"The Asymmetrical Relations Of Power": On The Three English Versions Of Lao Can You Ji

"Translation as a practice shapes, and takes shape within, the asymmetrical relations of power that operate under colonialism' (Niranjana 1992:2). There is a strong tendency that more and more scholars approach translation from post-colonial perspective. With the realization of the cultural turn in translation studies, scholars begin to cast their eyes on the political issues that manipulate translation. Post-colonial translation theory is a product of the alliance between post-colonialism and translation theories. Post-colonial translation theorists affirm that in the post-colonial contexts the West continually perceives an image of a prototypical Orient-----a biological inferior that is culturally backward, peculiar, and unchanging in order to find a high-sounding excuse to fulfill their cultural colonizing mission.In this thesis, a tentative case study of the English versions of Lao Can You Ji has been carried out from the postcolonial perspective with the purpose to highlight the unequal cultural exchange between China and the West. According to post-colonial theory, post-colonial translation theory, Andre Lefevere's culture translation theory, Venuti's translation theory and imagology in comparative literature, three translations respectively conducted at the practically same period are analyzed: they are Lin Yutang, Yang Xianyi and Harold Shadick. Lin Yutang, a translator of a strong tendency of self-Orientalism and America-centered thoughts, concerns more about the acceptance of his translation and the entertainment his translation brings to the readers; Yang Xianyi, a translator still immersed in the strong western cultural atmosphere and strictly manipulated by the patronage while translating Lao Can You Ji, has a strong psychological need to please the receptors in the hegemonic culture; Harold Shadick, an American local Sinogist, naturally forgets his western readers in his own major culture. All of them adopt domestication of translation, which results in the failure of transmission of the Chinese culture and the promotion of culture imperialism.This thesis will be discussed from one main respect: the actual practical translation strategies. In Chapter one, the literature review about post-colonial theory, post-colonial translation theory, Lao Can You Ji and its translations will be introduced. In Chapter two, the investigation begins with the illustration of the rendering of characterizations of two kinds of characters: officials and women against traditional ethics by contrasting their translations and the original text to find out how three different translators possessing respective different cultural identities deal with characterizations of Yu Xian, Yiyun and Yugu in order to make an incontrovertible compromise with the target culture. This illustration will be a synthesis of the receiving society, culture an their respective cultural identities. Secondly, the observing perspective has shifted to the other element of the fictions---settings. In the opinion of Hu Shi, the unique achievement of the author is in the descriptions of scenery and music. The focus will be laid on the level of settings including the Ming Lake, the Singing of Wang Xiaoyu and the Icebound Yellow River. Lao Can You Ji, a last classic Chinese novel, naturally brimmed with the old-fashioned narrative structure. So in next chapter, deletion and changing existing in the translations will be analyzed from narrative patterns, including narrative time, narrative perspectives and narrative structure. This thesis tries to study the value-orientation in post-colonial context when hegemonic Western culture and the weak Eastern culture clash, by contrasting both the English and Chinese versions. In order to make the asymmetrical relations of power hidden in the translation more visible, the author makes a detailed analysis on their translations from another perspective---linguistic signs, including allegories and inclusions; Last, the author performs concrete contrasts on linguistic expressions of religion culture, social culture and material culture between the Chinese original and three translations. Again, the author bears out that the asymmetrical relations of power that operate under colonialism manipulate translation as a method to domesticate and colonize the culture of weak countries.This thesis can be helpful to the research on post-colonial translation studies. A great deal of detailed textual analyses was carried out based on post-colonial translation in this research. Few essays in China involved the concrete case study on post-colonial translation theory. Hence, it is a detailed research in the framework of post-colonial translation and a supplement to the study of post-colonial translation at home.