A Study Of Zheng Zhenduo’s Translation Of Children’s Literature

Zheng Zhenduo (1898-1958) was one of the pioneering figures in the May FourthMovement in China; he not only made great achievements in the aspects of literature,art, archeology, compilation, etc, but also made great contributions to the translationcause in our country. From the past researches, we can know that the studies on ZhengZhenduo were rather fruitful in other areas but quite few in the translation area,especially the study on Zheng’s translation of children’s literature, and his contributionsto Chinese translation cause are often neglected; therefore, making a systematicalresearch of the area is very necessary.The thesis firstly analyzes Zheng Zhenduo’s theoretical views on children’sliterature and his translational practice, then puts forward the following two questionsthat the thesis needs to answer:(1) What are Zheng Zhenduo’s judging criteria of thegood translation of children’s literary works?(2) What are the relationships betweenZheng Zhenduo’s theoretical views about children’s literature and his translationalpractice?On the aspect of children’s literary theories, Zheng Zhenduo put forward thetheoretical views about children’s literature ontology, the viewpoint of non-nationalboundary of children’s literature, the viewpoint of children’s literature style-expansion,and other additional viewpoints about children’s literature. By the systematical researchand analysis, the thesis constructs Zheng Zhenduo’s translation criteria of children’sliterature which mean the sentences should be simple and fluent for children; the wordsare vivid and imagic; there are mischievous and intimate communicative dialogueswhich pull the distance between the translator and readers close together; the target textshould avoid the translationese; the version should be faithful to the original works. Onthe aspect of Zheng’s children’s literary translation practice, the thesis generallyanalyzes the various types of literary works which were suitable for children to read,such as foreign fairy tales, folk tales, fables, children novels, etc, exploring the mutualrelations between his theoretical views about children’s literature and his translationalpractice. Whether his theoretical views or his translational practice both embodied thatthe ultimate purpose of children’s literary translation lay in children readers’understanding and acceptance of the target text. Zheng Zhenduo’s theories of children’sliterature had the guiding significance upon his translational practice. Then, by theempirical research, the thesis chooses Zheng Zhenduo’s version of The Crescent Moon which was praised as the best anthology to describe children’s psychological innerworld and their life as the study case, making a careful study of Zheng Zhenduo’stranslation strategies about children’s literary works and his language features and theembodiment of his personal translation theories, as an example to confirm the mutualrelationships between Zheng Zhenduo’s theoretical views about children’s literature andhis translational practice. Zheng’s theoretical views and translational practice have agreat promoting influence upon the researches of scholars who take up the translation ofchildren’s literature and upon the development of children’s literature in China.