Jiang Yi Works Studied

Jiang Yi (Chiang Yee), who is hardly known by Chinese readers or scholars inMainland China, is a Chinese Diaspora who had been engaged in introducing Chineseculture in English-speaking countries through his writings in 20th century. As a culturalambassador and a writer who explored a unique style of travel-writing, Jiang Yi's writingsleave a broad space for investigating his distinguished text style and his Diaspora context.And the contributions that Jiang Yi's writings had made to the cultural exchange betweenChina and the west countries is also worth evaluating.The dissertation takes the perspective of cultural translation studies and considersJiang Yi's writings as cultural-translation texts. Through studying in the aspects of text andcontext, in-between texts, and the inside space of texts, the dissertation observes: First,under what circumstance Jiang Yi's writings become cultural translation texts; Second,where are the original texts when Jiang Yi's writings being considered as culturaltranslation texts. Third, how Jiang Yi accomplishes the cultural translation in his writings.The dissertation consists of preface and 4 chapters. Since it is necessary to define theconnotation of 'cultural translation' in the dissertation, in preface there is space spared forelaborating the implication of 'cultural translation', declaring its origin from postcolonialcriticism. Chapter one is a biographical review of Jiang Yi's career and the abroadreception of his writings. Chapter two is an observation on how the experience ofcross-culture migration affects Jiang Yi's writings and produce the translational characterof his writings. Chapter three is an exploration on the original texts of Jiang Yi's writings,by drawing support from the theory of intertexuality. The strategies of cultural translationare discussed in chapter four which focuses on Jiang Yi's writing space with reference toHomi Bhabha's arguments about "the third space".I try to make some progress or breakthrough as follows:1, The perspective of cultural translation is fresh in the research field about Jiang Yi.It is through this perspective that I found the way of appreciating Jiang Yi's writings.2, I made a breakthrough by introducing the theory of intertexuality when observingthe original texts of Jiang Yi's cultural translation texts.3, With a comprehensive exploration on the strategies by which Jiang Yi translatingculture in his writings, I revealed that instead of a traditional word-to-word translation, cultural translation texts are more elastic and diversified in converting cultures.Through observing Jiang Yi's writings through cultural translation perspective, thisdissertation opens up more space for translation studies to extend its range into culturalstudies.