On The Translation Strategies Of Lang Tuteng From The Translator's Adaptation And Selection

Lang Tuteng, the inaugural winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2007 and one of the biggest publishing sensations in years, was translated into English by the renowned American sinologist and prolific translator Howard Goldblatt. Its English version Wolf Totem was a phenomenal success, as can be seen from many in-depth reviews, most of which were commendatory, published in prestigious newspapers and magazines, such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The National Geographic, The Guardian, The Independent, The Financial Times, to name but a few. Besides, the circulation of Wolf Totem is record-breaking in the sales of translated Chinese novels. The popularity this novel has won in the West is largely ascribable to the translator's selection of translation strategies that lead to the high readability of the translated version. Therefore, exploring of the novel's translation strategies can offer insight into the roots of its success which in turn will facilitate the promoting of Chinese literature in the West.The translation strategies of Lang Tuteng can be elucidated from the following respects. Compared with the Chinese one, the English version is much shorter, with over 20% of the original's contents omitted, including the epigrammatic openings to each chapter, the long conversation in the epilogue, and nearly 60,000 characters excised at sentence and paragraph level in the main body. Moreover, a "Translator's Note" briefly introducing the original author and the historical background as well as a map indicating the location of Inner Mongolia are added in the beginning. A glossary explaining some culture-specific expressions is attached to the end. When dealing with linguistic factors, domestication is predominant, by means of which the target text produced is idiomatic and even more readable than the original version. In the rendering of most culture-specific expressions, however, the translator employs both domestication and foreignization, the latter gaining the upper hand, through which many cultural images find faithful and vivid expression in the translated text. Thus, it is essential to have a close look at the translator's selection of translation strategies and its influencing factors.The ecological and translator-centered approach to translation (TAS) proposed by Hu Gengshen sheds light on exploring translators'decision-making during the process of translating. By merging with Darwinist Evolution Theory and introducing the concept of a translational eco-environment, Hu contends that translation is the translator's selection activity to adapt to the translational eco-environment, and that translation process is cyclic alternations of adaptation and selection. As to translation methods, Hu maintains that a translator should, under the guidance of the principle of multi-dimensional adaptation and adaptive selection, make adaptive selection and transformation from linguistic, cultural, and communicative dimensions. It is also argued that a translation should be appraised by judging the target text's degree of holistic adaptation and selection.From the perspective of TAS and on the basis of analysing Goldblatt's adaptation/selection to internal needs and competence, as well as to the specific translational eco-environment, this article attempts to look at the translation strategies used by Goldblatt in translating Lang Tuteng and examine their features. It arrives at the conclusion that Wolf Totem partly owes its success to the translator's appropriate selection of translation strategies ant that TAS is applicable in explaining translators' behaviour, and points out the illuminating effect Goldblatt's translation of Lang Tuteng has on Chinese to English translation as well as the dissemination of Chinese culture.