts to the publication and dissemination of Chinese classics. At the same time, we must grasp the core of "cross-cultural communication". At the same time, we should keep track of the pulse of foreign markets, respect the habits of foreign readers, adapt to the new media era, and enhance the value of Chinese classics in cultural communication.

References

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英语笔译 李颖 Li Ying 202170081578 MW

On the Translation of The Moon and Sixpence Li Ying

This thesis choose a renowned and well-received novel in the 20th century. The Moon and Sixpence, first published in 1919,is written by W.Somerset Maugham. The book became popular after being translated into Chineses in 1989. Two new versions of translation were published in the Chinese mainland in 2016.However, no studies on these three translations have been carried out. Therefore, this thesis is aimed at analyzing the translations from the perspective of translator’s subjectivity.

In this thesis,theories on the position of translators have been reviewed, especially the studies on translator’s subjectivity. Typical examples have been extracted from the three versions for comparison and analysis. Translator’s subjectivity is reflected from four aspects: understanding and expression of the source text, translation strategies, culture of the target language, and the style of language. In the end, fingdings of the comparison and analysis were concluded.

Key words

The Moon and Sixpence, translator’s subjectivity, translation strategies,cultural values of translation

Introduction

1.A Brief Introducation to William Somerset Maugham

William Somerset Maugham is a well-known British novelist and dramatist,known as English Maupassant. Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He is born in a lawyer’s family.His grandfather is a well-known High Court lawyer in London. His father, Robert Maugham was also a lawyer at the British Embassy in Paris in 1850.In addition to being a lawyer, Robert Maugham is also a auther and editor.So the William Somerset lived in a family full of sensity and rationality. He was the youngerst one in his family. In his young age, he lost his parents, so he lived in his uncle’s house and lived a dependent lifee.His school life wasn’t going well.In 1892, he studied at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, he was influnenced by Ibsen, which lays a deep foundation on his future writing.In 1897, he abandoned medicine and chose to be a writer. At his early age,he lived in Paris, which makes Maugham khow more about beauty,honor, wisdom and writing methods. For he has underdone World War II, he has a unique artistic style in his work.

As a novelist and dramatist ,he has written many novels and dramas. The most famous novels are Of Human Bondage(1915), The Moon and Sixpence(1919) and The Razor’s Edge(1944), and there are some other novels,such as Lisa of Lamebeth(1897), Mrs. Craddock(1902), The Merry-go-round(1904), The Magician(1908) and so on.

Maugham’s death consciousness is often reflected in his novels. The death of his parents, the identity of the physician and the World War make him see a lot of death.The description of death enables the readers to realize the significance of life and inspires the reader’s deeper thinking of humanity. He also attaches the pursuit of the spiritual world.In his novels, the pleasure obtained by material world is illusory, only the spiritual pursuit is meaningful.

In addition, the experience at Maugham’s very early age makes Maugham develop a withdrawn personality, many of his novels can reflect the characters’ lonely, whthdrawn and indifferent personality.

2.A Brief Introduction to The Moon and Sixpence

The Moon and Sixpence is one of the Maugham’s best-known novels which was put out in 1919. The novel is based on the French impressionist, Paul Gauguin. Gauguin used to be a broker at the Verdun Stock Exchange,but later,because he likes painting, he resigns to forcus on painting. He is willing to live a poor life for painting.Gauguin wants to find psychological pursuit , he sails across the sea to the Tahiti in the South Pacific where he paints a lot of paintings. On the basis of Gauguin, Maugham’s writing in The Moon and Sixpence can deeply embody the protagnist’s pursuit of dreams, consideration of life and perception of humanity.

The name of the novel is very profound. “Moon” in the The Moon and Sixpence expresses the bright and distant dreams, and “Sixpence” in it expresses the real material life.When a person needs to choose between dream and reality,giving up the dreamm to choose the life or ignoring the life to choose the dream, this is a thought-provoking question. In this novel, Strickland’s first choose is “Sixpence”. In the first half og his life, he lives a regular and ordinary life. He is a strockbroker and lives happily with his spouse and two childre. Later, he chooses the “Moon”. For his hobby of painting, he leaves his home, his wife and his lovely children. In addition to the protagonist Strickland, some characters in the novel also face the problem of “Moon ” and “Sixpence”

The novel is written with “I” as the narrator, and “I” is a participant and a bystander. This narrative structure is an important feature of Maugham’s novels. As the begining of the novel, because Mrs.Strickland likes to make friends with literati, “I” meets Mrs. Strickland at Miss Waterford's tea party. At first, “I” knows Strickland that he is an ordinary and boring person.

3.A Brief Introduction to the Translater and Translating Verisons

The earliest Chinese verison of The Moon and Sixpence was Fu Weici's translation published by Foreign Literature Publishing House in 1981 (Qin Hong, 2008). The translation was so popular that it was republished by Shanghai Translation Publishing House in 1995, 1997 and 2003. Mr. Fu Weici ( 1923 - 2014) was a native of Beijing. He studied in the Western Department of Beijing Fu Jen Catholic University, Zhejiang University (Guizhou) and Peking University. After graduation in 1950, he taught Chinese courses for overseas students and worked as a translator. He was once a professor in the Foreign Languages Department of Beijing Language and Culture University. His major English translations include the novels The Moon and Sixpence, The Core of the Problem and Animal Farm.

Chen Yixuan's translation of The Moon and Sixpence was published by Taiwan's Rye Publishing House in 2013, and Chen's translation was introduced by East China Normal University Press in January 2016.This paper chooses the latter version of simplified Chinese characters.Chen Yi-hsuan, a native of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is a senior translator of foreign literature. His masterpieces include The Chameleon and The Moon and Sixpence.

Also in January 2016, Tianjin People's Publishing House published Li Jihong's translation of The Moon and Sixpence.The two recent translations also show the vitality of Maugham's work in domestic readers.Li Jihong, born in 1980, is a visiting scholar at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham and a visiting researcher at the English Department of the University of United States, Irvine. His best-selling translations include The Kite Runner and The Little Prince. Fu Weici's translation appeared earliest and lasted longest, while Chen Yixuan's and Li Jihong's versions were newer.Due to the long distance between the translation years and the different authors in Beijing, the three versions are selected for specific analysis through specific cases.

Literature Review

As one of the masterpieces of Maugham’s novels, The Moon and Sixpence attracts many attention of readers and literary circle. It becomes the object of study among scholars.Many scholars at home and abroad study this novel from different perspectives. Study about The Moon and Sixpence is from various perspectives, such as the psychological analyses, the study of narrative methods, colonialism, genre,misogyny, characters and modernism.

Psychilogical researches include the contradiction between rationality and irrationality, Schopenhauer’s theory, the combination of psychological analysis with feminism,human nature. Yangyan Huan（2015）probes into confrontations between reason and irrational which are demonstrated by conflicts between soul and body in The Moon and Sixpence. The confrontations between reason and irrationality is the basic paradox in human life. Therefore, this novel is a miniature of real society with consistent struggles and pains. Moreover, it explores the influence of writer’s psychological situation on writing.

Ding Xia(2014) analyzes the bahavior of Strickland from two perspectives of Feud’s “id” theory and sexism. Then, he compares Strickland to Freudian hero in the novel. In lines with Freud’s “id” theory, artists may transfer their sexual desire into more sublimed field such as art. The fact that Maugham was a homesexual strengthened his misogynistic view in this novel. It is relevant to Maugham’s affection to man in real life. Wangya Nan(2014) combines modernism and nihilism to make a systematic expatiation and discussion of the novel from four perspectives, including formation of modernist characteristics ,modernist consciousness,modernist theme, and Maugham’s application of modernist techniques. The thought of nihimism also find its vivid expression in the protagonist’s being fed up with secular society, his strong desire to escape from the realistic society and his hostile relationship with enviroment.

The study of human nature is illustrated by various characters. Huang Lei(2015) makes a study of Strickland’s spiritual trek is a crazy gesture. Although Strickland is depicted as an anti-social man who goes against social conventions, he mirrors other people’s personalities. Actually, Maugham expresses his feelings and emotions through Strickland.

Methods and Theories

1.The Translator's Role in Traditional Translation Studies

From translation perspective, the translationg version could not by analyzed from the literary and cultural level but only from the gain and loss of language, so the status of the translator in history is very low.

The traditional view holds that the translation cannot be compared with creation. Even Lin Shu，who is known as a "famous translator," believes that translation is very low (Qian Zhongshu, 1981).Similarly, Lawrence Venuti has made a systematic study of the translator's “invisibility” in his book The Invisibility of Ttranslator, and put forward his unique views on the root of the translator's invisibility and its influence on the translator's status.The translator and the author may have different races and language habits, different expressions and even different values, but the translator will try his best to present the information to the readers completely. The translator chooses the latter between highlighting the subjectivity of himself or showing the subjectivity of the author completely. The translator hides the subjectivity of himself behind the subjectivity of the author, so as to present the author's works to the target language readers as original.

1.The Translator’s subjectivity

Among them, the translator's subjectivity runs through the whole translating process , while the other ones are only reflected in a certain part of translation, so the translator's subjectivity is conter of translation subjectivity. The translator is the one undertaking translation practice, on the one hand, the translator has full independence withtout attracting to the original text,author or readers,so the translator has full play to thier subjective initiative;on the other hand, the translator’s subjectivity has also been restricted by some conditions.(Tu Guoyuan, 2003)

2. Factors of Affecting Translator's Subjectivity

Xiong Bingjiao（2005）concerns that “cultural turn” of translation studies is a turning point, which the research field swift to the subjectivity of translator. This new swift expand the new horizon and come into the scope of translation studies. Before the “stylistic turn”, translation studies forcused on the translated text subordinate. Xiong Bingjiao(2005) further pointed out that the “cultural turn” highlighted the subjectivity of the translator and forcused on the tranlator.

The main factors affectiong the translator’s subjectivity include: (1) the characteristics of the two languages, habits;(2) the objective law of language transformation;(3) the linguistic, cultural and aesthetic characteristics of the original work and the aesthetic expectations of the target readers;(4) the translation view and the adoption of translation strategies in a specific era;(5) the translator's own cultural structure and language ability, etc. (Zhong Weihe, Zhou Jing: 2006）。

Subtitle 1 Analysis on Translating Cases

Through a careful study and comparison of the original text and three translated versions of The Moon and Sixpence, this paper selects some typical sentences which can fully embody the translator's subjectivity.

1.Translator's Subjectivity in Semantic Comprehension and Interpretation

In the translating process, the translator are supposed to have a full understanding of the source text, although it also require the translator be objective as far as possible. For the high subjectivity of literary works, the translator’s undrstanding is inevitably with the translator’s subjective color.The translator exerts his subjective initiative and makes use of his own understanding of the original text to present it in the translated text.Therefore, the translator's subjectivity is first reflected in the translator's understanding and interpretation of the work, which is the most prone to significant differences between different versions of the place. The following is a specific analysis of translation cases:

（1）The Prime Minister out of office is seen,too often, to have been but a pompous rhetorician, and the General without an army is but the tame hero of a market town.(P1)

傅译:人们常常发现一位离了职的首相当年只不过是个大言不惭的演说家；一个解甲归田的将军无非是个平淡乏味的市井英雄。（P1）

陈译：一国首相下台后，常被看穿过往只是个口若悬河的说客；而没了军队的将军，不过是解甲归田的落魄英雄。（P1）

李译:人们常常发现，离任的总理原来只是个能言善辩的口舌之主，卸职的将军也无非是个软弱可欺的市井之徒。（P1）

In the 1st example,they have different understanding to the original words“the tame hero”.According to the Collins Advanced English-Chinese Dictionary, tame means "tame; Plain; dull; submissive. "The English definition describes the meaning of the adjective come in more detail: “If you say that something or someone is tame, you are criticizing them for being weak and uninteresting, rather than forceful or shocking”. The word “tame” is used to describe the general’s “weak”.From the Collins Advanced English-Chinese Dictionary,the word “hero” means “someone, especially a man , who has done something brave,new, or good, and who is therefore greatley admired by a lot of people”.In this phrase, the author uses an oxymoron, using two diametrically opposed frontal words, tame and hero, to describe "the General without an army," highlighting its "not great."Therefore, it is necessary to retain the rhetorical devices of the original text in translation, reflecting the contrast between the meanings of adjectives and names.

Both Fu and Chen retained the word "hero”.Fu Weici understood “tame” as "plain and boring," which did not reflect the key meaning of "weak," which was not conducive to highlighting the contradiction between the two words.The "Shijing hero"(Chinese Pinyin) refers to the brave, just and responsible people in ordinary life, and is a praise for ordinary people. “Shijin” is added contents, reflecting the mighty general return to the plain people’s lives, but the part of speech deviated from the original irony of praise. Chen will translate “tame” as “returning home”,which is a neutral word. Does not reflect the “weak ” derogatory sense.However, in the translation of “hero”, “落魄”（luopo，which is Chinese pinyin), reflecting a certain sense of contrast.

Li Jihong translate “tame” into “软弱可欺”（ruan ruo ke qi，which means weak and bullied in English）,which is more accurate.The meaning of “市井之徒”（Chinese 拼音shi jing zhi tu）refers to the humble peddlers or uneducated people.Unlike the Fu and Chen’s verison,Li deletes the key image of “hero”. “Weak and bullied” and “shijingzhitu” are derogatory, which can be said to not reflect the oxymoron of the original text. Three versions are different, the translators give their own understanding .In translation practice, the expression of meaning often depends on the translator's own understanding, extension and creativity, this case reflects the translator's subjectivity,which has an important influence on the understanding and interpretation of the original meaning.

2. Translation Strategies in the Choice of Translator’s Subjectivity

中国传统的翻译策略可以分为意译与直译，归化与异化（叶如祥，2011）。选择意译或译入语为导向的翻译策略，说明译者更多的遵从于译入语的语言规范，这样有利于译文的被读者接纳；而选择直译或以原语为导向的翻译策略，说明译者希望引进新的表达方式，丰富译入语。无论哪种策略，都是译者发挥主观能动性，进行主动选择的结果，都可不同程度地体现译者主体性。通过结合译例，本节对三位译者在选择翻译策略时体现的主体性进行分析。

Traditional translation strategies in China can be divided into free translation and literal translation, domestication and foreignization (Ye Ruxiang, 2011).The choice of free translation or targeted translation strategy shows that the translator is more compliant with the target language norms, which is conducive to the acceptance of the translation by the readers; The choice of literal translation or source-oriented translation strategy shows that the translator hopes to introduce new expressions to enrich the target language.In this section, I will analyze the subjectivity of the three translators in choosing translation strategies through examples.

(2)I find myself in a position to throw light on just that part of his tragic career which has remained most obscure.(P4) 傅译；我发现对他悲剧的一生中人们最不清晰的一段日子，我恰好可以投掷一道亮光。(P8）陈译：我发现自己正好可Ｗ针对他悲剧性的生涯中最隐晦的那段时间，做出澄清与说明。(P9)李译；我发现我可以向大家讲述他的悲剧人生中最不为人所知的几年。（P9）

In the 2nd example, three translators have different ways to translate the phrase“throw light on”. According to the dictionary, the fixed phrase “throw light on ” means “make clear” “clarify” “illustrate” “make sb understand” or “provide clues,ideas to sb”, having the same meaning with the word “enlignten” or “illustrate”. This is a common fixed phrase,rather than created by Maugham, It is also not a metaphor.

Fu Weici chose a foreignization, retaining the metaphor of the original phrase and translating it literally into "throwing a light."The phrase is a very common in English phrase, however there is no corresponding Chinese expression.This method of translation retains the language features of English, but may cause some difficulties for readers who are not familiar with English.Chen Yixuan adopted the method of free translation, translated as "to clarify and illustrate," to express direclyt, clearly, completely in line with the native Chinese usage, which is easy to understand for the reader. Li Weihong weakened this phrase, translated as "tell," and then the text is just the beginning of the "telling" Strickland's experience. Three translators have an accurate understanding of the original, but are in different considerations to choose different translation strategies , reflecting the subjectivity of the translators.

(3)He followed me, and entered the apartment on my heels.(P98)

傅译：他跟在后面，踩着我的脚后跟走进我的住房。(P178)

陈译：他尾随我进入公寓。（P180）

李译：他跟在我身后，紧贴着我走进了房间。（P179）

The text is an common narrative.In this sentence, the three translators have different treatment of the phrase "on my heels."According to the dictionary,"on one's heels" is a fixed phrase, a figurative expression meaning "to follow closely behind." As in the previous example, this is a common fixed expression rather than a Maugham’s literary technique.

Once again, Fu Weici chose to literal translation.Compared with the case of "throwing a light",this metaphor is different.The phrase"standing on the heel"has a really meaning in Chinese, it may be a little abrupt to use it here.It is not always possible to copy English figurative expressions into Chinese by literal translation, and in this case it may be inappropriate. Chen Yixuan and Li Jihong have chosen the free translation, in line with Chinese expression habits, natural and smooth, not in the text to attract the reader's attention.

3. The Embodiment of Translator's Subjectivity in Target Culture Inheritance

Translation is not only a superficial conversion between words, but also a deep communication at the cultural level.Therefore, in addition to convert the original text into the target language text, the translator also needs to exert influence on the text according to the target language culture, in order to make it into a text that conforms to the target language culture.

