A Study On Wang Yao’s English Translation Of Tales From Tibetan Opera:From The Perspective Of Pierre Bourdieu’s Reflexive Sociology

Tibetan opera has been an integral part of the ancient Tibetan culture and a kind of opera genre in the world that maintains its primitive form.It has been enduringly popular in Tibetan-habited areas for hundreds of years and is still loved by the Tibetan people.Wang Yao,a famous contemporary Tibetologist in China,based on the Chinese version he previously translated,produced the English translation of Tales from Tibetan Opera,which has become well accepted in English-speaking countries since its first publication in 1986.Borrowing insights from Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology,this thesis adopts a descriptive research method to examine the reason why Wang Yao selects the source text to translate,as well as how the English translation is conducted and further accepted.Through this process,the author attempts to explore the underlying forces that facilitate the creation and dissemination of the translated work.This thesis aims at investigating three major research questions:Why is Tales from Tibetan Opera translated into English?What translation strategies does the translator adopt and what lead to the choices he makes?How is the overseas reception of the translated work,and why?It is found that the change in China’s political and cultural fields in the 1980s has been a major motivation for Wang Yao’s choice of the original work.Besides,his aesthetic preference,academic interest,and cultural passion,as molded in his socialized process of study,work and research,have been internalized into his translator habitus,and further orient his translation strategy.In this light,the translator adopts a faithful strategy of domestication in Tales from Tibetan Opera,which attends to the reading habits of both scholars and general readers,and in doing so he manages to preserve the literary features of Tibetan folklore and spread the Tibetan culture while highlighting the origin of Sino-Tibetan culture.Also,Wang Yao’s tremendous acquisition of academic capital has promoted the acceptance of the English version among professional readers overseas.Tales from Tibetan Opera,the first English translation of Tibetan opera by a Chinese scholar,has served a dual purpose of reducing mutual misunderstanding and spreading Tibetan culture as China commences frequent exchanges with the West.