Ideology, Translated By Lin Works

Lin Yutang, a great scholar with deep understanding of his mother culture and western culture, has made outstanding contributions in both translation practice and translation theory. For most of his lifetime, he was dedicated to introducing Chinese culture to the western world by translating Chinese classics and novels to English, so that to change the distorted image of China in the western world and make the westerners have a true understanding of China. As a productive translator, Lin has lots of translated works, including English-Chinese translation, Chinese-English translation and rewriting and editing works. This study mainly focuses on Lin's Chinese-English works for it plays the most important role in introducing Chinese culture to the West. As an interpreter of oriental culture, Lin not only successfully transmitted China's culture, but also made his works well accepted. In this study, the author will probe into the deep reasons for Lin's success.There have been so many definitions of ideology in academic areas, but, it is Andre Lefevere who first introduced ideology into translation studies. In 1990, with the coming of " culture turn" in translation studies, new blood has been injected into the academic areas. Not only have the boundaries of translation studies been expanded, but more diversified perspectives of research are being explored. Translation studies do not only restricted to the discussion of "literal" and "free" translation within the text any more. Ideology can be divided into social ideology and personal ideology. Never a translator can live in a vacuum world, so his translating activities are always under the restraints of social ideology. These social constraints can be reflected in translated text through translator, so, in this sense, translator manipulates the text. The manipulation of social ideology is directly reflected in the choice of source text and the acceptance of target text, meanwhile the manipulation of translator on text is reflected in strategies employed in translation.This study is carried out on the framework of manipulation theory, with Lin Yutang's translated texts as its basic references to probe the deep reasons behind Lin's choice of source texts, strategies employed in translation and the acceptance of target texts in western world. The author concluded that Lin's ideology and the then social ideology are the main factors influencing Lin's choice of original texts and his use of strategies.Xingling(expression of personal nature),youmo(humor) and xianshi(leisure) are Lin's main aesthetic tendency in art, which directly influence his choice of original texts. Six Chapters of a Floating Life and the Travel of Mingliaotse both all are characterized by xingling and xianshi. It had been borne in Lin's mind to introduce genuine Chinese culture to the West, so he chose many Chinese classics to translate, such as The Wisdom of Laotse and The Wisdom of Confucius. Moreover, his use of strategies and editing of original texts also embodied his ideological intention to introduce genuine Chinese culture to the West. He was very flexible in use of strategies and always made compromise between two opposite strategies, so that to introduce Chinese culture to the West better. His compromise in use of strategies was also an embodiment of his Golden Mean and Half-and-Half living philosophy.