(4)His face was deeply lined, burned brown by long exposure to the sun, and he had a pair of small blue eyes which were astonishingly shifty.)They moved quickly , following my smallest gesture, and they gave him the look og a very thogough rogue.(P114)

傅译；随着我的手势，他的眼睛很快地转来转去，叫人一望而知是个社会上的老油子。（P206)

陈译：那对眼珠跟随着我的一举一动快速转动，让他看起来像极了恶棍。(P209)

李译；它们贼溜溜地转得很快，连我最细微的动作都不肯放过，一看就是那种奸诈的流民.(P208)

According to the Collins Advanced English-Chinese Dictionary, “rogue” has two meanings when used as a noun: the one is "A rogue is a man who behaves in a gangster or criminal way," which is derogatory;another is"If a man behaves in a way that you do not approve of but you still him, you can refer to him as a rogue," or "troublemaker," is a nickname.The latter address with spoil, generally is an adult for children, here is not appropriate, so the original “rogue” should be understood as the meaning of "flow qiao, villain."

The short sentence"a pair of small blue eyes which were astonishingly shifty. They moved quickly "reflects the character's shrewdness and flexibility, so the author use the word “rogue” more likely to describe the character 's" dishonest " than the" criminal ".Fu Weici translated it into "Lao Youzi"(Chinese pinyin) whch is a Beijing dialect, meaning with someone is"cunny," refers to the experienced and flattering people .In line with the meaning of the author.Lao She in the his book Camel Xiangzi (1936) also used the word: 'As for the bargaining for seats, his words express his slow and energetic attitude, but failed to those Lao Youzi.' With Mr. Lao She, Fu Weici is also from Beijing, so in his works will not consciously use some of the expression of Beijing dialect. Here reflects the translation of works will be subject to their own growth environment, language environment.

Chen Yixuan's translation “ rogue” as "villain" is in line with the dictionary meaning.Li Jihong treated it as a "treacherous refugee."'Refugees' from the ancient book Four times of Guanzi', meaning 'affected by the exile in the field, life is not available for people', apparently used here does not meet the original meaning. Although the term selection has been biased, but the adjective 'treacherous' and 'bold' translated by Li Jihong has similar meaning with the source text, which can be described as half merits and demerits.

4. Translator's Subjectivity in Language Style

As the reproducer of the original text, the translator reproduces the literary works, so the translator's writing and language style are also the important embodiment of the translator's subjectivity in the translation.The following translation of specific examples of the three authors of the language style analysis:

(5)It is not without melancholy that I wander among my recollections of the world of letters in London when first, bashful but eager, I was introduced to it. It is long since I frequented it, and if the novles that describe its present singularities are accurate much in it is now changed.The venue is different.(P6)

傅译：我刚刚被引进伦敦文学界的时候，也情又是热切又是羞涩；现在回忆起当时的种种情况，不无凄凉之感。很久我没有到伦敦去了，如果现在出版的小说里面的描写是真，伦敦一定发生了很大变化了。文人聚会的地点已经改变了。（P12）

陈译：初踏伦敦文艺界，我虽怯生但也渴切，忆起当时情景心中难免低徊。我不再涉足其中己久，倘若描述当前奇观的小说所言无误，那么如今许多事物不复以往。（P13）

李译：最早踏进伦敦的文学世界时，我也里既忐忑又期待。回忆起当初的种种情状，真是不无物是人非的感慨。我久已远离那个世界，假如各种小说对其现状的描写是准确的，那么如今的情况有所改变。活动的场所和以前不同。（P12）

This sentence is the background of "I" reviewed my own fledglings London literary and arts, recall the past and to look at now, can not help but sighing with emotion.This example is very typical, which can reflect the three translators different language style.Among the three versions, Fu Weici's translation is the earliest, but the expression is more plain and easy to understand, without using words with classical Chinese color, nor using four-character idioms.Chen Yixuan's language style is graceful and poetic, with classical Chinese color, such as "inevitable low,""no longer the past" and so on. Li Jihong's version is the latest version, but the language is more than Fu's version based on a little more literary color, such as "not without,""long already" and so on.

Conclusion

In the 1970s, the translation circle began to pay attention to the translator's subjectivity, that is, the translator's subjectivity. The translator should be regarded as the center of translation activities.There are many factors that influence the translator's subjectivity, such as the translator's region, time, educational background, the translator's ability to control the language and the translator's choice of translation strategies.

This thesis focuses on three Chinese versions of the famous novelist Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence from the perspective of translator's subjectivity.Through that analysis and comparison of the selected examples, it can be seen that the three translator, as the main body of translation, have exerted their own subjective initiative in translating The Moon and Sixpence, which embodies the respective characteristic of the translators of the three translators.

In the choice of translation strategies, Fu Weici tends to literal translation and foreignization, Chen Yixuan tends to free translation and domestication, and Li Jihong tends to weaken the cultural characteristics of the original text on the basis of free translation.In terms of cultural inheritance, Fu Weici's translation uses some Beijing dialect on the basis of conforming to Mandarin, Chen Yixuan's translation reflects the characteristics of Chinese in Taiwan, Li Jihong's translation uses standard Mandarin without dialect expression.In the language style, Fu Weici's language style is plain and simple, Li Jihong's language style contains a trace of written color on the basis of plain and easy to understand, Chen Yixuan's language style is poetic and gentle, with the most rich literary color.The analysis of translation examples shows that the difference of translator's subjectivity is not only reflected in the translator's understanding and interpretation of the work and artistic recreation at the linguistic level, but also reflected in the choice of the translated text, the cultural purpose of viewing the translation and the translation strategies, which are the linguistic, cultural and aesthetic characteristics of the original work and are influenced by the translator's cultural pre-structure (including regional environment, social background, national character, religious background, cultural origin, ideology, aesthetic taste, language ability) and the influence of the translation concept of the specific era.

To sum up, from the perspective of translator's subjectivity, the three Chinese versions of The Moon and Sixpence all show their subjective initiative and different styles in translation activities.This paper, to a certain extent, fills the gap in the study of the translation of The Moon and Sixpence.By analyzing the role and embodiment of the translator's subjectivity in the translation process, the translator can make better use of his subjectivity and deal with the influence of various factors on the translation, so as to present a better translation to the readers.

References

• William Somerset Maugham(1919/2016). The Moon and Sixpence. Translator:Chen Yixuan. Shanghai：East China Normal University
• William Somerset Maugham(1919/2015). The Moon and Sixpence. Translator:Fu Weici. Shanghai：Shanghai Translation Publishing House
• William Somerset Maugham(1919/2015). The Moon and Sixpence. Translator:Li Jihong. Tianjin：Tianjin People's Publishing House
• Qian Zhongshu（1981). Lin Shu and His translation. Beijing:Commercial Press.
• Tu Guoyuan. "Translator's Subjectivity: A Hermeneutic Interpretation,"Chinese Translators Journal, 24 (6): 8-14pp.
• Xu Jun (2003),"'Creative Treason' and the Establishment of Subjectivity in Translation," Chinese Translators Journal, 24 (1): 6-11pp.
• Yang Yun (2008),"The Art of Blooming in Exile: A Spiritual Analysis of the Protagonist in The Moon and Sixpence," Contemporary Literature, 6:115-118pp.
• Xiong Bingjiao (2005). On Translator's Subjectivity Involvement in Translation Process.Journal of jiangxi university of finance and economics 2005 (5): 100-102pp.
• Ye Ruxiang (2013), On the Subjectivity Differences between the Two Chinese Versions. Journal of Changchun University of Science and Technology (social science edition),26 (11): 140-142pp.
• Yuan Yiying.Contrastive Analysis of the Two Chinese Versions of The Moon and Sixpence. Liaoning: Lining Normal University.
• Yu Dian.A Comparative Study of The Moon and Sixpence from the Perspective of Translator Subjectivity.Beijing: Beijing Foreign Studies University
• Huang Rong, Liang Mei. A comparative analysis of that two Chinese version of The Moon and Sixpence. Literature Education (2): 2019（11）：40-42pp.

英语笔译 李媛 Li Yuan 202170081579 CE

On the History of English Translations of The Art of War in the West and Its Insights Li Yuan

Abstract

The Art of War is a famous ancient Chinese work on military theory, and through the translation and dissemination of foreign translators, the ideas in the book have gained wide acceptance and recognition in the West. This paper takes The Art of War as the research object, mainly adopts the literature research method and interdisciplinary research method, and introduces the history and representative translations of the book in the West in three stages: from 1905 to the late 1930s, from the 1940s to the 1980s, and from the 1990s to the present. The “5W model” of Lasswell in the science of communication is adopted to interpret the wide reception of English translations of the book translated by foreign translators. The aim is to provide reference and insights for the selection of original texts, translators, translation strategies, sponsors, dissemination channels and audience analysis in the practice of English translations of Chinese classics in China, so that the works of Chinese translators can open up the foreign translation market and help Chinese language and culture to be more effectively disseminated internationally.

Key words

The Art of War; the science of communication; English translation; reception; inspiration

Introduction

The Art of War, also known as Sun Tzu and Sun Wu’s Art of War, is an ancient Chinese military book, the world’s oldest work on military theory, and one of the Seven Books of the military scriptures, written by Sun Wu in the late Spring and Autumn Period (770 AD to 476 AD). Although the number of volumes recorded in successive generations is different, the number of chapters are all thirteen, divided into the chapter of plan, combat, strategy and attack, form, momentum (shi), strength and weakness, military disputes, changes, marching, terrain, lands, fire attack, and use of the intervening. The book summarizes the experience of warfare at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and before, reveals a series of universal military laws, and puts forward many incisive rules of warfare, such as “if you know yourself and your enemy, you will not be in danger in an” battles”, “you do not need to fight to give up the army”, and “if they are not prepared, you will be able to attack them”. It contains simple materialistic and dialectical ideas, and has formed a systematic military theory system, which is highly respected and is well known at home and abroad. It was introduced to Japan in the 8th century A.D. and to Europe in the 18th century, with translations in Japanese, French, English, Russian, German, Italian, Hebrew, Arabic and other languages. At present, the earliest version of The Art of War in Chinese is the bamboo book from the Han tomb at Yinqishan; the earliest engraved version is the Seven Books of Military Theory in the reign of Emperor Xiaozong and Emperor Guangzong of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and the three-volume book of The Eleven Books of Annotation of The Art of War in the reign of Emperor Ningzong of the Southern Song Dynasty. After the unearthing of the bamboo book “Qi Sun Tzu”, it was collated and publicly published by the Cultural Relics Publishing House in 1975 under the name of Sun Tzu: The Art of War (孙子兵法).

Since the first English translation of The Art of War by E.F. Calthrop in 1905, many translators at home and abroad have translated the book into English, and more than 50 full English translations of The Art of War have been published. According to the survey data on Amazon in the UK and the US, The Art of War is very popular among readers in the English-speaking world, and the top English translations include Lionel Giles (1910), Samuel B. Griffith (1963), Thomas Cleary (1988 (1993), Ralph D. Sawyer (1993), Roger Ames (1993), Gary Gagliard (1999), The Denma Translation Group (2001), John Minford (2001). John Minford) English translation (2002), Clements (Jonathan Clements) English translation (2012), Peter Harris (Peter Harris) English translation (2018), Demeco (Michael Nylan) English translation (2020) (Zhou & Ji 2021:55). It can be seen that the English translations of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War that are more influential and widely circulated abroad are all from foreign translators. Generally speaking, although there may be mistranslations, the translation of The Art of War by some well-known Sinologists and translators abroad, taking advantage of their own academic status and fame and adopting translation strategies that are easily accepted by foreign readers, has also been a great help in promoting the foreign dissemination of the book. The influence of The Art of War has gradually expanded after its long-term popularity, and the attention to it in English-speaking countries has begun to gradually expand from text translation and military research to its application in other non-military fields, using Sun Tzu's ideas to solve difficult problems that arise in social life, making the study of The Art of War begin to develop in a diversified direction (Zhou 2019:69).

Lasswell’s “5W model” is a classic theory of communication science, which illustrates the five elements of the communication process, namely, communicator, message, communication channel, audience, and feedback. In the process of receiving the English translation of The Art of War in the West, there are also these communication elements and links, such as who initiated this translation practice, which translator translated it, through which channels it was disseminated to the West, what characteristics of foreign readers, and what was the degree of reception and feedback of readers. From the perspective of communication science, this translation practice of the English translation of The Art of War can be studied comprehensively and multidimensionally, and the reasons for its successful dissemination and acceptance in the West can be analyzed to provide reference for the general direction and specific operation process of the foreign translation of Chinese classics and to enlighten the better foreign dissemination of Chinese culture.

Literature Review

By typing in the keywords of “The Art of War”, “English translation” and “acceptance” on CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), there are only 12 relevant papers, which shows that there is a lack of research on the overseas reception of the Art of War. The current studies, such as Li Ning’s On the Overseas Reception of Lin Wusun’s English Version of the Art of War, which does a survey on the acceptance of Lin Wusun’s translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War in the translated language from three aspects: global collections, focus group readership surveys, and published reviews. As far as the acceptance of Western readers is concerned, the translations by foreign translators are more popular, while the works of Chinese translators, though highly recognized at home, are often unappreciated abroad, and many translations of Chinese texts have shifted from “export to domestic sales” (Wang 2009:6). According to WorldCat database in March of 2011, the number of collections of Samuel B. Griffith’s English translation is 985 for the 1971 edition and 856 for the 1963 edition; the number of collections of Lionel Giles’ English translation is 131 for the 2008 edition, 109 for the 2005 edition, and 79 for the 2003 edition, The collection of the Thomas Cleary’s translation is 776 for the 1988 edition; the collection of the Ralph D. Sawyer’s translation is 715 for the 1996 edition; the collection of the Denma Translation Group’s translation is 610 for the 2001 edition; the translation of John Minford’s collection was 52 for the 2009 edition and 315 for the 2002 edition; the translation of Victor H. Mair’s collection was 255 for the 2007 edition; the translation of Thomas Huynh’s collection was 224 for the 2008 edition; the translation of Roger Ames’s collection was 1 for the 1993 edition. The number of collections for the English translation by Lin Wusun is 12 for the 2007 edition, 35 for the 2001 edition, and 30 for the 1991 edition. This shows that in order to change the situation of “entertaining itself” of the Chinese translators of Library of Chinese Classics and to make Chinese culture spread to the world and become a unique part of the world culture, it is urgent to carry out research on the acceptance of the English translation of the Chinese classics from the readers’ perspective (Li 2015:81). We must open our minds to strengthen the study of the overseas reception of the English translation by Chinese translators while drawing on the power of sinologists to construct the ability to spread Chinese culture independently (Li 2018:29).

Subsequently, there are many scholars who have started to carry out research on the acceptance of Chinese texts in foreign translation from the reader’s perspective, such as Zhou Xinyi and Ji Hongqin’s Overseas Current Situation of Communication and Reflections on the English Translation of the Art of War—A Survey Based on Amazon in UK AND USA, which summarizes the reason for the successful reception of the book translated by foreign translators on the basis of the reader’s reviews on Amazon in UK and USA, and analyzes the three major problems of the English translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War by domestic translators, namely, the popularity of the translation, the quality of the translation, and the editing and binding of the translation to propose countermeasures to improve the reading experience of foreign readers. In addition to improving the “hard power” of translation quality, it is also important to improve the “soft power” of translation editing and the design of book face. Good appearance, professional editing and good printing will increase readers’ favorable impression on the translation and bring them a better reading experience (Zhou & Ji 2021:58).

The English translation and reception of Sun Tzu's The Art of War contains many elements and links, and audience analysis and feedback analysis are only two of them. The “going global” of Chinese culture is not simply a linguistic issue, but is influenced by various factors such as culture, history, society, and commercial publishing (Li 2018:29). No one has yet studied the insights of the successful reception of the English translation of The Art of War by foreign translators in the West from the perspective of communication science. The translation and acceptance of The Art of War in the West is a communication process itself, so it is practical to analyze the characteristics of the translation history of Sun Tzu's The Art of War in the West and the insights from successful translations from the perspective of communication science.

Communication Theory--Lasswell's "5W Model"

The science of communication appeared in the 1920s, and it was designated as an independent discipline in the 1940s. The 1980s witnessed further gains in the 1980s witnessed further gains in popularity of this subject. communication science is to study the process of human communication behaviors and the relationship between people and society. When it comes to communication process, many scholars have proposed their own models, among which 5W models of Harold Lasswell is one of the most classical. classical. In his magnum opus, The Structure and Function of Communication in Society (2017), Harold Lasswell gave a description of the act of communication: Convenient way to describe an act of communication is to answer the following questions: Who Says What In Which Channel To Whom With What Effect? The scientific study of the process of communication tends to be concentrated upon one or another of these questions. Scholars who study the “who”, the communicator, look into the factors that initiate and guide the act of communication. Specialists who focus upon the “says what” engage in content analysis. Those who look primarily at the radio, press, film, and other channels of communication are doing media analysis. If the question is the impact upon audiences, the problem is effect analysis (2017: 3-4).

This is the detailed explanation of Lasswell”s 5W models, including five factors in the communication process, namely communicator, information, media, audience and effect. “Who” refers to the communicator, a person who collects, handles and sends the information in the communication process. The communicator can be only one person, a community or an organization, who is to make the communication process get started. “Say What” means the content of the information, which can be verbal or non-verbal. It can also be considered as the purpose of the communication activity. “In Which Channel” is the media through which the information is sent by the communicator. It can be private forms like letters or telephones, and it can also be mass media such as newspaper, television or radio. “To Whom” stands for the audience who receive the information from the communicator by a certain channel. As the final part of the communication process, they can be readers, listeners or spectators. “With What Effect” refers to the audience’s reaction to the information. It can be called feedback as well, measuring whether the communication activity is effective or not. In fact, there are many similarities between the communication process and the translation process. The author is the communicator, the information is the original text, and the audience is the target reader. However, there is one more link which occurs between the information and the media in the translation process. It is the translator who renders the original information and transmit the translated information to the target reader through a certain medium. In this sense, the effect is the target reader’s feedback to the translated information, which can be used to assess the quality of the version. From this point of view, the property of translation is a communication activity containing the exchange of information, thus providing a basis for studying translation process from the perspective of communication science.

