20230630 final exam 07
Systematic Literature Review of the History of English Translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber
Abstract
This paper attempts to bring the history of English translations of the Dream of the Red Chamber into focus and map out the periods of its journey in translation. The Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng) was written in the late 18th century and is known throughout China as the greatest classical novel. From the early 19th century to the mid-20th century, the translation of this classical novel constantly appeared in the English-speaking world. However, there were section translations, abridge translations and compiled translations. In the 1970s and 1980s, the full translation was finally realized. The researcher will scrutinise the translators’ educational background and social status to reveal how these factors contribute to the distinct features of each translation and its circulation. This article is divided into five parts: Firstly, it introduced the status and background of The Dream of the Red Chamber. Secondly, it is the research methodology. Thirdly, it is the literature review, it reviewed the three stages of The Dream of the Red Chamber translation in academic circles. Fourthly, it reviewed the translation history of The Dream of the Red Chambers. Finally, English speaking world of translation of the Dream of the Red Chamber is discussed.
Keywords
The Dream of the Red Chamber, Greatest Classical Novel, Transaction history of the red chamber, Full translation, English-Speaking World
Introduction
The Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng) was written in the late 18th century by Cao Xueqin (1715-1763) and is known throughout China as the greatest classical novel.1 At that time, the Qing government implemented a closed-door policy and ignored the development of the outside world. Though the empire seemed peaceful and prosperous, and the upper class lived luxuriously and indulged in pleasure, various social contradictions intensified. More seriously, the whole empire had reached the turning point of prosperity and decline, as well as the brink of collapse. The book describes almost the whole of Chinese society in the 18th century, including politics, economy, and culture, reflecting the social changes, people’s lives, and the phenomenon in the 18th century. The Dream of the Red Chamber has an unparalleled position in China. The study of the novel has become a specialised subject, known as Redology, and a scholar who studies Redology is known as a Redologist. Additionally, the book is deemed to be representative and the symbol of Chinese literature globally, which has attracted the attention of scholars worldwide. Among them, the British were the earliest. At the beginning of the 19th century, the British started to translate and introduce this classical novel to the world outside China. In the 1970s and 1980s, British Sinologists Hawkes, Min Ford, Chinese scholar Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Yang respectively translated and published the full translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber, which has been regarded as the first two full translations in the world.
Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢), also known as The Story of the Stone (石頭記), is widely recognized as one of the best Chinese literary works in history (1, 2). Written by Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) of the 18th century, the novel narrates the downfall of the illustrious Jia (賈) family with Jia Baoyu (賈寶玉), the male heir of the family, as the main character. Elegant words, beautiful poems, and thought-provoking phrases traverse the delicate and detailed plot that is profoundly philosophical. The entire work is so highly regarded by many that it spawned Redology(紅學), a specialized academic stream that examines the Dream of the Red Chamber (3, 4). It is, hence, not an overstatement that the Dream of the Red Chamber can match, if not exceed, any work written by Shakespeare.
Research Methodology
This study is a systematic literature review as it adopts the descriptive analysis which the researcher will collect information from various references in the websites, library books and from his professor’s background.
Literature Review
The earliest translations of Dream of the Red Chamber to a European language were English translations. These started popping up in the early nineteenth century, but these were abridged. It took until the mid-nineteenth century to get a translation that abridged only half of the original novel, and it took about another century to get the full novel translated, by which point Proust had been dead for half a century. French translations lagged the English ones.However, Marcel Proust was multilingual, and in addition to his native French, he had a good, albeit imperfect, command of English and Russian. It is therefore possible that he was aware of Dream of the Red Chamber, but he could only have read the first half.
Proust had been aware of Dream of the Red Chamber, it still probably wasn’t an influence on In Search of lost time. While nineteenth century translations of some novels are still popular – Constance Garnett’s translations of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky into English, for example – this isn’t true of nineteenth century translations of Chinese novels. Much of what makes Dream of the Red Chamber so highly regarded is its use of language, and this nigh completely falls by the wayside in the earlier translations. Additionally, half the book is missing. A nineteenth century Sinologist would have understood what the fuss was about, but a casual reader wouldn’t have.
