A Comparison Of Chinese Female Translation With Western Feminist Translation

Women have long been closely related to translation. The author and the original text are always regarded as the male, the first sex and the active ones, while the translator and the target text the female, the second sex and the passive ones. The marginalized positions for both women and translation reveal the discrimination against women and the contempt for translation. The 1980s witnessed the "cultural turn" in translation studies. In such a cultural context, feminism and translation studies are closely combined with each other, which lead to the emergence of feminist translation studies. Under the guidance of feminist translation theory, Western feminist translators propose to eliminate discrimination against women in translation and attempt to translate source texts from the perspective of feminism; they subvert the traditional hierarchical view that the original text is superior while the translated text inferior, and defines a co-existent relationship for them; they assert that translation is by no means a mere language transfer. Instead, it covers wilder areas such as history, culture, politics and ideology. Moreover, in order to make the feminine visible in translation, Western feminist translators take advantage of "creative treason" to manipulate the original text by adopting translation strategies, such as supplementing, prefacing and footnoting, and hijacking. Generally speaking, feminist translation studies have enriched translation studies with new insights and made great contributions to the equality in politics and economy between men and women.Western feminism was introduced to China by Zhu Hong in the 1980s. It has exerted great influence upon Chinese research and criticism of foreign literature as well as the creation of Chinese female literature. It is not until the year 2002 that Western feminist translation theory began to exert its influence on Chinese translation studies, which aroused a heated discussion in the translation circle. Since then, researchers have published a large number of articles and books, analyzing the characteristics of feminist translation studies from different perspectives. However, up to now, feminist translation studies in China still remain at the introductory stage and on the theoretical layer, lacking profound and systematic translation practice studies. It is noted that because of the great discrepancy between China and the West in their historical and cultural tradition, the development of feminism and translation practices, Chinese female translation takes on different features from Western feminist translation.This thesis will first introduce the relationship between feminism and translation and the formation of feminist translation, following a detailed introduction to Western feminist translation theory, including its main viewpoints and translation strategies. Subsequently, this thesis will take Chinese female translator Eva Hung's translation of Love on a Barren Mountain as a case study in an attempt to analyze the characteristics of her translation with the emphasis on the choice of texts and translation strategies. On the basis of this analysis, the author will summarize the characteristics of Chinese female translation and make a comparison of Chinese female translation and Western feminist translation.