A Study On Overseas Readers’ Influence On The Translation And Communication Of The Chinese Fantasy Web-novel Pan Long

Online reading has become an important way of reading,with the development of network technology.Internet literature has been integrated into people’s daily life and has become an integral part of contemporary Chinese literature.While the globalization of Chinese literature faced difficulties,Chinese Internet literature(mainly web-novels)emerged and became popular in the North American market,so this topic gained concerns from the academic circle.Pan Long(Coiling Dragon)is the first Chinese web-novel that has been completely translated and communicated abroad.In this paper,interactive comments between overseas readers and the translator during the translation and communication of Pan Long were collected,counted,and summarized.And combing with the source text and target text,two questions were answered: 1)What roles did overseas readers play during the translation and communication of Pan Long? 2)How did overseas readers influence the translation and communication of Pan Long?The result elucidates that 1)overseas readers mainly played three roles during the translation and communication of this novel: interpreter,patron,and translation proofreader of the translation.As the interpreter,readers demonstrated their reading experience and understanding of the translation through the interactive comments in the form of text on the online platform.As the patron,readers promoted the translation and communication activities by supporting the translator mentally(encouragement)and financially(reward,crowd-funding,and network flows).As the translation proofreader,they actively picked out mistakes and errors for the translator to correct.2)In terms of readers’ influence on the subject of translation and communication,readers enhanced the translator’s fame.As a group,readers became a part of the subject of translation and communication,which can grow with new readers joining in.Similarly,readers became part of the translation and communication media because they actively existed in different Internet circles where readers can expand the dissemination of the translation through word of mouth.In terms of readers’ influence on the translation and communication content,as “potential readers”,readers can indirectly influence the source text’s selection.And their direct participation can promote the quality of the translation,create the paratext and enrich the meaning of the translation.Moreover,readers can reach the effect of manipulation by the collective’s power to let the translator change the translation on certain words or phrases repeatedly.In terms of the influence on the impact of translation and communication,readers became its direct embodiment.Except for the traditional audience effect,readers created a social effect of participation with the help of the online platform,from which a common recognition towards the Chinese Internet literature has been gradually constructed.In conclusion,overseas readers who took part in the translation and communication of the Chinese Internet literature have deconstructed the passive image of the audience and were able to confront the translator through the collective power.Their participation made the translation and communication a dynamic process and enhanced the acceptance of the translation.In the later attempts of Chinese literature to go global,the translator can try to serialize the translation through the online platform.At the same time,it requires that the translator shall adjust his/ her translation according to readers’ feedback timely,to let them voluntarily participate in the reading-sharing-disseminating online translation and communication activity.