The History and Characteristics of the English Translation of The Art of War in the West from the Perspective of Communication

The history of the English translation of The Art of War can be divided into three stages. This paper will select representative translations of each stage and analyze the characteristics of each stage from the perspective of communication on the basis of Lasswell’s “5W model”.

First Phase: 1905 to the 1930s

The representative translations of this period are E.F. Calthrop’s English translation in 1905 and Lionel Giles’s English translation in 1910. From the two elements of initiator and translator, Calthrop and Lionel Giles are both the initiator and the translator of the translation practice of Sun Tzu's Art of War. The difference lies in their different purposes of translating the book. Calthrop was a British captain studying in Japan at that time. Having seeing that the Japanese naval commander at that time carried Sun Tzu's Art of War with him and used the art of war to guide his operations with very satisfactory results, he wanted to translate the military ideas in the book to England, so he translated it into English by using the Japanese version of the book as a base. Lionel Giles, on the other hand, was a sinologist, influenced by his father, Herbert A. Giles, and had a strong interest in Chinese culture, a solid background in sinology, and a rigorous approach to learning. In this way, from the point of view of the information, that is, the original text sent and translated by Calthrop and Lionel Giles is different. one was translated through the intermediary language Japanese, and the other was directly translated through the source language version. In terms of the channel of dissemination, that is, the media, both translations are disseminated in the form of books. From the perspective of the target audience, that is, the readers, Calthrop mainly wanted to translate Sun Tzu's Art of War into English for officers to refer to and learn from the operational ideas in it when commanding operations. Lionel Giles, on the other hand, did not translate The Art of War for a specific purpose, so his target audience was not a specific group of people, but to translate the book to the whole foreign readership in an attempt to introduce and spread the traditional Chinese culture. Finally, from the viewpoint of the dissemination effect, that is, the reader’ feedback, Calthrop did not translate from the Chinese text, but from the Japanese text, so in this process, there are inevitably mistranslations and omissions that do not match the original Chinese text. At the same time, Calthrop was not a professional translator, and his translation level was limited. He chose to omit or pass over some difficult chapters, and the final English translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War is definitely not of high quality. In contrast, Lionel Giles chose the original Chinese text as the base text, and with his proficiency in both Chinese and English, and his rigorous attitude as a sinologist, his translation is smooth, and rhythmic, which is not only translating the Chinese version of The Art of War, but also introducing the person who made the commentary for the original text one by one, providing a wealth of information for the western readers to understand the knowledge in ancient Chinese culture, and it is still a classic work, and has a very profound influence on the spread of Sun Tzu’s thought in the Western world (Tu & Wu, 2011:188).

Second Phase: the 1940s to the 1980s

One of the representative English translations of The Art of War of this period is the 1963 translation by American Brigadier General Samuel Griffith, which was popular in the West at the time and was included in the UNESCO series of translations of representative Chinese classics, and has been reprinted several times since then, becoming an Amazon top bestseller for more than 100 weeks and taking over the authoritative status of Lionel Giles’ English translation in the entire Western world. Thus, from the feedback of readers, Griffith’s English translation is very effective in spreading. Like Calthrop and Lionel Giles, Griffith’s translation of The Art of War was initiated by the transaltor himself, and the purpose of the translation, like Calthrop, was influenced by the context of the times and the desire to use the Art of War to formulate operational guidelines in battles. The channel of dissemination of Griffith’s translation was also in the form of book, and the target audience was narrowly himself, who translated Sun Tzu’s Art of War to guide his own military combat practice, but in a broader sense, with the development of the times, the target reader should be any group of people interested in military theory. His translation interprets Sun Tzu's thought well from the perspective of military strategy, discusses Sun Tzu's view of war, and observes the relationship between The Art of War and Mao Zedong’s thought, while having a clear tendency to naturalize in its translation strategy (Tu & Wu, 2011:188). Another representative version is James Clavell’s 1983 edition, which is a reprint of the English translation by Lionel Giles. Again, he was both the initiator of the translation activity and the translator himself. From the information of the original text, he relied on Lionel Giles’ translation, added his own commentary to the translation, targeted the entire Western readership, and disseminated the book through the same channel. He paid attention to readers’ feedback by focusing on the common style of the translation to make it more acceptable to Western readers. In the 1980s, the purpose of translating Sun Tzu's The Art of War changed from military studies to popularizing Chinese culture and its ancient philosophical thought.

Third phase: the 1990s to present

After a long period of popularity, the influence of The Art of War has gradually expanded, and the attention to it in English-speaking countries began to gradually expand from translation of the text and military research to its application in other non-military fields by using Sun Tzu’s ideas to solve difficult problems arising in social life, which made the research on The Art of War begin to develop in a diversified direction (Zhou, 2019:69) In this phase, from 1991 to 2010, 21 English translations of The Art of War appeared in just 20 years (Tu & Wu 2011:189), each with a different focus, promoting the translation and dissemination of The Art of War and contributing to the spread of Chinese culture. Among them, the process of translating The Art of War by the American Denma translation group in 2002 has its unique characteristics. Although the initiator and translator are still the same, the initiator and translator of the translation of The Art of War by the Denma group are no longer a single individual, but a group focused on translation consisting of several individuals, whose research on The Art of War took 10 years and adopted the translation strategy of foreignization. The target audience is all Western readers who are interested in Chinese culture. In terms of dissemination channels, in addition to the traditional use of books as the main channel, the Denma group has set up a relevant website, where it posts its own translations from time to time during the translation process in an attempt to welcome scholars and researchers from all over the world to read and discuss, give suggestions for changes, and explain reasons. Such a practice puts the translation and dissemination of The Art of War into a circular mode. Instead of waiting until the end of the whole translation activity to give feedback to the initiators and translators, readers can give their own feedback directly to the translators during the translation activity, which can fully activate the Western readers and enhance the dissemination effect.

Insights from Reception of English Translations of The Art of War in the West from the Perspective of Communication

From the perspective of the initiator of translation activities, the initiators of many foreign translation activities of Chinese classics are currently undertaken by publishing houses. In order to achieve a good dissemination effect, as the initiator, the publisher must act as a good gatekeeper to ensure a reasonable interaction between each element and link of translation, dissemination and reception. As can be seen from the above, the English translations of Sun Tzu's The Art of War that are currently more popular among the Western readership are all translated by foreign translators and published by foreign publishers. This also gives the initiators of translation activities an inspiration: in order to make the Chinese classic texts more effectively translated and accepted in the West, it is necessary to penetrate into the Western reading market and find more authoritative and famous foreign publishers to cooperate in publishing translations of Chinese classic texts, which will make the translation and dissemination activities more effective. By exploring the foreign reading market through well-known foreign publishers and knowing the kinds of books Western readers like, the initiator will know what kind of information to send. That is to say, the publisher will have a reference for the selection of the original text to be translated, because the selection of the appropriate original text for translation and dissemination is a prerequisite for successful acceptance by readers.

Secondly, the choice of translators is also important. According to the history of English translation of The Art of War, it can be found that the translations by foreign translators are easier to appear and circulate in the foreign reading market, because many foreign translators are quite famous abroad. The Art of War has been translated into English for hundreds of years, and there are many versions available for its retranslation, which basically do not produce serious translation errors. However, for many Chinese texts that do not have English translations or only English translations by domestic translators, if they are only translated by foreign translators, mistranslation problems will easily occur due to the lack of grasp of the meaning of the original text. For example, the Art of War, if Wusun Lin’s translation can reach a wider audience, it will have positive significance in constructing a Chinese image in the culture of the translated language, spreading Chinese wisdom, and correcting mistranslations and distortions in previous translations (Li 2018: 28). But if only domestic translators are left to translate, foreign readers’ acceptance will not be high due to their low availability abroad and lack of understanding of foreign readers’ reading preferences. Therefore, it is advisable to adopt the mode of cooperative translation between foreign translators and domestic translators, which can not only be a gatekeeper in the correct understanding of the original text, but also open the foreign reading market with the reasonable help of foreign translators’ popularity and experience. The innovation of translation mode also means the innovation of communication channels, and the most traditional communication channel is in the form of books. But very often, foreign readers will lose their interest in reading when looking at the obscure translation before they understand the main content of the book. Modern elements and technologies can be adopted to launch a new mode of communication. In order to improve the reception of foreign readers to the translation of Chinese classics, we must first understand where the obstacles to their reading are in order to give the right remedy, and then a reasonable and effective feedback mechanism is very important. Readers are no longer passive recipients of the translation, but active participants in the process of translation output, which is worth learning from.

Conclusion

The Art of War is a famous Chinese classic at home and abroad, summarizes the experience of warfare at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and before, reveals a series of universal military laws, and puts forward many incisive rules of warfare. It can still have a space to play its role in the modern world to help people solve problems in their daily life. Since the first English translation appeared in 1905, several hundred years have passed, and a large number of excellent translations have contributed greatly to the dissemination of Chinese culture in the West. The translation and acceptance of The Art of War in the West is itself a communication process, in which the initiator, translator, target audience and feedback become different at different times, each with its own characteristics. The focus of translation also extends from military theory to the use of the ideas in The Art of War to solve problems in all aspects of life. The translation and dissemination process of the book is similar to the process of communication, with similar elements and links. Interpreting the wide acceptance of the English translation of The Art of War by foreign translators in the West from the perspective of communication science, we can see that it is feasible and necessary to introduce communication science into translation research, which can provide reference and insights for the selection of the original text, the selection of translators, the selection of translation strategies, the selection of initiators, the selection of communication channels, and the analysis of audiences in the practical activities of foreign translation of Chinese classics. In order to open up the overseas reading market, cooperation with famous foreign publishers is beneficial to select suitable original books for translation. In terms of translation quality, Chinese and foreign translators can cooperate in the process of translation. In light of media, the mode of communication with the help of modern elements can seek innovation, and a feedback system for readers’ participation in the translation process can look forward to establishment, so as to help Chinese language and culture to spread internationally more effectively.

References

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• Li Ning [李宁](2018). On the Overseas Reception of English Versions of Chinese classics—Case Study of Lin Wusun’s English Version of the Art of War [从《孙子兵法》林译本看中华典籍国人英译本海外接受研究]. Foreign Language and Translation[《外语与翻译》], (4): 27-30 pp.
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英语笔译 梁思婷 Liang Siting 202170081581 MW

On the Reception of Vanity Fair in China Liang Siting

Abstract:

Vanity Fair is a long novel written by William Makepeace Thackeray. With his special sarcasm, this novel hit the nail in his age and the ages below. Its reception in China is an important topic as there had already been many versions, but few understandings of these versions exist. This thesis will introduce the versions and compare and contrast some of the versions under the Reader’s Response Theory so as to see how this novel is accepted in China.

Keywords:

Vanity Fair; Reception; Reader’s Response Theory

Introduction

Vanity Fair is a long novel written by the nineteenth-century English critical realist writer William Makepeace Thackeray. The author, with a rounded and spirited hand, paints a picture of the aristocratic bourgeoisie of nineteenth-century England in all its extravagance and rivalry, ruthlessly exposing the shameless and corrupt nature of the feudal aristocracy and the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie in pursuit of fame and fortune. The novel is a true depiction of the ugly faces and the weak and deceitful interpersonal relationships of the decadent aristocrats and bourgeois profiteers of the British high society during the Regency period of 1810-1820. The protagonist of the story, Becky Sharp, is a pretty girl with a good sense of humor. She has tasted poverty and is determined to take control of her own destiny and escape from her predicament. She does whatever she can to get to the top by flattery and backdoor, forming a caring and emotional story. Vanity Fair" takes the life of two young women, Becky Sharp and Amelia Settles, as the main line, showing the life of the upper class in early 19th century England. The story of "Vanity Fair" unfolds in two threads, starting from the same starting point, intertwining, and finally reaching the same end. One of them is about a kind, clumsy woman, Amelia Settasa, who lives in a rich family; the other is about a witty, selfish and debauched orphan girl, Becky Sharp. Both left Pinkerton School for Girls in the same carriage in 1813, and both married in 1815, over the objections of their families, to two British officers about to fight in the Battle of Waterloo. Shortly after their marriage, the historic battle was fought. Amelia Settasa's husband died on the battlefield, and Becky Sharp's husband survived the battle. For the next ten years, Becky Sharp lived a smooth life, climbing the social ladder until she had the honor of meeting with the king, while Amelia Setkasa suffered great misfortune due to her father's bankruptcy. In 1827, fate reverses and Becky Sharp's life falls into the abyss of ruin, which she actually deserves, while Amelia Setkasa becomes rich and happy.

Versions of Vanity Fair in China

Up to now, there are quite a lot versions in China. The 1957 version translated by Yang Bi, which is also the most classic version, was published by the People's Literature Press; the 1996 version by Peng Changjiang was published by the Hunan Literature and Arts Press. Their translations are the two translations that have received the most academic attention and comparison. There are also some lesser-known translations, including the 2001 translation by Jia Wenhao and Jia Wenyuan published by Yanshan Publishing House in Beijing; the 2001 version by Ji Jianlin of Inner Mongolia Culture Children and Youth Publishing House; the 2003 version by Gao Yuqi and Zuo Zhiqun published by China Zhi Gong Publishing House; the 2007 version by Rong Rude published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House, the 2007 version by Xie Ling published by Guangzhou Publishing House in 2007, and Xie Ling's version published by Guangzhou Publishing House in 2007; Zhao Feikiang's version published by Inner Mongolia People's Publishing House in 2010. In this thesis, the Author will mainly focus on the first two versions, the Yang’s version and Peng’s version. By making comparison, the author hopes to reveal the novel’s reception in China.

Reader’s Response Theory by Nida

Nida, a famous translation theorist, assimilates the main idea of reader response criticism into his own translation theory and puts forward the distinction of “dynamic equivalence". He stressed the concept of “reader s response" theory that regarded the target readers as important factor in evaluating translation, which was a significant step forward in the study of the role of the target readers. Dynamic Equivalence is therefore to be defined in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors in the source language. This response can never be identical, for the cultural and historical settings are too different, but there should be a high degree of equivalence of response, or the translator will have failed to accomplish its purpose. (Nida: 1964,24) This concept attempts to move away from the old idea that a word had its meaning towards a functional definition of meaning in which a word had a fixed meaning through its context and could produce various responses according to culture. He also came to realize that the meaning could not be divorced from the personal experience and the conceptual framework of the person receiving the message. The viewpiont that the message of the original text can be determined and can elicit the same response is based on the two assumptions he makes. Firstly, the universalists view that “anything which can be said in one language can be said in another language, unless the form is an essential element of the message”. Secondly, the communicative view that the focus of translation is shifted to the role of the receptor. (Nida &Taber, 1964:4) Thus, through defining Dynamic Equivalence from this perspective, Nida states that the significance of their approach lies in the shift of focus in translating: “The new focus, however, has shifted from the form of the message to the response of the receptor' "(Nida&Taber:1969,1). Equivalence is measured through the comparison between the receptor' s response to the translated text and the original text. Then what the translator concerns is no only whether he is faithful to the original message, but also that he must determine what is the response of the receptor to the translated message and then compare it with the way in which the original receptors presumably react to the message when it was given in its original setting (Nida&Taber:1969,1). In other words, the measurement of the correctness of the message is not in the form itself, but in how the target readership responds to the translated text. It is the target reader s response that decides the correctness of the message. Since translating belongs to a type of reciprocal communicating, the final effect depends on what is received by the audience when it is hearing or reading a translation. “The readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciate it". So Nida also stresses that judging the validity of a translation cannot stop with a comparison of corresponding lexical meanings, grammatical classes, and rhetorical devices. What is important is the extent to which receptors correctly understand and appreciate the translated text (Nida: 1993,117). The introduction of the dynamic equivalence is crucial in introducing a receptor-based orientation to translation theory. In order to achieve the intended response, a translator has the license to change and simplify the procedure, and all potential difficulties are elided to solicit a unified response, which is equivalent to the fact that the meaning and response have been completely identified by translator. To some extent, this theory is reasonable, because if the translator does not take the reader s response into consideration, his translation would not .be called a successful one. However, the readers of translated literary works have different responses to the same literary work because they often have a large imaginative space and the growth of his age and experiences and so on. It is obvious that the readers of the target text can hardly obtain equivalent responses because they have different cultural backgrounds, different aesthetic tendencies and different ideologies.

