Harmonization Of Multifaceted Factors: A Research On Translation Works Of Zhang Ailing

Zhang Ailing (also Eileen Chang, 1920-1995) has established herself as one of the few bilingual writers as well as skillful translators in the history of the 20th-century Chinese literature. Researches on her translation works are rare, despite the fact that there has been a lasting interest in her works among readers and critics at home and abroad. People are very familiar with her novels and essays, but they are ignorant of her translation works. With regard to enriching researches in the field of translation studies as well as Zhang Ailing's writing, this dissertation attempts to analyze her translation works by dwelling on the striking feature of her translation---harmonization of multifaceted factors.Both qualitative and quantitative analyses are conducted in this research. The former is mainly applied to the following areas: 1) categorizing and summarizing the translation activities and works of Zhang Ailing; 2) analyzing the examples from her translation works and summing up their characteristics; 3) expounding the cause of formation of her style and the readers'response toward her works in light of relational theories. And the quantitative analysis, which involves an investigation into the contemporary English readers'reception of Zhang Ailing's translation works, is carried through in order to complement the qualitative analysis. There are hardly any investigations conducted in the field of translation criticism of literary works in China, especially for those works translated from Chinese to English, due to the manageability of such investigations.In addition to research into her works published in the name of translations, this research incorporates both English and Chinese versions of some novels written by Zhang Ailing. Through the case study of Zhang Ailing, this dissertation deals with Self Translation (also known as autotranslation), which helps to gain a better insight into translation process, the roles of a translator and other non-textual factors affecting translational behavior. Therefore to some extent this study extends the scope of translation research in China.The dissertation points out that harmonization of multifaceted factors is not only Zhang's aesthetic pursuit, but also her translational pursuit, which has been revealed at different levels concerning translation, i.e. her harmonization of translation and creation, harmonization of translation subjects and harmonization of translation strategies. Through harmonization her translation works take on different looks: Sometimes Zhang translates faithfully and sometimes rewrites while translating; she takes readers'reception into consideration without catering invariably to their taste; she cares about the cross-cultural influence of her translation without submitting to the orthodox literary criticism. Thus her translation provides useful materials for translation research as well as practice. From the perspective of translation practice, Zhang has translated several masterpieces, most of which are translated for the first time from English to Chinese or Chinese to English, laying a good foundation for others while retranslating, either for their reference or for competition. And her translation behavior, strategies and methods are basically illuminating. From the perspective of translation research, her translation experience provides people with opportunities to understand in a complicated social and cultural context how a translation is produced, how a translator's style comes into being and how the readers react, and so on.The first chapter is the introduction of the dissertation, including discussion about the research background, aim and meaning of the research, methods applied and the scope of the research.The second chapter"Road Map of Zhang Ailing's Translation"firstly introduces Zhang's translation background and works with her writing experience as a setting. Then the interaction of her translation and writing is discussed in detail, including the influence of her prose translation and novel translation upon writing and the other way around. Moreover, Zhang's thoughts and opinions upon translation are foregrounded in this chapter. As Zhang has hardly published any articles to discuss about translation practice or theory, the dissertation has to delve into translator's notes written by Zhang, her introductory articles of translation, her prose and letters in which translation is mentioned, and other people's memoir.The third chapter, entitled"Zhang Ailing and Harmonization of Multifaceted Factors in Literary Translation", probes into the complicated nature of literary translation and the multifaceted factors involved in it, in hope of breaching the stereotype of binary opposition in translation studies. The multifaceted factors can be dealt with at three levels: macro-, medium and micro-level. The first level includes social, historical, cultural, poetic and ideological factors; the second level concerns factors such as nature of translation, translation subject, aim, standard and strategies, etc.; at the micro-level are factors such as translation unit and skill. Researchers have pointed out in the past that hybridity in translation can help to breach binary opposition, yet what degree of hybridity is proper is hard to decide. To solve this problem, this dissertation highlights"harmonization"which is the key word of Zhang's creation and translation. Her pursuit of"harmonization"in translation has been manifested at different levels and through various factors, and for the author it is the ideal way through which proper hybridity can be attained.In Chapters Four, Five and Six, three representative phases of Zhang's"harmonization"in translation process are exemplified respectively, namely, her harmonization of translation and creation, involving factors at the medium level as well as macro-level, her harmonization of different translation subjects, and her harmonization of translation strategies. The last two are confined by the macro-level factors, yet at the same time lead to her harmonization of translation units and skills at the lower level.Chapter Four discusses"Zhang Ailing's Harmonization of Translation and Creation". After an introduction to the relation of translation and creation as stated in Chinese and western translation history, this dissertation differentiates and exemplifies the relation of translation and creation in Zhang's rendition. Zhang's harmonization of translation and creation can be further classified into three types: firstly, when she renders others'work, she tends to be source-text or