A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Cultranslation Theory

Hong Lou Meng is one of the four famous classic literary works in China, whichfocuses on Chinese culture, history, literature and art. It is one of the few texts whichreflect the linguistic cultural features of China in multitude of aspects. It has also beenextremely popular and wide-spread both at home and abroad and has been translatedinto more than ten different languages. Among them two completely translatededitions that have been critically acclaimed are, A Dream of Red Mansions, which wastranslated by the famous Chinese translator couple, Yang Xianyi (the Yangs’ version)and his wife Gladys Yang, and The Story of the Stone, which was translated by OxfordUniversity’s Sinologists David Hawkes and John Minford (Hawkes’ version).Studies on the English version of Hong Lou Meng have drawn more and morescholars’ attention at home and abroad since the1970s. Although extensive studieshas been performed and published on the contrasts between the two English versionsof Hong Lou Meng, thorough and comprehensive discussions on factors which affectthe two versions, especially from view of intercultural communication andcultranslation are sparse, and are therefore are open to further development.Basing on the original literary classic, the two prior mentioned Englishtranslations as well as other previous studies of the two translations, this thesis studiesthe translation of culture elements in the two English versions from the perspective ofintercultural communication and cultranslation. The thesis also performs explanatorycomparative study of the two English versions and analyzes different methods used bytheir translators and highlights the influencing factors on the translation of culturalelements of this great novel.This thesis comprises of five major segments. The first part reiterates thesignificance of this thesis. It then briefly introduces Hong Lou Meng, its author CaoXueqin and the two English translations of it. The second part is literature review,which provides the theoretical background of this thesis and introduces existingstudies on the English versions of Hong Lou Meng. The third part makes acomparative study of the two English versions from the aspects of translators, translators’ translation thoughts and their translation methods. The forth part is acomparative study of the translation of cultural elements, such as clothing, dietetic,religion and poetry. Lastly conclusion of the whole thesis is presented which pointsout the main findings of this thesis.The aim of this thesis is to explore the impact translation of a literary work hasfrom intercultural communication awareness and cultranslation perspectives, and theinfluence it exerts on cultural exchange between China and the outside world.