General Review of the Two Versions

Nida (1964:154) says:" Intellectual honesty requires the translator to be as free as possible from the personal intrusion in the communication process. The translator should never tack on his own intellectual and emotional outlook. He must exert every effort to reduce to a minimum any intrusion of himself which is not in harmony with the intent of the original author and message." It may be recognized that literature is a sort of art of language; and literary translation is the re-creation of language's art. In fact, what is called for is a proper word in a proper place. It is the same for the Chinese translation of Vanity Fair. "Literature is an art of language and translation and a translation of a literary work is a re-creation of the art of language. The reason why Vanity Fair is universally acknowledged as a fine translation is that the translator has, on the other hand, tried his utmost to keep the charm of the original and on the other taken the law and usage of his mother tongue into full consideration. As a result, so pure, natural and colorful a Chinese translation is achieved that the reader can be inspired, moved, and aesthetically entertained in the same way as he reads the origna."(孙致礼，“评《名利场》中译本的语言特色”，《翻译通讯》，1984, 10.) Yang's version of Vanity Fair has been not only applauded by the common readers but also commended by the translators. The Chinese version by Yang Bi reads very smooth. Though it is not perfect, it is outstanding in the diction and well-organized sentences. There are reasons for it. On one hand, Yang does not stickle to the original work, but changes the sentence structures and sentence components flexibly and neatly according to the norms and practices of modern Chinese. On the other hand, Yang is not constrained or restricted by the given corresponding explanation in the dictionary. Observed from the perspective of reader's reception theory, the reason why all those above-mentioned and some other characteristics of Yang's translation are worthy of praise is that they could arouse Chinese readers' great interest in reading this book from the beginning to the end without a single sense of ennui, and may also bring them to a much better understanding and quite similar aesthetic enjoyment of the novel. It is no surprise that Peng's version makes some improvements over Yang's, for the latter was published about forty years later. As analyzed above, Peng is superior to Yang in the translation of the characters' names. Naming characters is an important rhetorical technique for satire and humor in this novel of Thackeray's, and Peng's special way of renaming the characters can awaken Chinese readers' reception, and thus make them mentally involve in the re-creation of the work and reproduce the similar rhetorical effect in practice. As for Yang, she simply gives the battle at this point by the practice of pure transliteration. As the newly translated product forty years later, Peng's version has something surpassing besides the name's translation. Peng's understanding of “Vanity Fair" is evidently further than that of Yang's with the advance of the times. His means of expression in translating is more diversified and has achieved satisfactory effect(尹伯安:2000,79). Generally speaking, of the two Chinese versions of Vanity Fair, each has its distinctive characteristics worthy of study. Taking one with another, however, it might be seen through the comparative studies of the above examples that Peng’ s translation does not agree with the whole satirical and humorous context of the original book because of his frequent stickling to the exterior appearance of the writing. Then, from the reader' s reception perspective, his version might be hard to nourish the reader' s reading interest as a whole, and thus in a certain extent hampers the Chinese reader from understanding and appreciating of the novel.

Case Study of the Versions

1. In the beginning, Thackeray uses a lot of vivid words to describe the characters in the marketplace, making them very vivid. The first character who appears in front of readers in the article is the Manager of Performance, for which Yang translates as "foreman", which is closer to the background of the time and more suitable for the identity of people who make a living by selling arts in the marketplace. Li's "舞台监督" and Jia's "演出编导" are more in line with the customary names of people in the 21st century, but they seem too advanced in the environment of the early 19th century. In addition, the use of "supervisor" or "choreographer" is also too formal and does not fit the identity and status of the character. Therefore, the choice of words cannot be separated from the specific context of the time, and the British translation theorist Newmark says that no word is an island entire to itself (1990: 100). (1990: 100). Our scholar Mr. Wang Zuoliang also says that context is not just a matter of language, but speech is a social act, and the context actually provides a social occasion or situation, and it is it that determines the meaning of words. Therefore, when we translate, we must find a word that fits the context. 2. In this paragraph, there is this sentence: "there are bullies pushing about". Yang translates it as "到处横行的强梁汉子the strong beams of men who roam everywhere", but "strong beams of men" seems to be unfamiliar to readers nowadays, because the frequency of this word is very low in the language nowadays, and it is difficult for readers to understand its precise meaning, and they can only rely on It is difficult for readers to understand its precise meaning, and they have to rely on guessing. In contrast, Li's and Jia's translations are very clear and unambiguous. Li translates the word as "有人横行霸道，恃强凌弱”, which means: someone who is domineering and bullying. Jia translates it as "暴徒thugs", which is very easy to understand. 3. For the word "quacks", the three translators differ again. Yang translates it as "走江湖吃四方的those who go around the world and eat the four directions". The literal meaning of "quacks" is "江湖医生", and the translation of "doctors of the jungle" is equivalent to those who walk in the jungle, which means that the translators have extended the meaning of the original work, and thus do not follow the meaning of the original text well. The translation of Jia as "卖假药的sellers of counterfeit medicines", where the "jianghu doctors" are generally classified as "sellers of counterfeit medicines", is that the translator has narrowed the scope of the meaning of the original work. In this case, it is easy for the reader to fail to understand the meaning of the original work because of the translator's mistranslation. Li's direct translation of the word as "charlatan doctor" is the most accurate, and is completely faithful to the content of the original, with natural and clear expression. The reader can read it clearly and easily. According to Neda, "translation is a kind of intercultural communication, in which it depends on what people get when they listen, speak and read the translation. The usefulness of a translation should not be judged by the corresponding lexical meanings, grammatical categories and rhetorical comparisons, but by the extent to which the recipient correctly understands and appreciates the translated text". (Eugene A Nida. 1991:156- 159). Since translation is a kind of communication, no analysis of communication is complete without a comprehensive study of the message of the receiver of the message. The emphasis on reader response is intended to enable the reader of the translated text to understand and appreciate a text in much the same way as the reader of the original language. The expression of the translated text is perfectly smooth and natural. A smooth and natural translation can enable readers to better understand the original text, avoid cultural conflicts, eliminate cultural barriers, and ultimately achieve the purpose of cultural exchange. (2) The language should be vivid and formally beautiful Next, let's look at the activities of various characters in the marketplace. 1. "There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilt ing, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing, and fiddling." Yang translates, "市场上有的在吃喝，有的人在调情，有的得了新宠就丢了旧爱，有的在笑，也有的在哭，还有在抽烟的，打架的，跳舞的，拉提琴的，诓骗哄人的。" Jia: "人群中食客在大吃大喝；喜新厌旧的情人在调情打趣；有人放声大笑，有人伤心落泪；有人抽烟，有人闲聊，有人跳舞，有人拉琴。" Li translates, "市场上，有人在大吃大喝，有人在打情骂俏，另寻新欢，有人在大笑不止，有人在哭得死去活来，有人在猛抽烟，有人到处行骗，有人在大打出手，有人在手舞足蹈，有人在到处胡闹。." According to the author, it was a chaotic marketplace. When translating, you have to find out the right words to describe those characters in their backgrounds in order to make the characters more distinctive. Yang and Jia's translations are more formal, such as "得了新宠就丢了旧爱losing old favorites when you get new ones" and "调情打趣flirting and joking", which are very elegant expressions. In contrast, Li's "flirting and finding a new love" is more in line with the vulgarity of the common people in the city, and the wording is more apt. In addition, especially in the area of crying, Yang's translation is the word "苦crying", and the reader cannot well appreciate the extent to which people in the marketplace cry, while Jia's "伤心落泪sadness and tears" seems to be a more static word, giving people a feeling of silent tears and gloom, which is not in line with the This is out of place in the crowded market. Li's translation of "哭得死去活来weeping to death" accurately allows readers to experience the characteristics of crying in the market. In the article "Aesthetic Effect is Important in Literary Translation", Zheng Dahua mentioned that the expression in literary works must be accurate and expressive, and the language has vividness and formal beauty. Therefore, this sentence of Li's translation fully reflects the expressiveness of Li's language and makes the readers deeply feel the vividness of the language that the author of the original wanted to reflect. For the translation of "cheating, fighting, dancing, and fiddling", Yang translates it as "打架的，跳舞的，拉提琴的，诓骗哄人的fighting, dancing, playing the fiddle, swindling and coaxing", first of all, "swindling and coaxing". Firstly, the word order of the phrase "swindling and cajoling" has been adjusted in the translation; secondly, the structure of these parallel phrases is not symmetrical with that of the translation he made earlier. The sudden change in the form of the sentences will make the readers feel abrupt and produce incoherence in their understanding when the original author is describing the same scene. On this point, Li and Jia have grasped it very well, and there is no problem of sentence structure. As Lu Xun says, "凡是翻译，必须兼顾着两面，一当然力求其易解，一则保留着原作的丰姿All translations must take into account both sides, one of which is to strive for easy comprehension and the other to preserve the richness of the original work." (1984: 244- 250) This requires that while conveying the ideological meaning of the original work, we also pay attention to maintaining the formal beauty of the original.

Conclusion

In literary translation, there are great deal of valuable and illuminating views and theories about translating. We can find the approaches of semiotics, pragmatics, semantics, and etc. There is no one as a fixed and everlasting law of translation. There can be and are various theories of translation. But, first of all, given the inherent linguistic and cultural barriers involved, the act of translating is expected to provide a transparent window to the audience on how the textual gaps are bridged or the potential is realized. As Nida says: “different theories of translating can help people understand aspects of communication which would remain otherwise obscure or elusive." It might, from all that has been said so far in this thesis, come as no surprise that the orientation toward the receptor's reception can not only help the translator to avoid awkwardness in expression, but, much more significantly, it helps him to create a comparatively more comprehensive version, in which the target language reader can work out the true meaning of the source language text in the cooperative process of interactions. In fact, only with the active participation and processing effort of the reader can the re-creation and aesthetic appreciation of the literary work be finally and successfully completed. This idea is as helpful to the literary research and production as to translation theory and practice. Since translation is the reciprocal communication bridging different peoples and cultures, great attention has to be paid to the audience as well as to the writer or speaker. Taking into consideration the expecting response of the reader and regarding him as the active receptor, the translator will be able to survey the translating process all-sidedly, to fix on as many as possible the problems worthy of care, and then to dope out the strategies in point so as to transfer the closest translation to his readers. As for appreciating the novel of Vanity Fair, in which satire is the main rhetorical force, the operation of reader's reception seems exceptionally significant. The understanding and interpretation of satire itself requires the reader to work out the underlying meaning behind the appearances of expression with his own experience and intelligence. In other words, compared with that of the other figures of speech, the appreciation of satire depends all the more on the reader's active effort. Satire works in various ways. Through the above observations of certain main employments of satire in this paper, i.e. naming characters, irony,' and rhetorical question, one might come to see that when translating the satire in Vanity Fair, the translator should always work for the sake of both the novel's whole settings and the reader's reception. He should be obliged to activate his reader's reaction on the basis of the whole environment of the book in every possible way. Thus the satirical sense can be rightly achieved and appreciated in the end.

Admittedly, no laws are dictated here and the reception theory cannot and will not become the exclusive criterion for translation, since the gap between emphasis on source language and target language would perhaps still remain as the overriding problem in translation theory and practice. Furthermore, how successfully this idea can be practiced in translating works other than Vanity Fair is perhaps moot. This study, however, does introduce a fresh perspective for the translation theorists and translators to investigate and undertake the practice of translation. And it will be a significant dimension for judging the products of translation. A translator has to always cherish the consciousness of his readership in his mind. Attaching importance to the reader's reception, the translator will be able to create a relatively superior version; taking it lightly, he may as likely as not produce a less effective one. Clearly, literary translation is an endless task. This study is only at a tentative but seemingly promising start. Much has still to be done to dig into the significance and impact of the reader's reception criticism in the field of translation.

Reference

[1] Nida, E. A. Toward A Science of Translating. [J] Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1964: 24,154。 [2] Nida, E. A. and Charles R. Taber. [J] The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969.1 [3] Nida, E. A. Language. Culture, and Translating. [M] Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1993，117. ［4］李明.翻译批评与赏析.武汉：武汉大学出版社，2006. ［5］李运兴.语篇翻译引论［M］.北京：中国对外翻译出版公司，2000. ［6］鲁迅“题未定”草［C］.中国翻译工作者协会《翻译通讯》编辑部选编.翻译研究论文(1894- 1948).北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1984. ［7］［英］萨克雷著，贾文浩，贾文渊译.名利场.北京：北京燕山出版社，2005. ［8］［英］萨克雷著，杨必译,名利场.北京：人民文学出版社，2000. ［9］［英］萨克雷著，彭长江译,名利场.湖南人民文学出版社，1991. ［10］郑达华.文学翻译重在审美效果［J］.中国翻译,1999(6).

英语笔译 廖诗韵 Liao Shiyun 202170081582 CE

On the translation of Three Body Problem from the perspective of Feminist Translation Theory Liao Shiyun

Abstract

In 2015, the English translation of The Three Body Problem won the Hugo Award for Best Long Story Award. That marks the first time that a Chinese local science fiction novel has entered the international world and is recognized by the international community. It is a model for Chinese culture to go global. The book contains a lot of Chinese words, as well as sexist content. That can not only cause reading difficulties for foreign readers but also arouse the resistance of foreign readers who attach importance to gender equality. Therefore, the two translators, Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen, consciously added the necessary background information, and deleted and rewritten the content of discrimination against women, showing the subjectivity of the translators. Therefore, the popularity of the book Three Body Trilogy in the United States could not have been achieved without Liu Cixin's creation, and even more so without Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen's translation.

This paper briefly introduces the background information of the two translators, reviews the development of feminist translation theory, and studies the strategies and methods adopted by the translators in translating the novel from the perspective of feminist translation theory. From the case analysis, the author finds out that the two translators adopted strategies including footnotes, de-gendering, supplementation and hijacking to produce high-quality translations and explores the gender consciousness and the subjectivity of the translators reflected in the translation.

Key words

Feminist Translation Theory; The Three Body Problem; translation strategies; the subjectivity of the translators

Introduction

The Three Body Problem is a long sci-fi novel written by Liu Cixin, a Chinese sci-fi author. In 2015, the English translation of the first book in the trilogy won the Hugo Award for Best Long Story Award given by the World Science Fiction Association at the 73rd World Science Fiction Conference in Spokane, Washington. That marks the first time that Chinese local science fiction novel has entered the international world and is recognized by the international community. The translator of the first book and the third book "Death's End" is Ken Liu, who is Chinese American. He is both a science fiction writer and a novel translator. The translator of the second book, The Dark Forest, is Joel Martinsen, an American translator who is a native English speaker. The popularity of the book Three Body Trilogy in the United States could not have been achieved without Liu Cixin's creation, and even more so without Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen's translation. Since its publication, "The Three Body Problem" has received much discussion in China due to its sexist sequences. How did it gain wide circulation and popularity in the Western countries that value gender equality? This paper will study the strategies and methods adopted by the translators in translating the novel from the perspective of feminist translation theory and explore the gender consciousness and the subjectivity of the translators reflected in the translation.

Literature Review

The 21st century is an era where there are various modes of translation research, and Western countries have gained fruitful achievements in the study of translation theory. With the flourishing of feminism, translation research has undergone a major change, namely the "cultural turn" in the 1980s. In the 16th century, feminist thoughts emerged in England and France, which were leading the way in economic and social development. Feminist movements were carried out in society. In the second half of the 19th century and again in the 1950s, the feminist movement reached its peak. Feminist translation is one of the manifestations of the feminist movement in terms of discourse. Feminists pursued gender equality in literature and translation, creating a world of literature and translation that gave a voice to women. Subsequently, feminist translation theory first appeared on the historical stage. Sherry Simon, from a constructivist perspective, attempts to foreground the role of gender in translation, arguing that translation work simultaneously provokes and confuses the links between self and group, identity and alienation (Simon, 1996. 158). Simone De Beauvoir also argues that men and women explicitly affirm their brotherhood through their innate differences (De Beauvoir,1956:687). Feminist translators believe that women have the same status as men and that translators have the same status as authors. They advocate translator subjectivity, and take gender factors as an important part of it. They believe that feminist translators can revise and rewrite the content of the original work that is not in line with feminism and discriminates against women. Luise Von Flotow, Canadian literary translator and translation theorist, published Translation and Gender: Translating in the “Era of Feminism” in 2004. This landmark work in feminist translation studies explains the relationship between translation and gender in terms of theory and practice, and explores three translation strategies commonly used by feminist translators, namely, prefaces and footnotes, supplements, and "hijacking."（Flotow, 2004:157）。 It is the tireless efforts of feminist translation researchers that have led to a major breakthrough in the field of translation studies. It has had a tremendous impact on people's traditional thinking, providing a new interpretation of translation studies and overturning the traditional translation principle of "fidelity". In short, feminist translation theory has continued to develop. People have begun to abandon traditional translation theories and strategies in order to completely eliminate discrimination against women and achieve gender equality.

The domestic translation circle started late in the study of feminist translation theory. In 1999, Mu Lei, a renowned female translator, first noticed that gender problem was an important factor in translation, in her writing Heartstrings—the Interview with Jin Shenghua published in Chinese Translation Journal (Mu 1999). In his book Explorations in Contemporary Western Translation Theory, Liao Qiyi first explored the influence of feminism on translation (Liao 2000). And in Re-write the myths: Feminism and translation studies, he tries to reveal the role played by the feminist critical paradigm in translation studies by analyzing examples (Liao 2002). Ge Xiaoqin, in her article "The Essence of Feminist Translation", summarizes the essence of feminist translation and its contribution to translation studies and cultural criticism and points out the epistemology, practice and methodology brought by feminist translation, by discussing the ideological origins of feminist translation(Ge 2003). It can be seen that the period between 1999 and 2003 was the initial stage of feminist translation theory. There was no more in-depth and comprehensive research yet. In 2004, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press began to introduce Flotow's masterpiece, Translation and Gender-Translating in the ‘Era of Feminism’, marking a dramatic change in translation studies. Thus, the year 2004 became a watershed year between the first and second phases, shaping the characteristics of feminist translation theory. It is necessary to mention the following masterpieces: In "The Origin, Development and Present Condition of Feminist Translation Theory in Canada," Liu Yaru examines the origin, development and present condition of Canadian feminist translation theory (Liu 2005)。In A Tentative Study on Women Translators’ Rewriting from the Perspective of Feminism—A Case Study of Two Chinese Translations of The Color Purple, Lü traces the gender metaphors in Western feminist translations from the perspective of cultural studies (Lü 2006). In 2004, the fourth issue of Chinese Translation Journal launched a column on "Feminist Translation Research", which included five representative papers. Since then, domestic research on feminist translation has been developing continuously. The number of articles on feminist translation theory has gradually increased. Articles introducing and discussing it from different perspectives enrich and develop feminist translation theory, and at the same time encourage more translation researchers to pay attention to the practical research of feminist translation theory and to use the theory to evaluate works, especially female translation works.