According to Jiang (2007), the translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber can be divided into three stages. From 1830 to 1900, there were four English versions of The Dream of the Red Chamber. All of the translators at this stage are British diplomatic officials. The purpose of their translations is mainly to provide language learning materials or entertainment books for foreign students who want to study Chinese. The publication and distribution of translation at this stage is not in the formal way. From 1901 to 1960, there were another four English versions of The Dream of the Red Chamber. The most famous and popular version was translated by Wang Chi-Chen. The common feature of the translations at this stage is the original text has been adapted on a large scale as the translation is written for English readers. From 1960, there were four English versions of The Dream of the Red Chamber. The well-known version is Hawkes and Minford’s translation. The translators at this stage are more emphasize on literariness and readability of their translations. Most professional readers started follow The Dream of the Red Chamber with interest.
Clearly, this novel is, like life itself, extraordinarily rich. It depicts with artistic appeal and succinctness the hidden crises and various kinds of intricate social conflicts of the declining feudal society, while offering us many different characteristics of many different kinds of people. The novel has profound social significance and a high historical value. It is generally regarded as China’s greatest novel.
Translation History of The Dream of the Red Chamber
As early as 1812, Robert Morrison (1782-1834), a famous English missionary, translator and sinologist, wrote a letter to the London Missionary Society, which included the translation of the fourth chapter of The Dream of the Red Chamber. It was the earliest English version of part of the book, and Morrison was the first translator.2 But unfortunately the translation was not published. In 1816, Morrison published a textbook in Macau, which included the translation of dialogue in Chapter 31 of The Dream of the Red Chamber.3 In 1819, John Francis Davis (1795-1890), a member of the Royal Society, British diplomat, sinologist and the second governor of Hong Kong, translated the third chapter of The Dream of the Red Chamber in the London Journal Quarterly Review (Davis, 1829). In 1830, Davis issued a 68-page essay that included the poems in the third chapter of The Dream of the Red Chamber.4 Owing to the popularity of Davis in China, he was mistakenly assumed to be the earliest translator of the English version of The Dream of the Red Chamber. Since then, Robert Thom (1807-1846), Joseph Edkins (1823-1905) and William Frederick Mayers (1831-1878) translated parts of The Dream of the Red Chamber in their own works or articles in 1846, 1857, and 1867, respectively.5 The five people mentioned above had a common goal. They each extracted and translated fragments of The Dream of the Red Chamber for Chinese language study and Chinese language teaching.
In 1868, Edward Charles MacIntosh Bowra (1841-1874), a British customs official, issued the translation of the first eight chapters of The Dream of the Red Chamber in The China Magazine (Bowra, 1868), becoming the first English translator to translate the chapters of the book wholly and continuously.6 From 1892 to 1893, Henry Bencraft Joly (1857-1898), the vice-consul of the British Consulate in Macao, successively translated the English versions of the first 56 chapters of the book.7 This is the first translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber published separately, and it is a milestone in the history of the English translation (Cao, 1892). Joly planned to translate and publish the whole 120 chapters of the book, but he died and left the work uncompleted. There were many partial translations of The Dream of the Red Chamber, including that of Wang Chi-Chen (1899-2001), which was the most popular version in the west.8 However, none of them was a full translation. After more than 100 years, between the 1950s to the 1980s, Joly’s dream of a full translation and published version was realised. Indeed, three versions appeared one after another within this timeframe.
