Comparison Of Western Feminist Translation With Chinese Female Translation

The development of feminism encourages feminist translators to probe into the similarities between feminism and translation studies, which make them combine together. Both feminism and translation studies fall within the category of cultural studies and they are of interdisciplinary quality. Both regard language as their cultural identity. Both question the rationality of the existence of the traditional hierarchy which leads to different social roles of the two genders and take a skeptical attitude towards the rule of defining faithfulness. Both raise doubts against the universal existence of meaning and values. The combination of translation studies with feminism leads to the emergence of the western feminist translation theory.Under the guidance of the western feminist translation theory, feminist translators have traced back to the historical association of translation with women, revealing gender metaphors that discriminate against women in translation studies, stressing the necessity of equality between the translated texts and the original texts, emphasizing that translation is a political activity to strive for a due position for women and translators in society. In translation practice, feminist translators employ the three radical feminist translation strategies, namely, supplementing, prefacing and footnoting, hijacking, to make women seen and heard in their translation. To sum up, there are three characteristics for the western feminist translation: 1. Use inclusive language in the translation. 2. Express the translator's political proposition in the preface or footnotes. 3. Re-write the original text which does not conform to the feminist thoughts in the translation freely.The western feminist translation theory has aroused tremendous reflections since it was introduced to China. Theorists have published quite alot of essays to publicize its translation concepts, which urges us to think over the inadequacies in the traditional translation theories and initiates a revolution in translation concepts and thoughts.In this thesis, Zhu Hong's translation of "Men and Women, Women and the City" will be taken as an example for the author to analyze the characteristics of the dictions and the translation process. What's more, the features of the Chinese female translation (Chinese to English) will be summed up on the basis of the analysis. After that, the author will compare the Chinese female translation with the western feminist translation to find out the similarities and differences between them and try to analyze the causes that lead to the above similarities and differences.