A Study On Translation Of "Chinese Stories" By Contemporary Chinese American Women Writers

Since the first article on Chinese American literature was published, Chinese American literary and cultural studies in China have been undergoing more than 20 years. During that period, Chinese American literary studies mainly focused on their cultural identity, the cross-cultural communications and the literary works themselves, but rarely on translations of Chinese American literary works. As the Chinese scholar Hu Yong (胡勇) proposes, "The shortage of translations of Chinese American literary works in China results in a 'bottleneck' effect in Chinese American literary studies in China." (胡勇,2003: 27) The delay of translation of Chinese American literary works and their translation studies obviously hinders the spread and reception of Chinese American literature in China.Chinese American literary writings in English, especially those written by the American born Chinese writers, are featured in bi-languages and bi-cultures. Being separated from Chinese and the "original" environment, Chinese culture under Chinese American writer's description is fragmented, imagined, and deformed, however, such Chinese culture conforms to Said's "Orientalism" so as to cater to the Western readers. "Chinese stories", the frequently-employed sources of Chinese American literature, assist Chinese Americans to find a position in the multi-cultural American society by means of the exotic and ethnic stories. The present thesis takes the representatives of three contemporary Chinese American women writers as a case study so as to probe a better way in the process of translating these "Chinese stories."Postcolonial translation theory, as the theoretical basis of the whole thesis, runs through the whole thesis to analyze the ST and TT. "Chinese stories" chosen from the three works are classified into two categories: traditional "Chinese stories" from Old China and "Chinese stories" in Chinatown. The present thesis aims to analyze the translation strategies adopted, the deviations in translation process and their causes, which help us to find a better way to handle the similar problems in the process of translating the "Chinese stories" in Chinese American literature.The thesis consists of five chapters except introduction and conclusion,The introduction briefs the theme and the basic structure of the thesis;Chapter One initially gives a brief survey of Chinese American literature, the cultural identity, three Chinese American women writers and their works, and the reception and translation of Chinese American literature in China; ?Chapter Two tries to analyze Chinese translation of Chinese American literary works based on postcolonial translation theory;Chapter Three focuses on the traditional "Chinese stories" from Old China and translation strategies adopted in translating process;Chapter Four, on the other hand, analyzes the "Chinese stories" in Chinatown and translation strategies adopted in translating process;Chapter Five finally examines Chinese American literature and its Chinese translation under the background of Cultural globalization;The conclusion sums up the whole thesis.