Panel 4: New perspectives on translation
13:45 -15:00
Chi Xie
13:45 - 14:10
Key words
James Joyce; Mao Dun; stream of consciousness
Biography
I am the first-year PhD students, working on James Joyce and stream of consciousness in Chinese Literature.
Supervisor(s)
Lan Yang and Richard Brown
The Early Introduction of James Joyce to China
According to James Joyce’s letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver in 1923, Joyce knew that ‘there is a club in the far East where Chinese ladies (not American as I supposed) meet twice a week to discuss his mistresspiece’. As early as 1922, Mao Dun, a famous Chinese writer and critic, had already introduced Joyce into Chinese Literature area. He wrote a short paragraph about James Joyce in the second session of ‘British literature and American literature’ of special column ‘The Information of Overseas Literature’ that was published in the journal Novel Monthly (Xiao Shuo Yue Bao). This provides excellent context for Joyce’s remark. We may not able to tell whether there was any direct relationship between Mao Dun’s article and the Shanghai club. However, we can speculate that many citizens in Shang Hai started to pay attention to James Joyce’s literary works after Mao Dun’s introduction. This paper will tell the early introduction of James Joyce to China by Mao Dun.
JOYCE, J., GILBERT, S. & ELLMANN, R. 1957. Letters of James Joyce, London, Faber.
茅盾, D. M. 1922. Hai Wai Wen Tan Xiao Xi 海外文坛消息 [The Information of Overseas Literature]. Xiao Shuo Yue Bao, 11, 146.
Exploring the relationship between Chinese women translators’ translations and the Chinese women’s emancipation movement: Renditions on the Christian magazine Nü To Pao?
While scholars recognize that feminist texts were often translated into Chinese by (and for) men intellectuals who thereby significantly promoted the women’s movement (Wang 1999: 50-53; Chin 2006: 495), the potentially important relationship between the movement (from the late 19th to the first half of the 20th centuries) and the translations of women translators (so far known to first emerge in the late 19th century) has remained almost unknown. Since women’s magazines were key in China’s women’s movement and a crucial place where women translators published their translations, this study chooses to study Chinese women translators’ renditions published on a major women’s magazine Nü To Pao 女铎报(The Woman's Messenger; 1912--1951), which was selected among 51 important women’s magazines.
This paper will mainly examine literature on Western missionaries (e.g. Hunter (1984), Kwok (1992) and Graham (1995)) and historical documents (e.g. annual reports of the magazine’s publisher and annual reports published by the Methodist Church (USA)) about the three consecutive chief-editors of Nü To Pao. I will argue that apart from its uncommon maintenance of a group of Chinese women translators, adequate translations and lack of research, Nü To Pao demonstrates its unique value by demanding a hybrid perspective. That is to see the women translators’ translations published on the magazine as products of cultural negotiation between Western missionaries and the Chinese (including the translators) so that an examination of the relationship between women translators’ renditions and the women’s movement is simultaneously an investigation of gendered narratives promoted by missionaries through translation in their gender reforms in China.
Chin, C. (2006) ‘Translating the New Woman: Chinese Feminists View the West, 1905–15’, Gender & History, Vol.18, No.3, pp. 490–518.
Graham, G. (1995) Gender, culture, and Christianity: American Protestant mission schools in China, 1880-1930. New York: Peter Lang.
Hunter, J. (1984) The gospel of gentility: American women missionaries in turn-of-the-century China. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Kwok, P. (1992) Chinese Women and Christianity, 1860-1927. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press.
Wang, Z. (1999) Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: Oral and textual histories. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Wenxi Li
14:10 - 14:35
Key words
Chinese women translators, the Chinese women’s emancipation movement, Western missionaries, Nü To Pao
Biography
I am a 1st-year PhD student at the East Asian Studies Department. My research interests include Chinese women translators' literary translations (from the late Qing to the first half of the 20th century), social theory of narrative, Chinese women's magazines and the Chinese feminist movement.
Supervisor(s)
Dr. Frances Weightman and Dr. Caroline Summers
Xiaodan Shan
14:35 - 15:00
Key words
Reader, reception, Chinese martial arts fiction, Jin Yong
Biography
Xiaodan Shan is a PhD Candidate of the University of Leeds. She is doing translation studies between English and Chinese and her research focuses on English-speaking readers’ reception to the English translation of a Chinese martial arts fiction. She completed a BA in English in China and then continued on to complete two MAs in Professional Language and Intercultural Studies and in Applied Translation Studies at the University of Leeds in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Supervisor(s)
David Pattinson and Sarah Dodd
English-speaking Readers’ Reception to Chinese Martial Arts Fictions: A Case Study on Legends of the Condor Heroes
A Hero Born, the first volume of Legends of the Condor Heroes, was published in 2018, which is the English translation of Shediao Yingxiong Zhuan, an important work of one of the most well-known Chinese martial arts novelists, Jin Yong. However, although his fifteen novels have been translated into most Asian languages, only four of them have been officially translated into English since the 1990s, including the recent published one. With limited objects of study, works on the English translations of Jin Yong’s works are limited as well – the appearance of the first in-depth English-language study of Jin Yong and his works was in 2006 (Hamm, 2006) and most works focused more on translators (Mok, 2001; 2002) than on readers, who should be given more attention to in studies related to readers reception (Chan, 2010). Therefore, this paper will focus on English-speaking readers’ reception to Legends of the Condor Heroes and explore what factors can influence readers’ reception.
This paper will first start with an introduction of the English-language study of Chinese martial arts fiction based on John Christopher Hamm’s work, focusing on the works of Jin Yong (2006). Then it will present an introduction of the history of reception based on Leo- Tak-hung Chan’s work (2010). It will also present findings of how readers respond to this translated version by means of collecting online book reviews. Finally a discussion of the findings will be made to analyse the possible factors that can influence readers’ reception, with examples from the source and target texts.
Chan, T. L. 2010. Readers, reading and reception of translated fiction in Chinese: novel encounters. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Hamm, J. C. 2006. Paper swordsmen: Jin Yong and the modern Chinese martial arts novel. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
Mok, O. 2001. Strategies of translating martial arts fiction. Babel. 47(1), pp. 1-9.
Mok, O. 2002. Translating appellations in martial-arts fiction. Perspectives. 10(4), pp. 273- 281.