From 1973 to 1986, David Hawkes (1923-2009), a British sinologist, translator and professor at Oxford University, together with his student and son-in-law John Minford (1946) translated the full of 120 chapters of The Dream of the Red Chamber under the published name The Story of the Stone.9 Hawkes and Minford’s full translation was praised immediately after its publication as it provided for the first time English readers with the complete story of The Dream of the Red Chamber. The full translation needs to reproduce the original information completely. The length is generally larger and translation and publication time is longer than section translation, abridge translation and compiled translation (Zhang, 2018). This version was reprinted several times in succession, and then the hardcover editions were published simultaneously in Britain and America. This version has significant influence in China as well. It has been titled Hawkes’ translation by Chinese scholars and has become the subject of study of numerous “Redologists”. Hawkes deeply loved the book and wrote at the end of the English version introduction: “The Dream of the Red Chamber is a work that a great artist has poured out with his whole life’s efforts. If I can convey to readers the joy and happiness that this Chinese novel gives me, then I will not live in vain” (Cao, 1973).
Almost at the same time as Hawkes’ version, from 1978 to 1980, the famous Chinese translator Yang Xianyi (1915-2009) and his wife Gladys Yang (1919-1999) cooperated to translate the whole 120 chapters of the book into English (Cao, 1978). They called their book A Dream of Red Mansions, and in China, it was called Yang’s translation. since their publication, Hawkes’ translation and Yang’s translation were accepted as the earliest full translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber in China and abroad. However, this conclusion is not reliable. In July 2004, the Hong Kong University Library electronically published the revised version of the English version of the book translated by British missionary Bramwell Seaton Bonsall (1890-1960) on its homepage.11 According to the Translator’s Foreword of Bonsall, this version was completed in the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, the translation was not officially published and was unknown to readers. However, Bonsall’s translation is certainly earlier than Hawkes’ and Yang’s and replaces Hawkes’ and Yang’s translation as the first full translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber in the English world. It is a significant milestone in the English translation history of The Dream of the Red Chamber.
Cao utilizes many levels of colloquial and literary language and incorporates forms of classic poetry that are integral to the novel, making it a major challenge to translate.[45] A 2014 study of fourteen translations of the novel concluded that the work is a "challenge even to the most resourceful of translators, and the process of rendering it into another language is bound to involve more translation problems, techniques. The first recorded translation into English was in 1812 by the Protestant missionary and sinologist Robert Morrison (1782–1834), who translated part of chapter four for the second volume of his unpublished 1812 book Horae Sinicae. In 1816, Morrison did publish a translation of a conversation from chapter 31 in his Chinese language textbook Dialogues and Detached Sentences in the Chinese Language. In 1819, the British diplomat and sinologist John Francis Davis (1795–1890) published a short excerpt in the London Journal Quarterly Review. Davis also published a poem from chapter 3 in the 1830 Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society.[47] In 1842, Karl Gützlaff's article, "Hung Lau Mung, or Dreams in the Red Chamber", in the sixth volume of the "Chinese Repository", included translation and criticism of some passages.
A literal translation of selected passages was published for foreigners learning Chinese by the Presbyterian Mission Press of Ningbo in 1846.[48] Edward Charles Bowra of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs published a translation of the first eight chapters in 1868[49] and H. Bencraft Joly of the first fifty-six chapters in 1892.[50] The Reverend E.J. Eitel reviewed Joly's translation and condemned the novel, saying that Chinese read it "because of its wickedness." Herbert Giles, who John Minford called "one of the more free-thinking British consular officers," took a more favorable view and wrote a twenty-five page synopsis in 1885 that is still a "useful guide."[51] Giles further highlighted it in his A History of Chinese Literature in 1901.[52]
In the early 20th century, Elfrida Hudson published a short introduction to the novel titled "An old, old story" in 1928.[53] An abridged translation by Wang Chi-Chen which emphasized the central love story was published in 1929, with a preface by Arthur Waley. Waley said that in the passages which recount dreams "we feel most clearly the symbolic or universal value" of the characters. "Pao Yu", Waley continued, stands for "imagination and poetry" and his father for "all those sordid powers of pedantry and restriction which hamper the artist".[54] In a 1930 review of Wang's translated version, Harry Clemons of The Virginia Quarterly Review wrote "This is a great novel", and along with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it "ranks foremost" among the novels of classic Chinese literature.[55] Although Clemons felt "meaning was only fragmentarily revealed" in the English translated prose and that "many of the incidents" and "much of the poetry" were omitted, he nevertheless thought "at any rate the effort to read The Dream of the Red Chamber is eminently worth making."[55] In 1958 Wang published an expansion on his earlier abridgement, though it was still truncated at 60 chapters.
