An Analysis On Evan King’s Translation Of Luotuo Xiangzi

Luotuo Xiangzi is one of the world-known novels of Lao She and is considered as the best realistic novel produced in China up to its publication in1939. The unique description technique and Beijing dialects boast of Luotuo Xiangzi not only a milestone in Laoshe’s writing career but also a peak in modern realistic novel. The novel tells the miserable life and fate of a rickshaw in1930s’Beijing. By the tragedy, the author expresses his sympathy for the lower class, and criticizes the injustice and cruelty of the society at that time.The first English translation of Luotuo Xiangzi is Rickshaw Boy translated by an American translator Evan King in1945.Since its publication, it has got a big success and been highly praised by the critics. It has been the best seller in that year and the blueprint of many translations of Luotuo Xiangzi. But it was found that it was not faithful to the source text, some plots and the end were rewrote. The unfaithfulness aroused the writer’s indignation and the critics’arguments. While another two English versions, one is Camel Xiangzi translated by Shi Xiaojing, the other is Rickshaw translated by Jean M. James, which were completely faithful to the source text didn’t get good circulation and reception.1Thus it is found out that complete faithfulness to the source text is not workable all time. Only an overall consideration of the intended function of target text and target addressee can forge a good version. And it is just the very core of the Skopos theory proposed by Hans Vermeer. Skopos theory holds that translation is a purposeful activity, the skopos or intended function plays a decisive role. If the skopos of the target text is different from that of the source text, the adequacy for the target skopos achieving, rather than the equivalence between the source text and the target text should be the translation standard. That is, the translator can adapt the source text to the particular situation to achieve its intended function.As a breakthrough in the source-text oriented and equivalence theories, Skopos theory opens up a new perspective for the translation study and practice and pushes translating to new levels of flexibility and adaptability. However, it has been mainly applied to the study of pragmatic translation by most translators, much disputes over its application to literary translation. Taking Rickshaw Boy translated by Evan King as the example, the author attempts to combine Skopos theory with literary translation, and provides a descriptive analysis of the application of Skopos theory to literary translation and thus provides a new perspective for literary translation criticism.The analysis leads to the conclusion that Evan King’s translation had caused a lot of misinterpretation and hard translation, but it did introduce China local customs and practices, Chinese images to foreigners and was a successful translation.