Methods and Theories

Feminist theory has brought to translation research not only a gender-conscious perspective, but a new mode of thinking and a different research direction. In addition to vigorously advocating women's voices and challenging the traditional conceptions of translation in the field, feminists also strive to motivate translators to take the initiative in the translation process and propose a female discourse based on gender identity. Many feminist scholars and translators have attempted to redefine the delicate relationship between the original text and the target text by completely overturning the traditional mainstream conceptions of translation theory. In terms of theoretical research and translation practice, Chamberlain(1992) explains that the central concept of feminist translation theory is the deconstruction of the original text in the language and the elimination of gender discrimination. Therefore, it is necessary to strike a balance between translation and target text to reveal the essence of feminine consciousness. Therefore, it is necessary to strike a balance between translation and the target text to reveal the essence of feminine consciousness. In China, a group of scholars led by Mu Lei categorized the main principles of Western feminist translation scholars into four major categories: gender and translation, deconstructing "fidelity," emphasizing the importance of the translator's subjectivity, and rewriting in the name of feminine consciousness.

In feminist translation practice, the subjectivity of translators is reflected not only in the choice of texts but also in the choice of translation strategies. Feminist translators firmly believe that translation is a political act, which provides them with ideological support for manipulating and interfering with the original text. Therefore, translation strategies are important for them to achieve their purposes, which can be mainly summarized as follows:

Prefaces and footnotes

Prefaces and footnotes in translations are the most common means by which translators put feminist translation theory into practice. Footnotes, usually located at the bottom of each page of the translation, offer some explanation of the translation so that the reader can better understand certain details of the translation. A preface, usually added before the whole translation, is used to briefly describe the whole translation project, recount the general idea of the original text, and describe some special methods used by the translator in the translation process. In terms of the purpose of feminist translation, adding a footnote and adding a preface have something in common. They both aim to reflect the translator's thoughts on feminism, promote the core values of feminism, criticize the patriarchy's unequal behavior toward women, and fight for more rights for women in general. Therefore, even if there is macho bullying of women in the original text, the translator does not hesitate to point it out and criticize it. In the implementation of these two approaches, the preface embodies the promotion of feminism as a whole, while the footnotes will show the deeper connotation of feminism in certain details.

De-gendering

De-gendering, or the "manipulation" of specific sexist expressions embedded in the original text (Han, 2007). This is a strategy often used by many feminist translators to make the image or voice of women visible. Because gender is an important component of feminism, feminist translators emphasize gender-conscious words, phrases, and sentences in their translations of the original text. De-gendering means replacing words such as "he" and "his" with "she" and "her" and phrases such as "man in office and power" with "man in office and power" in an attempt to avoid or reduce male discourse and introduce female words into the translation to highlight female subjectivity. In feminist translation, "man" or "he" is not the only word that refers to all people in general.

Supplementation

Adding to the target text in one certain part of the text is also an important method of feminist translation theory. In fact, this method is not unique to feminist translation, but is also common in many traditional translation practices. In order to eliminate the differences between two cultures, translators can make appropriate additions to better transform the original text into a translation, thus satisfying the reading habits and cultural needs of the target language readers.

Hijacking

If supplementation is a more moderate approach in feminist translation, hijacking is a very radical approach. Supplementation means that even though the supplemented content embodies the feminist character, translators still make appropriate and reasonable additions based on the semantics of the original. "Hijacking" is a feminist translation strategy proposed by Flotow. (Flotow.1991(2):69-84) "Hijacking" refers to the manipulation of a text by a female translator without changing the specific message of the original text in an attempt to gain new meaning. Feminist translators rewrite the text according to their own preferences and subjective intentions. They modify many masculine words, such as "woman and man" and "her or his". In order to highlight the position of women in the text and make their voices heard. Feminist translators have rewritten the language in a feminist way. This approach can be used to reduce or eliminate the sexism revealed in the original text by changing the vocabulary of the original text or even partially abridging the translation. The use of hijacking in translation projects has been the subject of much controversy. Opponents argue that it has deviated significantly from the original work and is inconsistent with the translation project itself, as well as with the author herself. Feminist translators argue that "hijacking" is not only a necessary translation method in translation projects, but also an important means for translators to reshape and recreate the original work.

Brief Introduction of The Three Body Problem

The Three Body series written by Liu Cixin consists of three parts, The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End. It was published by Science Fiction World from 2006 to 2010. Based on the three-body problem, an intractable mystery in the field of physics, the series depicts from a macro perspective a vast universe where numerous civilizations exist, each vastly different from the other, yet facing similar survival choices. The author explores human nature in depth from the perspective of science fiction. With its grand layout and sublime meaning, the book has been hailed as the most outstanding science fiction novel in modern Chinese history. It was a turning point in the development of Chinese science fiction. The English translation of the novel was nominated for the 2014 Nebula Award of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and later won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Long Story Award. This is the first time for an Asian to appear on the list of winners of the Hugo Awards. This is also an important step for Chinese science fiction to go global. It is considered a milestone for Chinese science fiction. In addition to the English translation, it has also been translated into nine languages, including Korean, Turkish, French, Spanish, German, Hungarian, and Vietnamese, showing the overseas influence of the book.

Brief Introduction of the author and the translators

Liu Cixin is a Chinese science fiction writer born in 1963. From 1999 to 2006, he won the Galaxy Award, China's most prestigious literary and scientific fiction award. And in 2015, he received the Hugo Award, becoming the first Asian writer to win this award. His representative works include the short story "Wandering Earth".

Ken Liu is a Chinese-American science fiction writer and translator, dedicated to writing science fiction and translating Chinese science fiction and literary stories. His first award-winning book, The Paper Menagerie, won the international awards including Nebula and Hugo Awards for literary works. He is responsible for the translation of the first and third books of The Three Body Series. The first English translation won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the third was shortlisted for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Long Novel. He grew up in America, and was influenced and nurtured by gender equality, equality for all, and the gender equality movement from an early age. At the same time, Ken Liu's parents are Chinese and grew up in China. Therefore he was also influenced by Chinese culture from an early age. That enabled him to have a cultural and linguistic advantage in translating "The Three Body Problem".

Joel Martinsen is an American translator. He has focused on Chinese language and literature since he was provided with Chinese courses in high school. He had a Master degree in the Modern Chinese Literature at Beijing Normal University. As the translator of the second volume of The Three-Body, Martinsen is qualified enough for his academic background as well as high Chinese language proficiency.

A Case Study on the English Translation of The Three-Body Problem under Feminist Translation Theory

Reading through The Three Body Problem, it is easy to see that the entire work has a negative assessment of the female community, and discriminatory content against women is commonplace. Western society has always attached much importance to gender equality, at least to maintain political correctness. In order to make the work acceptable to readers in Western countries, optimize the reading experience and reduce their resistance, the translator's role is crucial. Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen have undoubtedly put in a lot of effort to make The Three Body Problem win many awards in the World Science Fiction Literary Awards and gain the praise of many readers. In this section, a case study of the English translation of The Three Bodies will be presented from feminist translation theory.

De-gendering

Feminist translation emphasizes the subjectivity of the translator and proposes a "gender-neutral" concept of translation, aiming at eliminating gender discrimination in language and establishing a gender-equal language.

Example 1: 对于普通的女性，也许时间能够渐渐愈合这些创伤，毕竟，“文革“中有她这样遭遇的女性太多了，比起她们中的很多人，她算是幸运的。但叶文洁是一位科学女性。

Translation: For most people, perhaps time would have gradually healed these wounds. After all, during the Cultural Revolution, many people suffered fates similar to hers, and compared to many of them, Ye was relatively fortunate. But Ye had the mental habits of a scientist.

Analysis: In The Three Body Problem, female characters are always more negative than male characters. Female characters are always considered lucky rather than capable after they succeed in making something. The translator has a high degree of gender consciousness. The translator replaces the words “普通女性”,“女性”,“科学女性” with "people" and "scientist" in this sentence, so as to prevent gender discrimination and to reflect gender awareness.

Example 2: 那是最不可能令孩子，特别是女孩子入迷的音乐了 Translation: That was the kind of music that shouldn’t have mesmerized a kid.

Analysis: The original text implies that girls are less able to understand Bach's music than boys. In order to avoid gender discrimination by associating women with a particular trait, the translator changed the word "女孩子" to "kid" in the translation. The translator cannot recreate the characterization, but can de-genderize the language when dealing with sexist language.

Example 3: 菲律宾贡献给世界的第三个美女政治家，也是在这个职位上危机前后跨越两个时代的一位。 Translation: The administration of this Filipino politician had straddled the pre- and post-crisis eras. 分析：Ms. Sae was the first female Secretary-General of the United Nations, with distinguished achievements in international negotiation and handling of international disputes. Ms. Sae's achievements are not related to her appearance, and if the adjective "beautiful" is used in the translation, it may lead to speculation and dissatisfaction among readers. The tone of the original text shows that women are not competent enough to take on important political roles or to lead the wars of the universe. This is a rigid perception and stereotype of women in society.

Hijacking Feminist translators will downplay or remove strongly feminized depictions. Under a patriarchal society, women are seen as objects of appreciation. The male-centric consciousness is shown by patriarchal language that excessively focuses on the depiction of women's appearance, bodies, etc. It reflects prejudice against women, ignores their inner character and stifles their autonomous identity. For this reason, feminist translators actively exert the subjectivity of the translators, trying to break the center of male discourse and re-establish a positive and positive image of women.

Example 4: 美丽女孩双手托起晶亮的金属球，让人联想到身材苗条的艺术体操运动员，她露出那动人的笑，用悦耳的声音说。

Translation: The young woman raised the bright metal sphere before with both hands, as though she were getting ready to start a gymnastics routine. Smiling, she said…

Analysis: In the above example, there are some words and expressions of female description. In the ancient traditional gender ethics, women were always regarded as subordinate and subservient to men under the domination of a male-dominated society. But this traditional view has been severely criticized by modern feminists, who desire linguistic equality. In view of this, the translator has consciously cut down and modified the descriptions of feminine features. In particular, in the original text, descriptions such as "beautiful woman", "slim figure", and "sweet smile and voice" are absent from the translation, which to a certain extent weaken the sense of gender discrimination.

Example 5: 她像个小泼妇一样一天与那六个女人打好几次架 Translation: She fought the other women, sometimes several times a day.

Analysis：The word "泼妇" is a derogatory term used to describe women who is rude and unreasonable. Here, the translator has left this sexist word out of the translation. And the translation maintains a positive image of women.

Footnote

Example 6:“你怎么又会有这种想法？那可并不一定，这是乱纪元。”追随者说着转向周文王，“姬昌，给我些鱼干吃吧。” “不行！”周文王断然说道，“我也是勉强吃饱的，要保证我能走到朝歌，而不是你。”

Translation: "What makes you think that? There’s no way to be certain. I told you, this is a Chaotic Era.” Follower turned to King Wen. “May I have some dried fish?” “Absolutely not,” King Wen’s tone brooked no disagreement, “I barely have enough for myself. We must guarantee that I make it to Zhao Ge, not you.

Translator’s note: Zhao Ge was the capital of Shang China, where King Zhou held court.

Analysis: The Three Body Problem is a science fiction novel in which the main character, Wang Miao, enters the physical world with the help of equipment and explores the game scenes himself. The reader does not know that the history of Warring States Period and the destination is "朝歌". Considering the lack of background information in the novel, the translator adds information to the text.

Example 7: 后来的事实证明她这次赌博是正确的，“文革”还没有结束，她的丈夫已经部分恢复了职位，十一届三中全会后，他迅速升到了副部级。

Translation: Her gamble paid off. Even before the end of the Cultural Revolution, her husband was partially restored to his old position. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, he was soon promoted to the level of a deputy minister.

Translator’s note: This meeting marked the beginning of the “Reform and Opening-up” policy and was seen as the moment when Deng Xiaoping became the leader of China.

Analysis: In the Chinese history, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party is considered to be a turning point for China. Since the reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping delivered an important speech at the Great Hall of the People, proposing a rapid shift in the focus of China's work to economic development and construction. More importantly, the conference played an important role in promoting social order and improving people's living standards. Foreign readers may have difficulty understanding this terminology. Therefore, additional information seems to be necessary.

Supplement

Cultural differences between the two languages determine the untranslatability of the literature. Therefore, the compensation of background knowledge and information is essential in the translation process. Supplement tries to achieve the same purpose as the preface and footnotes in a different way.

Example 10: “红色联合“的指挥官心急如焚，他并不惧怕大楼的守卫者，那二百多名“四.二八”战士，与诞生于1966年初、经历过大检阅和大串联的“红色联合”相比要稚嫩许多。

Translation: The Red Union commander was anxious, though not because of the defenders he faced. The more than two hundred Red Guards of the April Twenty-eight Brigade were mere greenhorns compared with the veteran Red Guards of the Red Union, which was formed at the start of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in early 1966. The Red Union had been tempered by the tumultuous experience of revolutionary tours around the country and seeing Chairman Mao in the great rallies in Tiananmen Square.

Analysis: The story takes place during the Cultural Revolution, and the Red Union is a political product of that period. It is difficult for foreign readers to understand this term with Chinese characteristics. Therefore, the translator intentionally adds more background knowledge and information to cope with the cultural default, even though there is no additional explanation of the Red Society in the original text.

Conclusion

Inspired by feminist translation theories, translation scholarship is increasingly enriched with insights on gender consciousness reflected in the translation process. It is undeniable that feminist translation theory has made great contributions to promoting gender equality and empowering women under a male-centered social system. This paper analyzes some examples of the English translation of The Three Body Problem from the feminist translation theory. Through the above analysis, it is found that the translators Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen show a strong feminist consciousness in the translation process, using feminist translation strategies such as de-gendering, footnoting, supplementing and hijacking to avoid the contents that discriminate and dwarf females in the original work, effectively translate the Chinese characteristic vocabulary and produce high-quality translations.

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英语笔译 刘唱 Liu Chang 202170081583 MW

Brief Talk on the Standard of Translation of Chinese Songs Liu Chang

Abstract

In the process of human civilization development, music plays an important role in expressing and cultivating people’s sentiments. While appreciating foreign music, we should also keep our self-confidence in culture and commit to bring Chinese music into the ears of foreign listeners so that they can hear the voice of the China. That’s what makes the translation of lyrics become the priority of the priorities. By summarizing the common ground of functional equivalence theory, skopos theory and other mature translation theories, this paper explores the general standard of translating Chinese songs into English. Meanwhile, according to the particularity of lyrics and the diversity of music style, this paper also discusses the particular standard of translating Chinese songs into English. On this basis, some English versions of Chinese songs are selected to analyze the gains and losses during the process of translation which is under the guidance of the mentioned translation standard.

Key words

lyrics translation; Chinese music; Chinese into English

Introduction

With the deepening of globalization, economic and cultural exchanges have become more and more frequent around the world. In recent decades, with the deepening of China's opening up to the outside world, Chinese audiences have been able to listen to more and more foreign songs, especially English songs, which are popular among young Chinese. On the other hand, few Chinese songs can reach out to the world. A big reason for this lies in the translation of lyrics. In terms of The Translation of Chinese songs, excellent Chinese songs lack the English versions that match them, which makes it difficult for them to enter the foreign market. However, due to the differences in the expression habits of Chinese and Western languages, as well as the special form of lyrics, the English translation of songs often requires the translator to grasp the emotion of songs accurately and the general idea of lyrics on the premise of a high level of language skills, so as to make the translated version vivid. In addition, due to the particularity of lyrics translation, the translator's ultimate goal should not only be to make the lyrics be appreciated, but also to make them be sung. Therefore, the translator should have certain knowledge of music theory, so as to pay attention to the fit between words and songs in the process of translation and make the translation have certain singability. In order to achieve this, translators must follow the corresponding translation standards to carry out their own translation work.

Standards to Be Followed in the Translation of Songs

In the process of translating Chinese songs into English, translators need to follow some standards and be guided by them. In this paper, these standards are divided into general standards and special standards. General standards, namely the standards that the translator should generally abide by in the process of translation work. These standards are applicable to any stylistic translation task and are the basic rules of translation work. In contrast to the general standard, the particularity standard, as the name implies, is the standard that should be observed for the text of individual style. In the process of Translating Chinese songs into English, translators should not only comply with the general requirements of translation work, but also take into account the special requirements involved in the task of song translation. For example, since it is song translation, the translation must be singable, and in order to make the translated version of the song singable, it will inevitably put forward higher requirements for translation work. Therefore, in order to meet this requirement, the translator should follow the corresponding standards for translation work.

(1)General Standards

As we all know, the history of human civilization is a history in which different cultures blend, penetrate and influence each other. In the process of communication between different cultures, languages are not interlinked, so translation comes into being. It can be said that the history of translation lasts as long as the history of interaction between different human civilizations. With the deepening of globalization, the exchanges between countries, regions and cultures are more and more frequent, so the demand for translation is also more and more exuberant. Especially since modern times, many translators and translatologists at home and abroad have put forward relevant translation theories, which contain corresponding translation criteria. These standards are called very different things, but they actually mean much the same thing.