The stream of translations and literary studies in the West grew steadily, building on Chinese language scholarship. The 1932 German translation by Franz Kuhn[56] was the basis of an abridged version, The Dream of the Red Chamber, by Florence and Isabel McHugh published in 1958,[57] and a later French version. Bramwell Seaton Bonsall, completed a translation in the 1950s, Red Chamber Dream, a typescript of which is available on the web.[58] Critic Anthony West wrote in The New Yorker in 1958 that the novel is to the Chinese "very much what is to Russian and Remembrance of Things Past is to French literature" and "it is beyond question one of the great novels of all literature."[44] Kenneth Rexroth in a 1958 review of the McHugh translation, describes the novel as among the "greatest works of prose fiction in all the history of literature", for it is "profoundly humane".[59]
The respected and prolific team Gladys Yang and Yang Hsien-yi translated the first complete and literal English version, A Dream of Red Mansions (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 3 volumes, 1978–1980). The second complete English translation to be published was by David Hawkes some century and a half after the first English translation. Hawkes was already a recognised redologist and had previously translated Chu Ci when Penguin Classics approached him in 1970 to make a translation which could appeal to English readers. After resigning from his professorial position, Hawkes published the first eighty chapters in three volumes (1973, 1977, 1980).[60] The Story of the Stone (1973–1980), the first eighty chapters translated by Hawkes and last forty by his son-in-law John Minford consists of five volumes and 2,339 pages of actual core text (not including Prefaces, Introductions and Appendices) and over 2,800 pages in total.[61] The word count of the Penguin Classics English translation is estimated at 845,000 words. In a 1980 review of the Hawkes and Minford translation in The New York Review of Books, Frederic Wakeman, Jr. described the novel as a "masterpiece" and the work of a "literary genius".[62] Cynthia L. Chennault of the University of Florida stated that "The Dream is acclaimed as one of the most psychologically penetrating novels of world literature."[63] The novel and its author have been described as among the most significant works of literature and literary figures of the past millennium.[64][65]
The sinologist Oldřich Král also undertook a Czech translation of the entire novel, Sen v červeném domě (Prague: Odeon, three volumes, 1986–1988). Slovak sinologist and philosopher Marina Čarnogurská translated into Slovak whole four volumes of the novel, Sen o Červenom pavilóne (Bratislava: Petrus, 2001–2003. ISBN 80-88939-25-9). In 2014, an abridged English translation of Dream by writer Lin Yutang resurfaced in a Japanese library. Lin's translation, about half the length of the original, is reportedly not a literal one.[66] In a study of fourteen translations into English, German, French, Spanish, Laurence K.P. Wong finds that some challenges to translation are "surmountable", some "insurmountable," though translators sometimes hit on "surprisingly happy versions that come very close to the original," Hawkes, however, normally came up with versions that are "accurate, ingenious, and delightful...." Hawkes recreates the meanings and sounds of the original with "remarkable precision, achieving much greater success than any one of his fellow translators in surmounting the limits of literary translation...."[67] Other scholars examined particular aspects of the Yangs' translation and the Hawkes and Minford translation. The names of some characters sound like the words for their personality traits, and some names serve as allusions. Hawkes conveys the communicative function of the names rather than lexical equivalence; for example, Huo Qi is homonymous with "the beginning of catastrophe", and Hawkes makes the English name "Calamity". Hawkes sometimes uses Italian/Sanskrit terms when Western Christian culture lacks a term for a concept.[68] Gladys Yang and Yang Hsien-yi prefer literal translation, informing readers of names' meanings through annotations. Zhu Jian-chun argued that Hawkes’ choice to simply translate certain names that are puns makes the author's intentions clearer, and that the Yangs' choice of transliteration leaves the meaning more elusive, even if the transliterated names are more believable as character names. Zhu questioned the Yangs' translation of "Dao Ren" as "reverend".[68] According to Barry Lee Reynolds and Chao-Chih Liao, the Yangs' version contains more faithful translations of religious expressions but is also less readable to English language readers.[69] Xuxiang Suo argued, “Hawkes successfully conveyed the original textual information to foreign readers with smooth and beautiful English, but the loss of Chinese culture-loaded information is inevitable. Mr. Yang mostly adopted the way of literal translation, trying his best to keep the true and idiomatic Chinese style and national tint."[70]
As one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Hongloumeng (known in English as The Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone) epitomizes 18th century Chinese social and cultural life. Owing to its kaleidoscopic description of Chinese life and culture, the novel has also exerted a significant impact on world literature. Its various translations, either full-length or abridged, have been widely read by an international audience. The contributors to this volume provide a renewed perspective into Hongloumeng studies by bringing together scholarship in the fields of literary and translation studies. Specifically, the use of corpora in the framework of digital humanities in a number of chapters helps readdress many issues of the novel and its translations, from an innovative angle. The book is an insightful resource for both scholars of Chinese literature and for linguists with a focus on translation studies.