source-culture-oriented, which leads to"creation in translation". Secondly, when she does Self Translation, she adapts frequently and tends to be target-culture-oriented, which leads to"translation as creation". Thirdly, when she narrates the Chinese story in English, she practices"hidden translation in English writing/creation".Chapter Five deals with"Zhang Ailing's Harmonization of Translation Subjects". The first part is about her harmonization of translator and reader. As a translator, her attitude toward the reader is dialectical, catering for the readers'taste as well as broadening their horizon, or centering around their needs without underestimate their understanding ability. The second part explores her harmonization of translator and writer, mainly through transferring of emotions and dialogue. This part also discusses the harmonization of translation subjects in the process of Self Translation, which is based on her solicitude for women. It is from the feminist perspective that she implements feminist writing in cross-cultural texts by means of"equivalent translation"and"strengthening translation".In the sixth chapter"Zhang Ailing's Harmonization of Translation Strategies", the study argues that Zhang harmonizes the translation strategies through making use of domestication and foreignization flexibly in different translation works. In English-to-Chinese translation works, her efforts are embodied in the coexistence of Chinese paratactic sentence (liushuiju) and English-influenced sentence, coexistence of Chinese four-character-structure (sizige) and English-influenced words and phrases, and coexistence of eastern and western meter and rhyme, exemplified respectively through her translation of The Old Man and the Sea, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and poems by Emerson and Thoreau. On the other hand, in Chinese-to-English translation works, her efforts are revealed in the following five aspects: translation of names and titles, translation of color terms, translation of onomatopoeia and metalanguage, translation of idioms and translation of imagery. Except that Zhang mainly applies foreignization in the process of imagery translation, she mediates between both strategies in the other four categories to facilitate the reader's understanding and reception of the translated work as well as"to give them something else".Chapter Seven focuses on"An Empirical Study of Contemporary English Readers'Reception of Zhang Ailing's Translation". To better understand Zhang's translation ability and readers'reception and to supplement the analysis in the above chapters, an investigation is carried out among contemporary readers who are native English speakers. 48 valid questionnaires are collected. The survey shows that Zhang's rendition has won acceptance among most contemporary English readers. Yet the readers'opinions on Zhang differ rather greatly, which might be due to Zhang's translation strategy. Zhang's translation thought"harmonization of multifaceted factors"as exposed in the material for this investigation is embodied through her harmonization of domestication and foreignization. Moreover, in some aspects of the chosen material, excerpts from The Golden Cangue, foreignizing translation gets the run upon domesticating translation in order to better convey some cultural or literary features of the original work. This may lead to the polarization of readers'attitudes. The result of investigation also indicates that contemporary English readers are more tolerant to foreign factors than before. In Chapter Eight,"Influence of Field upon Zhang Ailing's Translation"is elaborated. The author holds the view that reading against the backdrop of field, a better understanding can be obtained on Zhang's translation. Translational discourse, as a kind of capital in a certain field, is pursued and contended for by different agents (including politicians, patrons, publishers, translators, writers, etc.) to complete its function of symbolic power and accelerate the total amount of capital. A translator, as one of the agents, influences the field, and vice versa. A translator's success in a field of cultural production depends not only on his/her language gifts and translation ability, but also on the reception of his/her cultural capital and social capital in that field, with the latter conditioned by a complex network of factors such as ideology, patron, poetics and readership etc. Zhang Ailing is also in such a situation. Therefore according to Zhang's translation experience this chapter focuses on the constitution of literary field of English-to-Chinese translation in 1950'and 1960'(mainly in Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, South-east Asia, and Mainland of China), literary field of Chinese-to-English translation in 1950'and 1960', literary field of Chinese-to-English translation at the present time, as well as the reception of Zhang's rendition in these fields respectively. It is further pointed out that Zhang's habitus also has some effect on her translation style and readers'reception.Finally, in Chapter Nine, the dissertation arrives at the conclusion, including three parts. The first part is a review of the research. It points out that Zhang's harmonization of multifaceted factors in translation makes her works take on various looks. This provides useful translation strategies and methods for future literary translation practice as well as ample materials for translation research. The second part restates the meaning of the research in detail. In the third part, some limitations of this study are pointed out. Firstly because of a lack of Zhang's biographical material,especially that of her experience after her leaving the mainland, the study can not make a deeper exploration of Zhang as a translator. Secondly, due to time and space limit, this research mainly focuses on some representative works translated by Zhang. More comprehensive study may result in more findings to reinforce the conclusion. Thirdly, despite the efforts made by the author in adopting a quantitative approach of analysis in complementing the qualitative analysis, the collected data are far from enough in respect of quantities and there is still room for improvement as to the designing of questionnaire. And further research can be carried out in the following areas both in depth and breadth: to research into special topics in regard to Zhang's rendition of American novels or her own works; to make contrastive researches on her interlingual translation and intralingual translation of the same original work, etc. It can be estimated that this will elicit more findings in translation studies.