| Hongloumeng is insurmountable in Chinese novel history with regard to literary achievement. It is often viewed as an encyclopedia of Chinese culture, covering almost every aspect of Chinese society. Its author, Cao Xueqin, is undoubtedly a towering figure in world literature history who can run parallel with such epoch-making writers as Tolstoy, Balzac and Dickens. Scholars have never ceased to translate Hongloumeng into various European languages since the commencement of cultural communication between China and western countries in the early 19th century. But most of them are abridged editions with considerable mistranslations.There are as yet two complete English versions of Hongloumeng: one is titled A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Yang, the other is titled The Story of the Stone translated by David Hawkes (the first 80 chapters) and John Minford (the following 40 chapters). Both of them can be viewed as the masterpiece of Hongloumeng translation though they have different foregrounds. The Story of the Stone, mainly adopting domestication strategy, attaches more importance to aesthetic value and readability of the translation, whereas A Dream of Red Mansions, mainly adopting foreignization strategy, pays more attention to faithful transference of the source culture. The core issue of this thesis is why David Hawkes stresses more on readability and transparency instead of cultural delivery in the course of translation. It is known to all that translation is both a bilingual and bicultural process. Theoretically, the translator should also be the conveyor of the foreign culture. But cultural stereotype is rooted in the minds of general western scholars due to power disparity between China and western nations. In the eyes of westerners, China is a backward and odd country with mysterious customs and traditions. Believing that western culture is congenitally superior to Eastern culture, the translator will, consciously or unconsciously, concentrate on his own culture and neglect the source language culture, marginalizing dominated culture and fulfilling the narcissistic Euro-centrism. This cultural discrimination and the linguistic hegemony are convincing manifestation of post-colonialism.Translation history shows that no matter in western countries or in China, the dispute over domestication versus foreignization underwent a long history, mainly focusing on linguistic ingredient or cultural factors. There lies a dilemma for postcolonial translation theorists: foreignization is preferable for postcolonial theorists as it can preserve cultural identity and enrich the target culture, but it will inescapably impair readability and sometimes even result in rigid translation which may be somewhat repulsive for target language readers. Domestication strategy can enhance target language readers'interest, but it is apt to cause cultural loss or replacement. In fact, both domestication and foreignization strategies have their own merits and demerits, depending on different translation purposes, translators, readers and other manipulative elements. Hawkes, intending to cater to western readers, mainly adopts domestication strategy to make the novel as readable as possible. As a result, The Story of the Stone reads transparent and fluent, as if the translator is invisible. However, considerable essence of Chinese culture fails to show or is replaced by English culture in The Story of the Stone. This cultural loss or impairment is exactly what postcolonial theorists are concerned about most.This thesis introduces postcolonial theory and the viewpoint of some influential postcolonial theorists. Then it elucidates this post-colonialism complex lurking in The Story of the Stone from different aspects such as materials, ecology, religion, color perception, idiom, address terms and aesthetic standard. This elucidation will shed light on how the translator from powerful countries manages to domesticate the cultures of weak nations.
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