English speaking world of The Dream of the Red Chamber
The English title of “Dream of Red Mansions” was translated into “A Dream of Red Mansions” by Chinese translators Yang Xianyi and Dai Naidi, and “The Story of the Stone” by British Sinologist Hawkes ). But in the English-speaking world, the most well-known and established convention is the early translation of “Dream of the Red Chamber”-this is the title of the 1929 section translation of the Chinese-American professor Wang Jizhen of Columbia University.
As David Hawkes writes in the introduction to his seminal English translation of Dream of the Red Chamber, titled The Story of the Stone after the title of Red Inkstone’s commentated manuscripts, the published ending was written by someone who was likely personally familiar with Cao Xueqin, and it is thus the most superior of the many continuations of the novel that have cropped up since its publication (Hawkes, 1973). Additionally, Hawkes speculates that commentators like Red Inkstone and the later commentator known as Odd Tablet may have deliberately suppressed the original ending of the story to avoid further imperial attention and retribution. As for the final 40 chapters published in Gao E’s edition, Hawkes notes that person was “taking no chances. [The new section] ends amidst almost deafening praises of the Emperor’s clemency” (Hawkes, 1973:40).
In Chinese literature by Liu Wu-chi “offers general reliable .Guidance through the intricacies of developing genres, historical periods, literary Movements, and the larger number of major practitioners of two rnillennia”151• Upon Its publication by Indiana University Press in 1966, it was widely acknowledged and Highly praised as “the best introductory survey in English of the history of Chinese Literature” in a variety of book reviews. [61 As a matter of fact, the book is not the Earliest one among several “introductory survey(s)” in the 1950s and 1960s. Nevertheless, “during the past few years several attempts have been made to survey The entire span of Chinese literary development. Regrettably, none of these Undertakings have achieved more than a minimum of success. It is therefore Encouraging to encounter at last a volume,that succeeds wheritspredecessors Have failed”(7]. William Schultz is right. As for “its predecessors”, Chinese Literature: A Historical Introduction (1961) by Chen Shou-yi triggered rather .negative reviews from scholars such as James R. hightower and Treasury of Chinese Literature (1965) by Ch’u Chai and Winberg Chai “suffers from the fact” that “the Chais are not professionals”[8l. Compared with these earlier attempts, An Introduction to Chinese Literature proved to be a great success in terms of its Academic ambition. Besides, Liu’s Introduction is considered a reliable textbook: “the book is a good Job done by a professional who is very intent on making things as clear as he can for the students of Chinese literature. ,,[9] Charles K. Chu regards the intrinsic value of the book as ‘’while worthy of the specialists’ consultation, the book should make Interesting and instructive reading for those inclined to be initiated in the field”[ 10l. The fact that Liu Wu-chi chaired the Chinese Department of Indiana University, the Cradle of a great deal of researchers, teachers and translators of Chinese literature, May partly account for the widespread reputation and far-reaching effect of the book. Therefore, it is safe to assume that Liu’s selection of translated texts in this book will Influence not only the literary fame of the existing translations but also the mode for Future translation of the novel. There were four English versions of Hongloumeng available that may serve as References for Liu Wu-chi ‘s An Introduction to Chinese Literature: (1)The first separate edition of Hongloumeng in English is translated by H. Bencraft Joly, British Vice-Consulate in Macao. The version is entitled “Hung Lou Meng, or, The Dream of The Red Chamber’’ and includes in two volumes of the Complete translation of the first 56 chapters of the original novel. Book I with 378 Pages and Book II with 583 pages were published by Kelly & Walsh Ltd. In 1892And by Typographia Commercial in 1893 respectively.
