Translator's Cultural Identity And His Translation

At the end of the 20th century, the concept of cultural identity was introduced into China and exerted direct influences on contemporary cultural and literary studies in China. Cultural identity is one of the key concepts in cultural studies in the context of global post-colonialism. In western academic circles, cultural identity involves a wide range of research fields, which demonstrates its great value and significance. In translation studies, the issue of cultural identity entered into the vision of translation researchers, accompanied by the issue of translator's subjectivity. Both the cultural identity and the subjectivity of the translator are closely related to the cultural turn in translation studies.The so-called"cultural turn", which emerged in translation studies in the 1990s, has dismissed the rigid comparisons between originals and translations and taken the cultural environment of the translation into consideration. Translation is no longer regarded as transfer between two languages; instead, it is explored and studied in a larger context of cross-cultures. The cultural turn not only expands space for translation studies, but also puts the issues of the translator's cultural identity and subjectivity on the agenda of translation studies. Consequently, researches on translators have increasingly attracted the interests of scholars.In the author's view, cultural identity serves as a new perspective on the research of the translator. In the process of translating, the translator reveals his cultural identity intentionally or unintentionally, and constructs his cultural identity through the selection of original texts and the utilization of translation strategies. An analysis of the construction of the translator's cultural identity enables us to have a better understanding of his selection of works to be translated, utilization of certain translation strategies, views on translation and cultural preference and so on. Therefore, the exploration of the translator's cultural identity can expand the breadth and depth of studies on the translator.Under such a theoretical background, the thesis attempts to explore the relationship between the translator's cultural identity and his translation with reference to Sidney Shapiro, who is one of the contemporary foreign translators in China with a special cultural identity. Sidney Shapiro has translated dozens of Chinese literary works, such as Ba Jin's Family, Mao Dun's The Shop of the Lin Family & Spring Silkworms and Zhao Shuli's literary works, etc. Outlaws of the Marsh, Sidney Shapiro's English version of Shui Hu Zhuan, one of China's four masterpieces, is regarded as the best among the three English versions of the novel. A detailed analysis of it is made in the thesis.The thesis consists of six parts. Part one is a basic introduction which states the theoretical background, purpose, methodology and significance of the research. Part two is the research review in which researches on the translator and on Sidney Shapiro in China are summarized to demonstrate the achievements and deficiencies in the two fields. Part three introduces the concept of cultural identity—a new perspective on translation studies, including the definition, construction and components of cultural identity. Part four focuses on Sidney Shapiro—a contemporary foreign translator in China, introducing his life experience, hybrid cultural background and his translation activities. Part five systematically explores Sidney Shapiro's special cultural identity and re-examines his translation, expecting to reveal the interaction between them. Part six is the conclusion of the research, which summarizes the thesis and meanwhile points out the limitations of the research.This paper is a re-examination of Sidney Shapiro's translation from the perspective of cultural identity and an exploration of the influences of his cultural identity on his translation. It is concluded that Sidney Shapiro is a faithful introducer of the Chinese culture and has made remarkable contributions to the cultural exchanges between China and the West.