Chesterman’s Translation Norms:a Case Study Of Chi-Chen Wang’s Dream Of The Red Chamber

Chi-Chen Wang’s Dream of the Red Chamber was the primarily circulated version of Hong Lou Meng in the English world before the 1960s. And it was the most popular version of Hong Lou Meng before the complete version of Hong Lou Meng translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and the complete version translated by David Hawkes and John Minford were published. Even nowadays there are still lots of collections of his versions in British and American libraries and they are still available in the market. Therefore, Wang’s versions of Hong Lou Meng can be taken as a case that had followed the translation norms. Taking Chesterman’s translation norms theory as a framework, this study gives contextual and textual analyses of Chi-Chen Wang’s versions of Hong Lou Meng. By putting Wang’s translations of Hong Lou Meng in a macro social and cultural context, the study reconstructs the expectancy norms. By the analyses of Wang’s translation strategies influenced by the professional norms, the study explains for the special phenomena of Chi-Chen Wang’s translations.The findings are as follows:First, in terms of expectancy norms, during 1920s to 1950s, as a result of the inequality between source culture and target culture, translations from Chinese to English were target-centered. The translator followed the expectancy norms of the day by translating in colloquial contemporary English, highlighting the main line of love story, showing exotic flavor, and adopting dual methods to translate masculine and feminine names, etc. Second, in terms of accountability norms, Chi-Chen Wang accepted the research findings of Neo-redology. As a result, he gave scientific introduction of original writers and editions of Hong Lou Meng. Moreover, he gave fuller treatment to the first 80 chapters of the original written by Cao Xueqin than the last 40 chapters written by Gao E, as a consequence, the narrating rhythm of his translations grew faster near the end. Third, in terms of communication norms, there were massive free translations of Chinese cultural elements such as poetry, couplets, festivals, and religious terms and so on. These free translations optimized the communication between the original writer and readers. Fourth, in terms of relation norms, as a Chinese-American, the translator was deeply influenced by the New Culture Movement in China. As a result he omitted lots of verses and dreams descriptions. After realizing the importance of trivial life details in the big feudal family, the translator added relevant descriptions in his versions published in 1958. In this way, the translator established a true relation between the source text and target text. The thesis proves that translation norms can be applied to describe and account for the translation phenomena in a certain period.