(2) In 1929, an English version of Hongloumeng, “Dream of the Red Chamber’’ Translated and adapted by Wang Chi-chen, was published by Doubleday Doran Co. In New York and Routledge Ltd. In London simultaneously. The book, with 3 Volumes, 39 chapters and 371 pages, consists of selected translation of the first 80 Chapters and adaptation of the last 40 chapters of the Chinese original. The translator Was then working for Metropolitan Museum of Art and later became Chinese Professor in Columbia University.
(3) In 1958, another English version of Hongloumeng by Wang Chi-chen was Published by Twayne Publishers in New York. With 60 chapters and 574 pages, this new version is a substantial extension of Wang’s 1929 version.
(4)An English version entitled “The Dream of the Red Chamber’’ was published by Pantheon Books Inc. in New York in 1957 and by Routledge & Kegan Paul in London in 1958. The translators are Florence McHugh and Isabel McHugh. This English version is translated from the German version by Franz Kuhn, an outstanding sinologist and translator.
The age of total translation the mode for translation of classical chinese literature in the 1970s .When talking about the translation of classical Chinese literature in English-speaking world, C. T. Hsia depicts its trend as “in fiction as in poetry, the age of tantalizing discovery has been succeeded by one of total translation (emphasized by this author)”[241• Here, refers to the first half of the 20th century, Especially from the 1920s to 1950s. Due to America’s pivot toward Asian after World War I and the intimate relationship between US and China around World War II, the mainstream media in US promoted a favorable image of China. Publishing Houses and book sellers followed this trend and stimulated general readers’ “fascination about China”[251 by a series of books. Apart from the two English translations of Hongloumeng. The age of total translation” embraced numerous “classic” translations of Chinese classics. In 1973, the first volume of the first complete English translation of Hongloumeng was published; in 1975, the first comprehensive anthology of classical Chinese poetry, Sunflower Splendor, was published, and The Columbia book of Chinese Poetry , The Columbia Book of later Chinese Poetry and waiting for the Unicorn: Poems and Lyrics of Chinas Last Dynasty came into being sccessively; In 1977, the first complete English translation of The Journey to the West and Master Tung s Western Chamber Romance were published and the latter received National Book Award of America. Following this trend, the relatively comprehensive translations of The Three Kingdoms and Chin Pin Mei got published soon after. For most of the classical Chinese works mentioned above, there had already existed abridged English versions that were well accepted. An upsurge of new translations of these works by scholars of Chinese literature in the 1970s was due to the urgent need of professional readers in English-speaking world.
Another distinctive feature of “the age of total translation” is that professionals as translators of Chinese literature completely took the place of amateurs. Take the English translation of Hongloumeng as an example, the translators in the 19th century were diplomats or custom officials instead of “professionals”; among the translators from the 1920s to 1950s, the McHughs were amateurs and Wang Chi-chen’ who, though later became professor of Chinese at Columbia University, ‘ was not an expert in Hongloumeng; in the 1970s, David Hawkes was an expert in classical Chinese literature as well as in Hongloumeng. In fact, it was Reverend Bramwell Seaton Bonsall who accomplished the first complete English translation of Hongloumeng; he was a missionary in China and began to translate when he retired in the 1940s. After he finished his translation in 1966, his family contacted two publishing houses, both of which refused them. Compared with Reverend Bonsall, David Hawkes, professor of Chinese at Oxford University with the “orthodoxical” educational background of a scholar specializing in Chinese literature, was so favored by Penguin Books that he was invited to translate the novel in advance. The choice of publishing houses shows obvious preference. It might be assumed if it were in earlier historical periods, amateurs such as reverend Bonsall would have been given a chance to publish their translations. However, when professional readers formed overwhelming majority of the intended audience after the 1960s, their urgent need for “academic translation” led to publishers’ rejection of such possibility.
