A Case Study Of Eileen Chang’s Seif-Translation Of The Golden Cangue:from The Perspective Of Functionalist Translation Theory

Eileen Chang (also Zhang Ailing,1920-1995) has established herself as one of the few bilingual writers and skillful translators in the history of the20th-century Chinese literature. Her translating activities follow closely her writing all through her life. Among others, her Chinese-English translation spans from1950s to her later years in life. As a special form of translation, self-translation is the continuation of the translator’s writing activities with the translator and the author in one. It is thus quite different from translation in the common sense of the word. The study on self-translation can help us with the reflection on the translation criteria and principle. As the representative of self-translation, the self-translation of Eileen Chang is worthwhile studying with practical significance.Among all the self-translation works of Eileen Chang, the most representative one is The Golden Cangue, which undergoes self-translation and rewriting four times from1943to1971. As the four-time self-translation and rewriting of the same work is quite rare even in Chinese and western translating history, it is worthy of probing into the reasons for Eileen Chang’s continuous interests in translating and rewriting this one work and the aims behind all these translating activities, intentionally or subconsciously.Moreover, during the transformation of the several versions, different translating strategies are adopted by Eileen Chang, from "free imitation"(disputable as to the relationship between the first and third texts) to a compromise of "foreignization" and "domestication" and then to "foreigaization" as the main strategy. In the process, the "creativity" sees a decrease, white the "adequacy" witnesses an increase, along with the gradual implicitation of Chang’s identity as a writer and the explicitation of her identity as a translator. The transitional inter-textuality changes from rewriting to inexact faithfulness to exact faithfulness. The changes are closely related to Eileen Chang’s life experience as well as the translation aims over different periods. The paper intends to analyze Eileen Chang’s translation aims during different life periods as well as other external factors that affect her self-translation activities and the role they play in the changes of the translation strategies for the four-time self-translation of The Golden Cangue from the perspective of functionalist translation theory.