A Study Of Hu Shi’s Translation Of Short Stories

Hu Shi is still widely received today as a key contributor to the reform of Chineseliberalism and language in his advocacy for the use of vernacular Chinese. Hisachievements in many other fields and even his personal life are now attracting increasingattention from scholars. On the other hand, however, his contributions to translation,especially his translation of short stories, have long been underestimated or neglected bythe academic circle. In light of this, the present thesis is devoted to the studies of Hu Shi asa translator with focus on a thorough description of his endeavors in short story translation.The first part explores how Hu Shi s translation activities and theoretical assumptionsinteract with the social and cultural contexts. Researches show that his literary viewpoints,to some extent, serve to guide his translation activities and, in return, his ideas ontranslation reveal his pursuit in literary revolution. The second part probes into Hu smotivations to translate short story. It is found that his choice of this specific literary genreis a purposed and rewarding action. The translation of short stories, when themes arecarefully chosen, is able to satisfy his demands for responding to the social reality,revolutionizing Chinese literature, and reforming the national language. To best achieve hispurposes, Hu has adopted various translation strategies or methods such as indirecttranslation, application of baihua or vernacular, combination of literary translation withfree translation, and intervention in and around the texts. The last part concentrates on howHu Shi s translation of short stories influences the development of Chinese language andmodernization of short story writing in China. The thesis concludes that Hu s choice andtranslation of short stories is a great success under the guidance of his own translationthoughts and literary viewpoints, having been exerting enduring influence in more than onefields.