The American translation theorist Eugene Nida proposed the theory of dynamic equivalence in his book Language Culture and Translating. The core idea is that "translating does not seek rigid correspondence on the surface of words, but achieves functional equivalence between the two languages." He pointed out that "translation is the semantic and stylistic reproduction of the source language information in the most appropriate, natural and equivalent language." (2004:21) Thus it can be seen that one of the tasks of translation work is to express meaning and accurately convey the original information. German Translation theorist Hans Vermeer also formally proposed The Skopos Theory in Basic Knowledge of Translation Theory co-authored with Rice. There are three principles in skopos theory of translation. The first principle is the principle of purpose, that is, all actions in the process of translation are determined by their purpose. The second principle is the coherence principle, that is, the translated text should conform to the standard of intralingual coherence; The third principle is the fidelity principle, that is, the translated text should conform to the standard of interlingual coherence. Therefore, translation work should not only achieve the meaning, but also smooth. At the same time, due to different purposes, translators need to adopt different translation strategies and follow other standards, which involves the particularity standard, which is not listed here. In addition to western translation theorists, Yan Fu, a Chinese translator at the end of the Qing Dynasty, also mentioned in his translation work: "译事三难：信，达，雅。求其信已大难矣，顾信矣不达，虽择犹不择也，则达尚焉。" (2012).

Its meaning is: the first to be faithful to the ideological content of the original text, namely the so-called "faithfulness"; Second, the translation should be standardized and easy to understand, namely the so-called "expressivess"; Third, we should pay attention to the style of the original text and the language rhetoric features of the original text, that is, the so-called "elegance". From this point of view, it is the best for translation work to conform to the style of the original text and show the elegance and interest after expressing its meaning and fluency.

To sum up, the general standard of song translation, that is, the universal standard of translation, is to first achieve the meaning, accurately convey the content of the song; Secondly, to do smooth, no grammatical mistakes, coherent language; Finally, if it fits the style of the original word of the song, it is the best.

(2)Special Standards

In the translation of lyrics, we should not only abide by the general standards of translation work, but also adapt to the specific style of lyrics. Since it is the lyrics, it must be matched with the tune, and the collocation here does not simply mean that the lyrics can be "stuffed" into the tune and barely sung, but that the lyrics and song style is appropriate, the iambic fit, the rhythm is neat, in line with the poetic language characteristics of the lyrics, with strong singability. Therefore, for the translation of lyrics, there should be the following standards:

First, rhythm matching, which means that when translating and matching songs, we should try to make the translated words match the beat, rhythm type and melody trend of the original song. Xue Fan pointed out, "The number of words in a translation is limited by the number of notes in the original song, the sentence pattern of the translation is restricted by the structure of the music, and the cadence of the translation is restricted by the change of rhythm and the trend of the melody." (1997) In view of this reality, English translation of Chinese songs should follow the following matching rules: the number of syllables in the translated version should be equal to the number of words in the original; The sentence of the translation should be consistent with the sentence of the original; The pause and pause of the translation should be consistent with the original air inlet and breathing. (Chen Liming, 2010)

Second, it is the choice of rhyme. In song translation and matching, the choice of words and rhyme should not only conform to the mood of music, but also care about the content of lyrics. "Rhyme should not make up rhyme, and rhyme should not harm righteousness". (Chen Liming, 2010) However, in the process of song translation, some variation can be used to meet the needs of rhythm and rhythm, but this degree should be controlled. The bottom line of this degree lies in whether the artistic conception and general idea of the original will be changed after the translation. That is to say, in the translation, the original text can be sublated in order to preserve the musicality to a certain extent, but the artistic conception of the original song itself and the core idea to be conveyed must not be lost.

Thirdly, translation is restricted by song style to a certain extent. For example, Chinese ancient songs are mostly accompanied by Chinese national Musical Instruments such as guzheng, flute and xiao. The tunes are melodious and beautiful, and the original words are usually neatly phrased, classical and elegant, with unique poetic characteristics of China. The corresponding English translation words should also have corresponding characteristics. And modern pop music, for example, the best feature of this song is popularity, compared with the elegant music, the music lyrics is quite simple, there is no obstacle on understanding, it is necessary for pop music became popular, then the corresponding English translation version should also consider the characteristics of popularization to translation of words. Therefore, when translating different types of songs into English, the translator should not only make great efforts in the selection of words and try to conform to the poetic characteristics of the original words, but also pay attention to the fact that the translated words can still produce the same emotional effect as the original words when matching with the tunes of the music type. This is also an important factor that makes Chinese songs still singable after being translated into English.

Instance Analysis

The purpose of translating Chinese songs into English is to let the world listen to China's voice and make Chinese culture go abroad. And to do that, two types of music are essential. One of them is Chinese pop songs, because pop music is the most mainstream music genre in today's music market, and also the music genre with the largest audience, which is deeply loved by young people. Young people are the most dynamic group, and conquering their ears means opening a market; The second is the ancient style music, in recent years, the ancient style music boom, more and more of our people, the music on the basis of the profound Chinese culture, the lyrics are very with Chinese characteristics, the music if you can go out and let the world hear, to appreciate the world, will no doubt greatly highlight China's cultural self-confidence, It can also contribute to the cause of cultural power. Therefore, this paper will take the above two kinds of music as examples to select representative works and analyze the standards of lyrics translation reflected in the process of lyrics translation.

(1)Analysis of Ancient Style Music

First, let's see some translation of ancient music. In recent years, the most popular ancient style song in China is "凉凉", which has a beautiful melody and sounds, with a strong Chinese style charm and its lyrics are also very rich in Chinese culture. (Wu Xiaorui, Li Yuchen, Fang Xiaoqing 2021) Therefore, in the process of translation, we should not only take into account the musicality of the lyrics, but also reflect the general idea of the lyrics. There are many English translations of "凉凉", and Jonny's version is selected as an example for analysis. (Jonny, whose Chinese name is Long Ze, is an American network anchor, who once translated "凉凉" into English and sang it.) In the English version, most parts follow the corresponding standards of lyrics translation, but there are also some shortcomings, which will be analyzed with examples one by one.

Example 1:

Chinese Version: 凉凉夜色为你思念成河，化作春泥呵护着我。

English Version: Thoughts of you are like a river, comforting chilling my soul.

In this sentence, the translator conveys the meaning of the original text well, and fully embodies the core words of the original text, namely "思念成河" and "呵护着我". Besides, the core word "凉凉", which runs through the song, is also expressed through the word "chilling". Although the two images of "夜色" and "春泥" in this sentence are not translated, the meaning of the lyrics is not lost, nor the artistic conception of the lyrics is damaged. Because the core meaning of this word still wants to express: I miss you very much, this feeling makes me very warm, very comfortable. So it doesn't matter that "夜色" and "春泥" are not translated, and the absence of these two images doesn't hurt the integrity of the lyrics in English. But the fly in the ointment is that "河" and "我" still rhyme to some extent in the original version, but not in the English version. To a certain extent, it reduces the musicality and singability.

Example 2:

Chinese Version : 凉凉三生三世恍然如梦

English Version: Past present and future

In this sentence, the translator quite succinctly summarizes the meaning of the original word, "三生三世恍然如梦" is directly translated into past present and future, one scene flashes before my eyes, just like a dream. This translation does not have much problem in conveying the meaning and artistic conception of the original word, but the author thinks that the English version of the lyrics does not have high singability, because this translation does not conform to the rhythm collocation in the singability standard of lyrics translation mentioned above. The lyrics in the paragraph of the longer beat, the Chinese version is filled in a full ten words, while the English only used four words, relatively far-fetched, the singer's requirements are very high. As mentioned before, when translating and matching songs, it is necessary to try to make the translated words match the beat, rhythm type and melody direction of the original song. Therefore, the translation of this sentence does not meet the singability standard of lyrics translation.

（2）Analysis of Pop Music

Pop music is the most mainstream music genre in the music market, and it is also the most popular music genre among young people. Next, the author will select the English version of Someone like Me to analyze the standards of lyrics translation reflected in it. (Translated by MelodyC2E, Shanghai International Studies University)

Example 3:

Chinese Version: 怎么二十多年到头来 还在人海里浮沉

English Version: How come after all that I've been through I still suffer vicissitudes

This translation is considered by the author to be a very typical expressive and singable translation. First of all, the English version fully conveys the original meaning, that is, after all these years, I am still adrift. Here, the translator has blurred twenty years into "All that I've been through", which has no impact on the original meaning, but more vicissitudes of life. And then the "人海浮沉" is expressed in terms of "vicissitudes", which perfectly expresses the mood and meaning of the original word. On top of that, "Through" and "Vicissitudes" also rhymes with singability

Example 4:

Chinese Version: 像我这样碌碌无为的人 你还见过多少人

English Version: Someone busy with his needs I'm sure you know quite a few

This sentence also achieves both the meaning and the singability of the lyrics. Especially, in the later "I'm sure you know quite a few", the interrogative sentence of the original word is changed into an affirmative sentence, telling the depression of his heart in an affirmative tone, which perfectly reflects the depression contained in the song. It not only conforms to the general standard of lyrics translation, but also conforms to the special standard of lyrics translation.

Conclusion

Song has always been a popular art form and an indispensable supplement in everyone's life. In recent years, our country also has stressed cultural self-confidence, to be on a path to cultural power, therefore, to our country outstanding music to the international this task is essential, and the translation of the lyrics is a top priority, with songs only vividly expresses to melody tactfully to the tune of lyrics collocation, can pass into the foreign audience's ears, and make the world hear the voice of China. All this can only be realized on the premise of following the two major standards of lyric translation, namely the general standard and the special standard.

References

Eugene. A. Nida.Language and Culture and contexts in Translating [M].上海:上海外语教育出版，2004:21.

Chen Liming, Xue Fan陈历明.薛范的歌曲译配理论之途[J].外国语文, 2010,26(2): 111-116.

Huxley赫胥黎.天演论:Evolution and Ethics:中英对照全译本[M].严复,译.上海:上海世界图书出版公司，2012.

Wu Xiaorui, Li Yuchen, Fang Xiaoqin吴肖睿,李雨晨,方小卿.古风歌曲《凉凉》英译对比研究[J].英语教师，2021,21(01):38-34

Xue Fan薛范. (译配)爱情歌曲选粹[Z].上海:上海东方出版中心，1997.

英语笔译 刘乐乐 Liu Lele 202170081584 CE

Why Chinese Online Fantasy Novels Can Be Good Translation Materials: based on the Study of Dragon Raja Liu Lele

Abstract

Appropriate language materials are need to be translated into English and spread globally, so as to promote the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture. Based on the the comprehensive consideration of communication content, it can be seen that Dragon Raja, an online novel written by jiang Nan, is smilar to the fantasy novels which are a hit among readers in the western market, and it also has a popular narritive structure. Although it is a novel, its highlight lies in the plot rather than the style, so it can be translated into English using communicative translation strategy and machine translation, and published on Wuxiaworld, a popular online novel platform in the US. Therefore, it is feasible to take Dragon Raja as a translation material for the international communication of Chinese culture.

Key words

Dragon Raja; translation material; communication; fantasy

Introduction

There is no superior culture, but there are strong and weak ones. According to Toury's multiple systems theory, Chinese culture is relatively weak compared with British and American culture. Chinese literature has been marginalized in the world literature system for a long time, so when entering the field of English literature, it is usually dominated in the field of English literature. In the past few decades, the translation of contemporary Chinese literature to the English world has not been very successful. Readers in the English-speaking world object to translated literature from any culture, and it is very difficult for translated literature to enter the English world. Although there were two large-scale translation and introduction activities of Panda Series and Great China Library with a lot of material and human resources invested, but the result was not ideal. Although Dragon Raja, as an online literature, can not represent Chinese culture, its exciting plot and low barrier of readers would make it a good guide in achieving the "go global" strategy.

Standards to Be Followed in the Translation of Songs

In the process of translating Chinese songs into English, translators need to follow some standards and be guided by them. In this paper, these standards are divided into general standards and special standards. General standards, namely the standards that the translator should generally abide by in the process of translation work. These standards are applicable to any stylistic translation task and are the basic rules of translation work. In contrast to the general standard, the particularity standard, as the name implies, is the standard that should be observed for the text of individual style. In the process of Translating Chinese songs into English, translators should not only comply with the general requirements of translation work, but also take into account the special requirements involved in the task of song translation. For example, since it is song translation, the translation must be singable, and in order to make the translated version of the song singable, it will inevitably put forward higher requirements for translation work. Therefore, in order to meet this requirement, the translator should follow the corresponding standards for translation work.

Communication Value

It is true that online literature generally does not have profound ideas, rich cultural values, exquisite art forms and beautiful literary language, which we expect most to go global. It is these parts of Chinese culture that always find hard to "go global" (封寿炎, 2019). Viewing from the popularity of Li Ziqi's video on Youtube, the worldwide popularity of Japanese anime One Piece and Naruto, and the popularity of Kpop in European and American countries, cultural exports largely rely on low-level cultural forms. Important characters in the first two books of the Dragon Raja series, such as the black dragon Nidhogg, Jormungandr, the king of earth and mountains, and Odin, King of the gods, are borrowed from Norse mythology; And the story of the third book is set in Japan, the main characters Minamoto Chisei, Minamoto Chime and many other characters are from the Japanese myth Ancient Events. On the basis of Nordic mythology and Japanese mythology, Dragon Raja draws a grand picture of the world and forms a huge world outlook. Although the settings of these cultural elements are only superficial, these novel cultural elements presented in simple words can really attract readers, thus helping to stimulate foreign readers' interest in traditional Chinese culture and the daily life of Chinese people, and the theme of the novel focuses on youth and adventure, which meets the emotional needs of teenagers and even adults, and conveys to readers good qualities and values of human being. Although the characters of Dragon Raja do not directly convey the elements of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in Chinese culture, such as Yin-yang, Tao, shu and Qi, the characters and their daily life can reflect the features of many Chinese teenagers and families. Moreover, language itself is a component of culture. From this point of view, the mutual transformation between languages is cultural communication. Dragon Raja is written in Chinese, the work naturally contains rich Chinese culture. It is helpful to attract foreign readers to know more about China.

Content of Communication

Dragon Raja is a series of long fantasy novels created by Jiangnan. The work tells the story of a young man, Lu Mingfei, who receives an invitation from kassel College, a mysterious college in the outer suburbs of Chicago. From then on, he sets foot on the magical course of fighting with dragons. On September 1, 2009, the series began to be serialized in the magazine Manke , which was first published on the same day. The first to the fourth books were successively published by Changjiang Publishing House from April 2010 to October 2015. The fifth book was serialized on all platforms of China Literature Group from May 15, 2018.

3.1 The Theme Conforms to the Preference of the Western Market At the macro level, translation activities always take place and function under a certain social and cultural background. The British and American cultural markets prefer science fiction. Currently, the best-selling work by A Chinese writer in the British and American markets is the sci-fi novel the Three-Body Problem. The Three-Body Problem trilogy started with The English version. After seven years of development, it has been exported to 28 languages and sold more than 3 million copies in foreign languages. This shows the importance of science fiction in the hearts of Western readers. Many classic Chinese literary works, even traditional martial arts novels, lack the corresponding cultural literacy for foreign readers. After translation, Tian Long Ba Bu, one of Cha's representative works on traditional martial arts, received less clicks on overseas novel reading platforms than online fantasy novel Coilong. "Dragon" in the construction of a "second world" is the Chinese style western-style overhead and magic fusion of two different types of work, draw lessons from the Nordic myth and other world system framework, formed a unique and marvelous fantasy epic and Oriental elements throughout, showed the failure of lonely child LuMingFei slew a dragon in the "dragon world" counter attack. As a localized fantasy novel, this emerging literary genre shapes an overhead world, closely related to sci-fi, fantasy and martial arts novels with a strong fantasy nature, yet not restricted by science and humanities. It is not limited by humanities, which means that the cultural load and obstacles of Dragon clan will be greatly reduced in the process of reaching foreign audiences. Science fiction, TV series and movies are popular in the West. Wuxia is a unique charm element of Chinese culture. The combination of the three forms the content advantage of the Dragon Clan as a material selection for translation. Dragon is a kind of magical animal, it does not exist, but there are legends about it all over the world. "Game of Thrones" and "How to Train Your Dragon" have made dragons a hot topic in the West. Nowadays it is difficult to come up with a unified definition of the image of the dragon. The dragon is both good and evil, but no one can deny the powerful power of the dragon. The image of dragons in the modern West is not entirely negative, with Wales, for example, still using the legendary heroic red dragon as its national flag. With the close communication between Chinese and Western cultures in the information age, the implication of "dragon" in the west has become positive and positive. It is worth mentioning that in The Dragon Race, the name and image of the dragon refer to the setting in The Nordic mythology, which is more similar to the violent and powerful image in the Western culture rather than the auspicious symbolic meaning in Chinese culture. Therefore, it can greatly reduce the strangeness of European and American readers when reading this novel.

3.2 The Storyline is Popular In addition to cultural background, the depth of a literary work's story is also a barrier to reaching an audience. Some people jokingly refer to classics as "things that everyone knows, but nobody reads." China's four great classics, really read how many people, let alone foreign readers. In addition to the cultural load and low knowledge content, the story is highly readable, which is one of the strengths of Dragon Clan. By analyzing the story lines of harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and other popular fantasy novels in the Western market, it can be found that their essence takes the adventure of the "weak" in the fantasy world as the main narrative clue, and constantly creates conflicts in the linear and closed narrative structure as the main narrative strategy. The protagonist's growth in a new space and time different from reality is taken as the narrative theme (Li Jianxin, Yu Kunxian, 2021). As "dragon clan" publishing house of a marketing language: the East "Harry Potter". Although the two novels have similar early story development, they have their own unique world structure. "Dragon" hero Lu Ming is not a child by his parents foster in his uncle's house, and "Harry Potter" hero Harry is living in the uncle's house; Both characters embark on a magical journey based on an admission letter; In Dragons, Kassel Teaches dragon slaying, while in Harry Potter, Hogwarts teaches magic. The roots of both magic and language are bloodlines. However, the subsequent dragon-slaying and the development of the characters make dragons radically different from Harry Potter. Ordinary high school students Lu Mingfei set foot on the adventure of dragon slaying journey, his daily life, personality in addition to adding some fantasy factors and ordinary people are not too different, so can let the same as readers have a sense of substitution and stimulation. The ups and downs of the plot, rich and strange imagination, each charming character personality, greatly meet the young people's curiosity about the world and seek resonance in the book psychology.

