Chinese Children’s Literature Translation Study From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

The dilemma faced children’s literature translation at home and abroad is that though there are a large number of translated children’s literature published in the market with a wide variety of genres and themes,the attention paid to the researches on children’s literature translation is far from enough.Moreover,studies on the translation of children’s literature often focus on the import of western children’s books rather than the export of outstanding Chinese children’s literature.However,with the deepened “Chinese culture going global” policy,great achievements have been made in the field of children’s literature translation in recent years.Cao Wenxuan’s Bronze and Sunflower published by Walker Books in 2015 has become a classic case of exporting Chinese children’s literature successfully and it also enables its author and the translator Helen Wang to take international awards home.Meanwhile,a round of domestic researches on how to translate Chinese children’s literature and introduce Chinese children’s literature abroad has also been evoked.However,few have noticed that Helen Wang’s translation activities do not stop at Bronze and Sunflower.In 2016,a year after the hit,Cao’s Bilingual Works in Chinese and English came out,including four short stories: A Very Special Pigeon,The Cassia Tree,Huiwa’s Stand and Looking for Snowy.As a move to further promote Cao Wenxuan’s works overseas,it has not caused much response at home or abroad.The contrast between the reception of the two texts with the same genre,author,and translator sparks an academic interest.As it is known to all,the result of a translated book,accepted in target countries well or not,is determined by multiple factors.Therefore,from the perspective of manipulation theory,this thesis intends to make a comparative analysis of the two works,Bronze and Sunflower and Cao’s Bilingual Works in Chinese and English and to explore the influences that ideology,patronage,and poetics have on the whole translation and export process.The writer hopes the paper can be able to fill up the gap in this area of research,and at the same time provide some reference for the future studies.With quantitative and qualitative analysis,the writer has found that although these two works were translated by the same translator,there are many differences in the translation process.First,considering ideological factors,some of the contents in Bronze and Sunflower are edited reflecting a higher degree of freedom enjoyed by the foreign editor and the translator,while the contents of the bilingual works are preserved without any deletion;Second,during the copyright promotion,Bronze and Sunflower has gained supports from many parties such as literary agents and a famous publisher in the target culture specifically for children,which makes it easier for the target readers to accept and to carry out promotion campaigns that The Bilingual Works can not enjoy;Finally,though the translator has put faithfulness as the main principle,she reveals a more evident tendency for domestication in Bronze and Sunflower than in The Bilingual Works.