Conclusion
After deeply discussion of history of English translation of the Dream of the Red Chamber. The researcher can present some conclusions as final comments on the history of the English translation of the Dream of the Red Chamber. The Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng) was written in the late 18th century and is known throughout China as the greatest classical novel. From the early 19th century to the mid-20th century, the translation of this classical novel constantly appeared in the English-speaking world. However, there were section translations, abridge translations and compiled translations. This paper is focused in English-speaking world during the 1960s, attempting to explore the compilers’ selection among diverse translations and explain some complexities related to English readers’acceptance of Chinese literature.
The Dream of the Red Chamber in English-speaking world during the 1960s reveals the scholarly readers’ dissatisfaction with existing translations and their expectation for complete translation of the novel. The disparity between the existing abridged translations aiming at general readers and the professional readers’ thirst for “academic translation” in this historical period is caused by the upsurge of professional readers of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world and the drastic reduction or general readers’ in chinese literature, with the former due to the prosperity of regional studies as the consequence of Cold War, and the latter due to general readers' shift of interest and appearance of new forms of entertainments more attractive to them. the anthologizatin of Hongloumeng in the 1960s yields far-reaching influence on the future translation of the novel: First, even though Wang Chi-chen's version is not so well accepted by general readers as MacHugh-Kuhn's version, its literary fame remains more persistent in the following three decades due to Liu Wu-chi's quotation from the version in an introduction to Chinese literature. Second, the compilers' attitude represents professional readers' expectation and greatly influences the future mode for translation and the identity of future translators, giving birth to the "age of total translation" in the 1970s when a large number of complete translations of classical Chinese literature by professionals appeared successively. Together with Hawkes’ and Yang’s translations, translation is considered one of the two most highly respected versions of the full translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber.
References
[1] Jiang, F. (2007). A Study on the Hundred-Year History of English Translation of Dream of the .Red Chamber (pp. 25-100). PhD Thesis, Fu Dan University.
[2] Morrison, R. (1816). Dialogues and Detached Sentences in the Chinese Language: With a Free and Verbal Translation in English. East India Company’s Press.
[3] Davis, J. F. (1829). On the Poetry of the Chinese. Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, II, 363-461.
[4] Bowra, E. C. M. (1868). The Dream of the Red Chamber. The Chinese Magazine, II, 99.
[5] Bowra, E. C. M. (1868). The Dream of the Red Chamber. The Chinese Magazine, II, 99.
[6] Cao, X. (1892). The Dream of the Red Chamber (H. B. Joly, Trans.). Hongkong Kelly & Walsh.
[7] Zhang, Y. (2018). Remarks on Shortened Translation vs. Full Translation. Shanghai Journal of Translators, 4, 78-82
[8] Cao, X. (1973). The Story of the Stone (D. Hawkes, Trans.). Penguin Classics.
[9] Cao, X. (1978). A Dream of Red Mansions (X. Yang, & G. Yang, Trans.). Foreign Languages Press.
[10] Cao, X., & Hawkes, D. (1973). The story of the stone : a Chinese novel. Vol. 1, the golden days. Penguin
[11] Liu Wu-chi, An Introduction to Chinese literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966, p.291.
[12] Wang Chi-chen, trans., Dream of the Red Chamber. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1958, p.xx.
[13] Wang Chi-chen, trans., Dream of the Red Chamber. London: George Routledge &Sons, ltd., 1929, p.xx. [15] See Note [13], p. xix.
[14] Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone Vol.l (The Golden Days), trans., David Hawkes. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1973, p.46.