Translating Process

As a fantasy novel integrating Chinese culture, Japanese culture and Nordic mythology, Dragon Clan contains a lot of culture-loaded information, but these words and expressions have been translated, so the translator can refer to the translation of Nordic mythology and Ancient Events when translating. For example, the word "yan Ling" in the book, whose function is similar to the magic spell in Harry Potter, is actually not owned by Chinese, but borrowed from Japanese by the author, from the Japanese myth "Ancient Events".

4.1 The Difficulty of Translation Even when faced with some difficult cultural expressions, translators can flexibly deal with them by using substitution and interpretation. People from different countries, nationalities and regions all live on the same earth. The commonness of people's biological attributes, social attributes, humanity and even psychological and emotional experiences is the main aspect of contradiction. So culture is basically translatable.

4.2 Translation Strategy Stylistic type is the most important, objective and stable basis to determine the diversification of translation standards. According to Peter Newmark, text has three basic functions. According to its main functions, translation can be divided into communicative translation and semantic translation. The text type determines the translation method. Communicative translation is mainly used for texts with prominent information functions, such as tourism texts, advertisements and news, which emphasize the realization of the communicative purpose of the target text. Therefore, translation should not stick to the expression form of the original text, but should follow the form popular with the target language readers. However, semantic translation is mainly used in the texts that focus on the expression function. For the five types of serious literary works, such as poetry, prose, drama and novel, the content and form of the translation should be consistent with the original text, and the meaning and form of the original text should be reproduced as much as possible, because the form of these works is also a part of literary aesthetics. With the explosive development of network literature, the themes of network articles are various and emerge endlessly, and some of them are even difficult to define precisely what type they belong to. The Dragon Clan can be said to be a localized fantasy novel. Although it is called "novel", it is also a new product of the Internet. Strictly speaking, it does not belong to the traditional serious literary novel. However, it is not reasonable to categorize The Dragon clan as an informational text, because it also has the author's unique writing style. The main attraction of The Dragon clan is the story, not the writing. Whether the words are added, deleted or repaired does not affect the readers' understanding and love for the story. The main task of the translator is to convey the story rather than show the literary talent. Therefore, communicative translation can be adopted as the main strategy in translation.

4.3 Trial Translation (1) 路明非在屏幕上无奈地打出“GG”（“GG”，指“Good Game”，在竞技类游戏中称赞对方玩得好，也是认负的意思），而后切出了游戏。屏幕上显示的最后一个场景，是十二艘人类巡洋舰以华丽的大和炮聚焦射击，把他的母巢化作了一滩血水。 Lu mingfei reluctantly typed "GG" (" GG "refers to" Good Game "in a competitive Game) on the screen before cutting out the Game. The final scene shown on the screen was twelve human cruisers firing in focus with their magnificent Yamato guns, turning his brood into a pool of blood. (2) 他输掉了今天的第六局，胜负比例是零比六，这一次他坚持到了22分23秒才被拿下，不过最终还是被拿下了，对方的微操很好，用的又是人类，人类的机枪兵在这个游戏里是个变态的兵种，出枪速度为零，站住了拔枪就射，收枪就跑，路明非的小狗追不上，在路上就一只只被打爆了。 He lost his game for today 6-0，with round 6 hanging/lasting for 22 minutes 23 seconds. His opponent is very good at micro control, with the use of Terran whose riflemen，capable of shooting in an instant，is extremely strong in the game. stood still pull out a gun shoot, gun ran, Lu MingFei's puppy can catch up, thus getting beaten up one by one. 路明非没啃声儿，切到QQ上，那个戴棒球帽的女孩头像还是灰色的，一动不动。对方没上线，又白等了。他抓了抓脑袋，有点失望。另一个头像倒是跳了起来，是个长得很欠的熊猫。 Lu Mingfei did not answer. Switch into QQ, the profile of a girl wearing a baseball cap stayed时态gray and quiet there. She wasn't online, and he was just waiting for nothing. Scratching his head, he felt a little upset. The other profile was active though，a very disturbing panda. 　　大脸猫头像跳闪，“诺诺”上线。 The profile of a big-face cat flickered, which means NONO got online. 路明非犹豫了一下，“是你？” “Is that you?”hesitated a little, Lu Mingfei asked “嗯，陈墨瞳。”诺诺的回答显得懒洋洋的，“没事上来打两盘。” “Yeah,it’s me, Chen Motong.”She said carelessly,”Got no better things to do than some gaming.” “你怎么知道我的ID？” “How did you get my ID?” “人肉搜索啊，嘿。你居然用‘明明’这种ID，像女孩似的，还有‘夕阳的刻痕’……你是人妖么？” “Cyber manhunt. Hey, you took Mingming as your ID. Girlish! And “sunset”,are you sure you are not a ladyboy? “这都能人肉到？千万保密，那是我来逗我弟玩的。” “You even knew this?! Please keep this secret for me. That’s for playing some little tricks on my cousin.” “开玩笑的啦，诺玛搜索到的，这对诺玛小菜一碟。你星际打得不错。” “Just joking. It’s Noma, our intelligent computer, that got all this information. It’s a piece of cake for her. By the way, you are good at Starcraft.” “行了，我都输给你了。” “Come on, I lost to you.” “是我输，诺玛和我一起打的，我们两个控制一家。最后我知道你在升三级基地，因为诺玛偷偷开了地图，看见了。” “I should be the loser. I played the game with the help of Noma. “作弊死全家！”路明非打出这句话。 “Cheaters will have his family completely died.” Lu Mingfei type this sentence. 只是随手，这话在群里大家随便说，没谁真的往心里去。 It’s just an online phrase that were often used and no one would take it seriously. “我家只有我一个人。”诺诺回复。 “I’ve already got no family to lose.”answered Nono. 路明非愣了一下，“对不起。” Lu Mingfei was stunned a little, and said,”sorry.” “这有什么对不起的？”诺诺答得很平淡，“玩一盘？” “Nothing to feel sorry about.”Nono said carelessly still,”Want a game?” “没心情。” “not in the mood.” “失恋了？” “Broke up with your girlfriend?” 路明非浑身一个激灵，诺诺像是个小巫婆似的，看穿了他的一切，叫他完全无处容身。 “Lu Mingfei was shocked. Nono’s like a little wizard, seeing through everything of him.He could hide nothing in front of her. “还没有……我没有女朋友，当然不会失恋了，姐姐你想怎样啊？”他输入。 “How can I break up with my girlfriend when I don’t have a one? So what do you want? Big sister!”He typed. “姐姐叫得还蛮甜的，”诺诺扔出一个龇牙咧嘴的笑脸，“来吧，说说到底怎么回事，我也许能帮上忙。” “That’s sweet.”Nono sent him a grinning smile,”Alright, let’s hear it.Maybe I can help you.” “你帮什么忙？你又不认识她。” “I doubt that.You don’t know about her.” “我是不认识陈雯雯。”小巫婆诺诺回复得极快。 “Yeah, I do know nothing about Chen Wenwen.” “你到底知道多少？”路明非忽地很惊恐。 “How much do you know?”Lu Mingfei suddenly got frightened. “太多了。” “too much.” “你们……到底是谁？”路明非手有点抖。 “Who are you?”Typed Lu Mingfei with trembling fingers.

Translating Platform

At present, the translation and introduction of traditional Chinese literary works often rely on paper publishing for transmission, while British and American publishers are very cautious in selecting foreign literary works for translation and publication. According to the Financial Times, between 1990 and 2012 only 4% of UK publications were translations (Jack 2015). Generally speaking, translated books are on the edge of a country's book publishing, and the proportion is much lower than that of local books. For example, the American book market is the largest in the world, but translated books only account for 3% of the total books (Fu Xiping 2015:18). Compared with classic books such as A Dream of Red Mansions, network literature is born and spread through the network platform. The overseas dissemination of Dragon Clan does not need to go through strict selection of foreign publishing market, which is also one of its advantages for selecting materials for foreign translation.

5.1 Online Literature Translation Website: Wuxiaworld

 China's online literature has become an important force for "culture going abroad," according to the 2019 Urban Reading Report of "Ideological and Cultural Big Data Lab" jointly released by Guangming Daily, Tencent and JD.com. By 2018, nearly 70 Foreign language versions of Chinese web novels had attracted more than 10 million hits, attracting more than 20 million visitors. These readers spread across more than 20 countries and regions, mainly in Southeast Asia, Europe and America. The vigorous development of contemporary network literature has laid a good foundation for the overseas dissemination of Dragon Clan. Currently, there are more than 100 online literature translation websites in the world, among which Wuxiaworld is worth mentioning. Founded by Chinese-American Lai Jingping, the website is now the world's largest platform for translating Chinese novels into English. At first, it mainly provided translation and introduction of wuxia novels, but now almost all types of online novels from all countries are serialized. In terms of specific operation, we can serialize the translation of "Dragon Clan" by chapter to restore the experience. Rather than having the translator complete the translation and then upload it to the platform.

"Coiling Dragon" is a fantasy novel translated by Lai Jingping, founder of Wuxiaworld.com, which has won high praise on the website. It seems that the translator has achieved functional equivalence to a large extent, and many foreign readers' views on The novel are similar to those of Chinese readers. Therefore, the platform translation and communication strategies of Dragon Clan can be used for reference in Coiling Dragon: both take dragons as the main element; Secondly, they both incorporate foreign cultures. Chairman MAO once said, if you do not occupy the position of cultural propaganda, the enemy will. Currently, serialized Korean online novels on the site have begun to equal the popularity of Chinese online novels.

5.2 Game Dragon Fantasy is an online role-playing game developed by Dragon Entertainment and adapted from a dragon novel. The mobile game hit 10 million registered users in less than half a month after its launch. According to the financial report released by Zulong Entertainment, the global accumulative revenue of Dragon Fantasy exceeds 3 billion yuan, and the global accumulative registered players exceed 32 million. Dragon Fantasy, which entered the Japanese market in 2020, soon topped the free list on Google Play in Japan. In this mobile game, players can take on one or more characters, grow and level up in the world view created by the game, and experience the adventures and love stories of the Dragon novels through a series of gameplay story quests and challenges. The linkage between the game platform and the novel reading platform is conducive to the expansion of the overseas audience of Dragon Clan, the development of more products, from a novel to an IP similar to Harry Potter, and the realization of a long-term overseas communication effect.

Conclusion

At present, the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture has a long way to go, one of which is the selection of translation materials as the carrier of cultural information. As a popular fantasy novel combining Chinese and Western cultural characteristics, Dragon Clan has a popular story structure popular to the public, which has great potential for overseas dissemination. Therefore, in the initial stage of overseas dissemination of Chinese culture, it is more appropriate to select translation materials.

References

[1]封寿炎.中国网文何以成为海外读者新宠[J].上海采风,2019(03):96. [2]李佳欣,余堃贤.美国主流电影十年回顾（2010—2019）[J].北京电影学院学报,2021(06):105-118. [3]刘毅.《射雕英雄传》在西方的译介传播:行动者网络、译者惯习与翻译策略[J].解放军外国语学院学报,2021,44(02):58-65+159-160. [4]傅西平.美国市场翻译图书生存状态[J].出版参考,2015(16):18-20. [5]陈梦媛,石金娟,张诚玉.从《龙族》热看传统奇幻文学的可行性传播[J].今古文创,2022(03):29-31. [6]刘闽峰.论《龙族》与文学市场需求的契合性[J].品位·经典,2021(22):9-13. [7]Munday Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies:Theories and Applications[M].Taylor and Francis:2016-02-05.

英语笔译 刘双英 Liu Shuangying 202170081585

The Analysis of the Chinese Elements and Culture in the Film The Wandering Earth Liu Shuangying

Abstract

This paper consists of four parts. The first part is a brief introduction to the content of the film The Wandering Earth; the second part is an analysis of the Chinese elements appearing in the film, mainly including the authentic language and expression, the color red, iconic geographical architecture icons and other things with Chinese cultural symbols and festivals; the third part is an analysis of Chinese culture in the film, mainly about family culture, collectivism and the community of shared future for mankind; the last part is a summary of the whole text.

Key Words

The Wandering Earth; Science Fiction Film; Chinese Elements

Introduction

As China continues to open its door more wider to the outside world, while learning from Western culture that is worthy for reference, it also realizes the importance of disseminating its own culture. The development of a country's film and television will also play a role in spreading its own culture. In the strategy of "Going abroad" of Chinese culture, the role of a well-crafted domestic science fiction movie in spreading Chinese culture should not be underestimated. Science fiction films seem to resonate with people all over the world because the subject is often a topic of concern to all. To some extent, the science fiction movie represents the industrial development level of a country, nation or region, and is a symbol of industrial strength. (Han Guidong 2020, 128) When it comes to science fiction blockbusters, people will naturally think of Hollywood blockbusters, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey(太空漫游) and Blade Runner 2049(银翼杀手2049), etc. The fact that these films are remembered by so many people is inseparable from their wonderful contents, as well as the application of various high technologies and superb filming techniques presented in them, which is exactly where Chinese science fiction films are lacking. But with the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive national power, the 2019 domestic science fiction film The Wandering Earth(流浪地球) was released during the Chinese New Year, and achieved a great response both at home and abroad, and successfully took the crown of "the first Chinese hard science fiction film in the history of Chinese movie". The success of this film has also successfully brought Chinese culture out of the country, allowing more people to experience Chinese culture, which has certain significance and inspiration for Chinese culture to "go out".

A brief introduction of film The Wandering Earth

The Wandering Earth is a film adapted from Liu Cixin's science fiction of the same name, directed and produced by Chinese director Guo Fan(郭帆), and was successfully released in mainland China on February 5, 2019. The story is set in 2075, where the entire solar system, including the Earth, will be swallowed by the sun in a short time due to its rapid aging expansion. In order to save themselves, human beings put forward an adventurous plan called "The Wandering Earth", that is, exerting the world's efforts to build tens of thousands of engines and steering engines on the surface of the Earth to propel the Earth out of the solar system, hoping to spend 2,500 years to escape from the solar system with the Earth together, running to the Proxima Centauri to find a new home for humanity, located 4.2 light years away! From the point of view of the plot, the film The Wandering Earth relies on the original background of the original and makes a second recreation, but the core spirit of the original is shown to the fullest. While the original story deals with the death and choices of the entire human race, the film focuses on the experience of a Chinese rescue team that sets out from Beijing delivers flints to the steering engine on "Sulawesi Island"(苏拉威西岛) so that the engine can run again, and makes a last-ditch effort to prevent the Earth from colliding with Jupiter. The story features Chinese astronaut Liu Peiqiang (played by Wu Jing), his son Liu Qi (played by Qu Chuxiao), his father-in-law Han Ziang (played by Wu Mengda), and Liu Qi's younger sister Han Duoduo (played by Zhao Jinmai). The film has left a splendid and brilliant mark in the history of Chinese film with a cumulative box office of 4.655 billion RMB within 90 days of its release, a perfect answer to the seven-year-long preparation behind it.(Guo Lei 2022, 105)

Chinese elements presented in the film The Wandering Earth

Since the launch of reform and opening up, it has become a trend to implant Chinese elements in movies, such as Legend of Deification(姜子牙) and Operation Red Sea(红海行动), which contain scenes, costumes and architecture with defining Chinese characteristics. At a time when the soft power of movies is more and more related to national image and competitiveness, it is especially important to make good use of digital movies to show Chinese elements, convey Chinese stories and shape a good Chinese image. Although Chinese elements are used in many films, there is no clear definition of Chinese elements in academic circles. Some scholars elaborate the core of Chinese elements from the conceptual level, defining "Chinese elements" as "the intangible ideological essence that has been developed and precipitated in China for thousands of years".(Jia Lijun, 2007, 138) Regardless of their specific definitions, Chinese elements must carry uniquely Chinese features in terms of geographical symbols, clothing, colors, food, special events or festivals, etc. For a long time, the Chinese science fiction film and television market has been dominated by foreign science fiction works, and there are very few domestic science fiction films. Although there are Chinese elements in foreign science fiction films and television, these are impressions on China in others’ eyes, not the self-expression of the Chinese. Adding Chinese elements to domestic science fiction films not only enables self-expression and presentation, but also allows the outside world to understand Chinese culture, as well as conveying our world view and development outlook from China's own perspective, so that the works can gain wider cultural recognition. Therefore, the next section will analyze the Chinese elements presented in the film The Wandering Earth, mainly concerning several aspects such as language, colors, iconic architecture, food, and related folk activities.

