Literary Classic

O. Henry is well-known as one of the three world masters in short story writing. Since his works began to be translated into Chinese in the 1920s, they have been widely read and well received. Unlike the other two short story masters, it is typical of O. Henry's works that they have found their ways to most Chinese readers as a foreign literature without arousing much heated academic criticism. This contradiction may not be appropriately explained by inner text analysis alone. Based on the Polysystem Theory and relevant historical facts concerning politics, economy and literature, this paper intends to focus on how O. Henry's works have attained their status in classical literature in China. In terms of the selection of translation criteria, the paper will also have a tentative study of the respective roles played by ideology, poetics and patronage.