202270081691 李彦 Li Yan 英语口译(English interpreting)
The Reception and Translation of "Journey to the West" in the West: Cultural Encounters and Value Reconstruction
Abstract
Cultural Encounters and Value Reconstruction" explores the cultural exchanges and value reconstruction that arise during the translation and reception of the Chinese classic literature, 'Journey to the West', in the Western context. This systematic review aims to examine the historical translation of 'Journey to the West' in the West, its reception and dissemination across various domains such as literature, art, theater, and film. By analyzing different translations and forms of reception, it becomes evident that the diverse interpretations and adaptations of 'Journey to the West' have significantly influenced cultural exchanges and value reconstructions. The Western readers' interpretations and evaluations of 'Journey to the West' not only demonstrate their interest and understanding of Chinese culture but also fuel creative works and influences in Western literature, art, and cinema. The interactive dynamics, conflicts, and fusion within the process of cultural exchanges further enhance the impact of 'Journey to the West' in the Western world. This systematic review contributes to a deeper understanding of the cultural encounters and value reconstructions involved in the translation and reception of 'Journey to the West' in the West.
Key Words
"Journey to the West"; Reception; Translation; Value Reconstruction; Cultural Encounters
题目
《西游记》在西方的翻译与接受：文化交流与价值重构
摘要
《西游记》作为中国经典文学作品，在西方的翻译与接受过程中引发了文化交流和价值重构的现象。本综述旨在探讨《西游记》在西方的翻译历史、接受与传播情况以及与西方文化的互动。通过对翻译版本的分析和接受形式的考察，我们发现不同的翻译和再创作对文化交流和价值重构产生了深远影响。西方读者对《西游记》的解读不仅展示了对中国文化的兴趣和认知，还促进了西方文学、艺术和电影中的创作和影响。文化交流过程中的互动、冲突和融合进一步加深了《西游记》在西方的传播影响力。本综述对于进一步理解《西游记》在西方的翻译与接受中的文化碰撞和价值重构具有重要意义。
关键词
《西游记》; 接受; 翻译; 文化交流; 价值重构
Introduction
"Journey to the West" is a renowned Chinese classic written by Wu Cheng'en and holds a significant position in Chinese literature and culture. Its enduring popularity and profound influence within China have spurred interest in its reception and translation in the Western world. The cross-cultural exchange of literary works like "Journey to the West" provides a unique lens through which to explore cultural encounters and the reconstruction of values. This systematic review aims to delve into the reception and translation of "Journey to the West" in the West, shedding light on the dynamic process of cultural exchange and the transformation of its inherent values.
The translation and reception of literary works involve intricate processes influenced by cultural differences and historical contexts. By examining how "Journey to the West" has been received, translated, and interpreted in the Western cultural landscape, we can gain valuable insights into the complexities of cross-cultural communication and the negotiation of meaning. Furthermore, this study seeks to uncover the ways in which the values embedded within the original text have been reconstructed in the Western context, and how they have contributed to the broader cultural discourse.
Through a comprehensive analysis of relevant literature, including scholarly articles, translations, critical commentaries, and reception studies, this systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the reception and translation of "Journey to the West" in the West. By exploring the cultural encounters and value reconstruction inherent in this process, we aim to deepen our understanding of the transformative power of literary texts and their impact on intercultural dynamics.
The subsequent sections of this paper will present a systematic synthesis of the existing literature, analyzing the reception of "Journey to the West" in the Western world, the challenges and strategies involved in its translation, and the ways in which its values have been reconstructed in the Western cultural context. This investigation not only contributes to the field of cross-cultural studies but also provides valuable insights for literary translation, cultural studies, and intercultural communication.
In summary, this systematic review aims to explore the reception and translation of "Journey to the West" in the West, examining the cultural encounters and value reconstruction that have occurred throughout its dissemination. By shedding light on the multifaceted dynamics of cross-cultural exchange, this study seeks to deepen our understanding of the transformative power of literature and its role in shaping intercultural understanding and appreciation.