Idiomatic language expressions

Language is one of the most important tools to carry human culture, a culture that flows in the oral language.(Liu Qianling 2020, 59) In this film,there are people from different countries and regions who speak their own language, so their communication rely on synchronized translators. The Chinese language that appears in it is very authentic, especially the conversation between Liu Qi and his younger sister Han Duoduo at the beginning. During Liu Qi's escape from the adjacent city in Beijing with Han Duoduo, Duoduo teases Liu Qi by saying, "Look at yourself. Is it your first time outside, too?", and when Han Ziang gets to know that Liu Qi is caught driving his delivery truck and comes to rescue the siblings from the Jinan detention center, the detention center staff uses the phrase "someone’s getting bailed”(来捞人了). The word "捞人" is of a slang nature, but when it is translated into English, the witty effect disappears. In the film, the characters' nicknames are also a play on words based on Chinese characters. For example, Han Duoduo calls Liu Qi（刘启） "Hukou"(户口) because the word "Qi"（启） can be split up to "Hu"（户） and "Kou "（口）. These languages can only be clearly understanded by people with Chinese cultural backgrounds and then smile self-consciously. In addition, when starting the carrier, the system will automatically broadcast before driving, "Beijing No.3 Transportation Division reminds you. Routes are countless. Safety is foremost. With unregulated driving, your loved ones might end up in tears". These slogans are as catchy and emotional as those in our daily life, adding to entertaining and vividness. These authentic languages are the subtle presentation of Chinese elements, making science fiction movies colored with Chinese characteristics.

The meaning of scarlet color

With the increasingly frequent exchanges and interactions among various countries, people around the world have few knowledge about the Chinese people's love for the color red. As a highly saturated color, red is given the meaning of festivity, reunion, liveliness and power in the context of Chinese culture. In China, many red elements can be seen in many festivals or places, and in traditional Chinese weddings, the couple's clothes and bedding are all red. All of these can show the special meaning of red that is unique to the Chinese people. In the movie The Wandering Earth, there are many rescue workers wearing red protective clothing. Including Liu Qi and Han Duoduo when they sneaked out of the adjacetn city under the ground, they also wore red suits to the surface. The Chinese red color in The Wandering Earth breaks the stereotype that science fiction films only exist in cold technological blue, distinguishes itself from the original Western science fiction films, and presents Chinese aesthetic culture and Chinese values in the most intuitive and unique way.(Lv Menghan 2021, 110) When the heroes in bright red protective suits go forward in the cold ice, the eye-catching red color easily attracts people's attention and makes viewers feel the vitality and spirit of Chinese people's fearless and tenacious struggle. When people see red, they will think of the sun and fire with an feeling of warmness, excitement and enjoyment. With its deep cultural connotation, red can present a unique Chinese flavor in the film.

The defining geographical buildings’ icons

The inclusion of the country's unique architectural icons in the film can create a visual feast for the audience and trigger their emotional resonance, giving them a sense of familiarity. In the film The Wandering Earth, many iconic geographical icons of China are reproduced, thanks to the continuous development of digital technology in China. For example, in the frozen world presented in the film, there is a frozen Shanghai, which the audience can recognize by the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower, a building that, like Big Ben in the UK and the Eiffel Tower in France, is instantly recognizable to the audience. Also in the film, not only are there more extensive icons of geographic architecture, such as the Great Wall of Beijing, Jinan Station, the Olympic building in 2044 Shanghai and the five Olympic rings and other such elements of the desolate landscape under the doomsday, but also involve the regularly-visited playground of people's daily live, such as Wangfujing(王府井), a shopping complex, which is a common, relatively large and comprehensive shopping mall in everyday life in China. All of these buildings, large and small, naturally incorporate Chinese elements into this science fiction film. This is also a great breakthrough for Chinese science fiction films, because in previous science fiction films, such as Visiting Shanghai After Sixty Years(1938)(六十年后上海滩) by Yang Xiaozhong, the bold imagination of the future of Shanghai was almost always referenced to the western cosmopolitan cities. During that period, devoid of the supporting of powerful technology, the only way to imagine the Chinese city was by referring to the West, which was developing faster than itself. Compared to the "unfamiliar" Western world, the familiarity of the spatial features was more empathetic to the audience, first experiencing the physical immersion brought by the technology and then the psychological immersion. (Lv Menghan 2021, 109)This is something that we, as viewers, know very well.

Festivals and things carried Chinese cultural symbols

At the beginning of the film, it is clear that the story takes place at the time of the Chinese New Year. The common memory of Chinese New Year is that it is a joyful time for every Chinese to celebrate the reunion of their family. This holiday is like the Christmas for Westerns. But because of the mission, Liu Peiqiang, also known as Liu Qi's father, has not been able to return from the space station. But if the situation hadn't suddenly changed, it would have been time for Liu Peqiang to return and be reunited with his son. The setting of this most important Chinese Spring Festival in this films also shows the yearning for home and the desire to be reunited with family. No matter when, home is always the warmest haven in people's hearts. Home has a very special meaning in China, as the saying goes, "Home is the smallest country, and the country is made up of millions homes". In order for people to survive, an adjacent city was built under each engine, and even though the outside world is desolate, in this film, people in the underground city still live, work and study as usual. The director of The Wandering Earth believes that the place where Chinese people live must seem "rich in flavor of life", "even if the outside is cold and stern, Chinese people are still having barbecues, performing lion dance, playing mahjong, living their own life, which is in line with the atmosphere and flavor of Chinese life."(Shuo Fang 2019, 52) These scenes with strong Chinese characteristics will not only resonate with Chinese viewers, but also spark the interest of the majority of overseas viewers. In the underground city, there are also the sounds of mahjong playing and street hawking in the film, all of which are very typical elements of Chinese sound. This is a very different national aesthetic style from Western science fiction films, which usually present a cold and mechanized audiovisual space with a sense of detachment, while domestic science fiction films in the new century emphasize the creation of a real life atmosphere and a warm spiritual state in the science fiction space. Chinese knots appear several times in Liu Qi's room, the street along the mall Wangfujing, the driving room of the transport truck and Liu Peiqiang's bed on the space station, symbolizing the good luck and wishes of the people. In addition to being an ornament of daily life, the Chinese knot is also given a nostalgic meaning in the film, and is closely linked to the story of "going home" later on. The Chinese element of liquor also appears in the film. When Liu Peiqiang is about to return to his family after finishing his mission, his best friend and workmate hands him a bottle of liquorwhite wine to congratulate him. In China, wine is often used as a tool for socializing, as friends often say, "It's all in the wine"(都在酒里了) and "Good feelings, one swallow"(感情深一口闷) to express the deep feelings between the two parties. In the second half of the film, as the space station insists on escaping with all the station personnel and the seeds of fertilized eggs and plants stocked in advance, Liu Peiqiang ends up using the very white wine that his workmate gave him to blow up the robot Moss, making a coherent plot in the storyline. During Liu Qi's escape from the undeground city with Han Doduo, they had to wear special protective clothing before they could go out, so they took something of value and rented protective clothing from others, and the seller began to hunt for them after realizing that they would not be returning any more. During this chase, because it happens to be Chinese New Year, there happens to be a lion dance performance on the street, which is an excellent Chinese folk art. The lion dance is considered to be an auspicious object to ward off evil and avoid harm, and every festival or major event will have a lion dance to cheer, and the dance method and form will vary from place to place. In addition to creating plot conflicts, folklore elements are used in the film narrative to influence the direction of the plot. It also serves to drive the development of the plot.(Long Jiali 2020, 32) On the surface, this is the use of traditional Chinese elements, but if we look deeper, it actually has another function. The film classically reproduces this Chinese element, and it is because of this performance that the lion dance team stops the chase for Liu Qi and Han Doduo's party, and they are able to successfully escape from the underground city. Thus, the story can continue to develop.

Chinese culture presented in the film The Wandering Earth

With the development of globalization, culture, as an important component of national soft power, has emerged as an increasingly important value. Strengthening foreign cultural communication and enhancing the discourse right of Chinese culture in the world cultural communication is an important guarantee to enhance the national soft power. When spreading its own culture, it must be based on its own world view and development concept, not arbitrarily catering to the tastes of others, so that the country's most deepest and the most authentic culture can be transmitted to the outside world. Instead of presenting the old, mysterious and backward East in the so-called "Orientalism" in the European and Americans’ eyes, or the phenomenon of "self-orientalization" and "othering" will be endless.(Zhang Gan 2022, 16) The cultural communication of film and television products should not only consider whether the story construction is reasonable, but also whether the national culture can be successfully spread out and successfully attract the audience, which is the key to the cultural communication of domestic science fiction films. Based on the national spiritual core, the film expresses its vision on the world by showing the excellent culture of the nation, and demonstrates the reflection on the future of human beings. The Wandering Earth makes a success in this aspect, that is, through the story of searching for a new home for humanity, it embodies the devotion to family and country, the spirit of collectivism in the excellent Chinese traditional culture and the new values of a community of shared future for mankind advocated by the Chinese government. This is a Chinese interpretation of the future destiny of mankind. Therefore, domestic science fiction films must firmly establish cultural confidence, avoid empty contents, strengthen the presentation of the spiritual core of the film, and give the whole film a certain depth and connotation, so as to attract the attention of people around the world, and at the same time convey to them the valuable culture of our own country, thus successfully realizing the strategy of "going abroad" of Chinese culture.

Chinese attachment to home and homeland

Unlike Westerners who emphasize the independence of individuals, Chinese people are more inclined to family and kinship. At the beginning of the story, there is a picture of three generations living together in a happy and warm family. This harmonious family atmosphere also sets the stage for the development of the storyline later on. That is, Han Zi’ang, Liu Peiqiang, Liu Qi, the three generations who have made great efforts to save the Earth while escapeing together with the Earth, some even sacrificed themselves during this process. The positioning of this movie is that all people, regardless of race, color, country of origin, language, are all "Earthlings", therefore, in the condition of sun can no longer provide heat and the Earth is no longer suitable for human to survive, the United Government launched the "Wandering Earth” plan, trying to carry the Earth together to escape from the solar system and find a new home for humanity. This reflects the traditional Chinese culture of relocating to a new home, where the Earth is the homeland of the people. Just like the saying goes, “Attaching to the land and unwilling to move —this is the nature of the common people.”(安土重迁，黎民之性) When director Guo Fan started to prepare for the film The Wandering Earth in 2015, he negotiated with Industrial Light & Magic for special effects cooperation, and the other party questioned the content of the story: Why do you Chinese take your home with you when you escape from the universe?(Han Guidong 2020, 129)This also shows the Chinese people's subconscious attachment to home and homeland. This attachment is related to the Chinese way of thinking. Chinese civilization is a typical agricultural civilization. In ancient China, the small-scale peasant economy was dominant, and the family was the unit of intensive farming, and family and land were important elements in life. The Chinese people emphasize living and working in peace, returning to our homeland when we are getting old, and it’s the last resort to leave our homeland. Therefore, Chinese people have a deep affection for the land, as well as for our home and homeland, and treat nature with the attitude of "the Unity of Heaven and Man". People are used to working peacefully with their own hands, waiting for the joy of harvest, resenting looting and disliking war. Therefore, the core part of Chinese culture is "harmony". Mr. Feng Youlan(冯友兰) said, "If there is a family-based production method, there is a family-based production system. In a family-based production system, all social organizations are centered on the family. All human relations must be set within the relations of the home."(Li Yue 2021, 65) The phrase "go home" also appears several times in the movie. For instance, when the disaster occurred, the mixed-race boy Tim shouted "I want to go home". When Liu Qi's grandfather was alive, he let Liu Qi protect his sister and took Doduo home; When grandfather died, Liu Qi said to Doduo: "Let’s go home". Liu Peiqiang’s workmate, Lao Ma shouted "I want to go home" when he was in danger during his journey from the dormant module to the general control room. Looking at his family's photos, Liu Peiqiang said "go home" when he decided to take the fuel in the space station with him to produce bigger impact that could keep the earth away from the collision with Jupiter, which also means he would lose his life. People of different ages and countries all want to return home when disaster strikes, simply because home is the warmest harbor. "Home" is the deepest root of Chinese people.

The collectivism spirit expressed in this film

When the engines went wrong and were no longer running, in order to make every engine in the world run again, all the rescue teams embarked on a journey to transport the flints. In the process of returning to the underground city, due to a sudden earthquake, Han Zi’ang, Liu Qi and Han Duoduo were forcibly requisitioned to join the rescue by Wang Lei as the commander-in-chief of the CN171-11 rescue team, and this is the first cooperation between them. On the way other vehicles were consciouly giving way for the vehicles transporting the "flint", which also shows that everyone in the rescue to save the Earth is a large collective with a high degree of unity of purpose, where everyone is working hard for the success of the resuce. When they were transporting the flint to Sulawesi Island, they found that someone had already succeeded in transporting the flint to the destination ahead of them after their arrival. This shows that the protagonist is not alone in the battle, and everyone is the "protagonist". Whether it is a domestic science fiction film or a Hollywood science fiction film, there are always heroes who save the human race in the face of disasters, but Western science fiction movies tend to focus on the value of individual heroes, while the film The Wandering Earth presents to the audience more of a group of people moving in the same direction, doing their best to complete the grand and difficult task of saving the Earth. Because in the Chinese cultural background, China emphasizes collectivism, and the principle of collectivism opposes putting individual interests above the national and collective interests, and does not allow individual interests to negate national and collective interests.(Yue Jianhong 2021, 94) The Chinese spirit of sacrifice is more about sacrificing personal interest or life for the country or team, but the Western sacrifice is more about challenging oneself or for the purpose of proving oneself and taking risks. In this "saturated rescue", when the human race is faced with a disaster, all individuals stand up together and work together to solve the problem, simply because everyone of us is a part of the Earth, which is related to the survival of each person. This is the so-called "World rise and fall, everyone has a share of responsibility". Every individual work collectively to fight against the disaster, and the principle of “Pool the efforts to accomplish big tasks” is vividly presented before the audience, which is a concentrated reflection of the valuable traditional values of the Chinese nation. In the end, after most of the engines were running again, it still couldn't change the danger of the Earth colliding with Jupiter, and the whole world was broadcasting the failure to save the Earth and telling everyone go back to their families. But Liu Qi did not give up because of this, and he instead put forward the proposation of igniting Jupiter so that the huge impact generated from this action would push the Earth away from Jupiter to avoid a collision. But, after hearing the bad news, everyone felt hopeless, then Han Duo Duo turned to Liu Peiqiang for help, and then she gained an oppoortunity to make a global broadcast, which called on more people to help complete this task, and finally the world's rescue teams turned back to help complete the task of igniting Jupiter. As we often say, "Unity is strength", the film does not present a rescue made by a single one, but a "collective" rescue. People from all over the world unite and struggle together, each one is the most ordinary "screw", but the united power of each one can turn the situation around. This victory does not belong to a single protagonist or one hero, but to everyone.

A community of shared future for mankind

Since ancient times, Chinese people have been in the pursuit of "the supreme harmony worldwide"(天下大同). This is rooted in China's excellent traditional culture, such as the ancient Chinese saying, "The great man is the one who takes the heaven and earth and all things as one. He sees the world as one family", a simple thought.(Li Zhou 2021, 147) In September 2015, the president Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the General Debate of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York: "In today's world, all countries are interdependent and in solidarity with each other. We should inherit and carry forward the Charter and principles of the United Nations, build a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at its core, and create a community of shared future for mankind."(Liu Donglin 2020, 72) In the report of the 18th CPC National Congress, the concept of " a community of shared future for mankind " was first brought into an important document of the Chinese Communist Party. " A community of shared future for mankind " is a new type of value advocated by the Chinese government to adapt to the future development of mankind, aiming to take into account the reasonable interests of other countries while pursuing the interests of the country, which also reflects the political ideology of the Chinese people who love peace and seek common development. In the final ignition of the engine, thus detonating Jupiter, so that the impact generated by this process can be used to push the Earth away from Jupiter to avoid a collision. It is difficult to rely on a few people alone to complete this action, but requires collective strength, therefore, in the spirit of community of shared future, all the rescue teams of different countries returned collectively, who offered assistance for this difficult task, presenting a spectacular global rescue scene. It is due to the influence of the idea of " a community of shared future for mankind ", so people all over the world put aside stereotypes only for the purpose of safeguarding the beautiful home where we are depend on for survival. This should be an indispensable common value and worldview for humanity. In the face of this extinction, humanity has shown unprecedented solidarity. To make more people have a chance to survive, the united government decides to push the entire Earth out of the solar system and fly to a new home 4.2 light years away, which will take 2,500 years. Although the main characters in the film are Chinese, whether on the ground or on the space station, in addition to the Chinese there are many individuals of other races and countries. In the face of the Earth's crisis, the astronauts of all countries on the space station stood around the screen to discuss countermeasures. All these small details can reflect the idea of "community of shared future for mankind". This is also different from the science fiction film Interstellar(《星际穿越》), for there are only a few "elites" go to the new home for survival. In contrast, The Wandering Earth presents the theme of "a community of shared future for mankind" through the storyline, reflecting that nations should be equal to each other.

Conclusion

The success of The Wandering Earth has earned Chinese films with Chinese elements and excellent Chinese traditional culture a place in the science fiction world. This is also an inspiration for China's subsequent film production. In order to successfully export Chinese culture, we must show Chinese elements, strengthen cultural confidence, and always adhere to the expression with Chinese characteristics, and reasonably coordinate the contradiction of cultural values. Only with our own characteristics can we let the outside world understand the real China, no longer with prejudice, and accept the differences between different cultures, because there is neither lowliness nor nobleness in culture. The Wandering Earth, a science fiction film with Chinese characteristics, perfectly illustrates the power of cultural self-confidence, so we should tell "Chinese stories" within the framework of Chinese values. Instead of blindly following the West, we should recognize the advantages of our own national identity. In spreading Chinese culture and values, the film The Wandering Earth does not adopt a "didactic" approach, but embodies the spirit through the concrete actions of the characters, which is more convincing and allows the audience to feel the ideas conveyed in the film more genuinely. Therefore, Chinese filmmakers should spread Chinese culture, promote the implementation of Chinese culture "going out" strategy, devote themselves to building the national image, enhance cultural soft power, take root in the excellent culture of the Chinese nation, and promote the development of Chinese films.

References

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