A Study On The Translation Of Rickshaw Boy By Evan King—from The Perspective Of Lefevere’s Theory Of Rewriting

Traditional translation study regards translation as a language transfer, concentrating on the comparison between the target text and the source text in pursuit of the faithfulness or equivalence to the source text. Trapped with the unreachable goal of absolute "equivalence" and inspired by the advent of "Cultural Turn" in1970s, some western scholars expanded the translation scope by introducing history, society, culture and other extra-linguistic factors into translation studies, rather being confined to the sphere of language. Lefevere’s rewriting theory, a representative achievement in translation studies from the perspective of Cultural Studies, points out that translation is rewriting, which is manipulated under the constraints of ideology, poetics and patronage in a certain historical context.Luotuo Xiangzi, Lao She’s masterwork as well as his most satisfying one, enjoys a significant status in the history of Chinese contemporary literature. The novel vividly depicts the dreary social life in the then Peking and profoundly expounds the social injustice in a minute and realistic way. Thus, the novel receives such great popularity both at home and abroad that it has been translated into English, Japanese, Russian, Italian, etc. Rickshaw Boy translated by Evan King is the first English version of Luotuo Xiangzi and also one of the few translated Chinese works. On its publication, Rickshaw Boy enjoyed instant enthusiastic acceptance by American readers and was even specially published for the military force in1946. On account of its great success in America, Rickshaw Boy won Lao She the honorable title of "the most popular Chinese writer" However, Lao She was extremely dissatisfied with Evan King’s translation. And the translation was also strongly questioned by the Chinese critics. Why does the translated work that is most popular in America suffer strong questioning in China? This is an interesting question. The present thesis studies Rickshaw Boy within the theoretical framework of the rewriting theory, with an attempt to examine the manipulation by ideology, poetics and patronage on Evan King’s translation, including the selection of the source text, the process of text-production, and the acceptance of the translation in the target culture, in an effort to address the question raised above.The study reveals that Rickshaw Boy is not very faithful to the original, featured by five major striking rewritings:firstly, the deletion of the introduction to the rickshaw schools; secondly, the addition of sex descriptions in the translation; thirdly, the creation of two characters:the radical girl student and the One Pock Li; fourthly, the rearrangement of Ruan Ming, one of the characters in the original work; fifthly, shift from the tragic ending in the original into a happy one. So it is clear that Rickshaw Boy is a typical case of rewriting which results from the manipulation exerted by ideology, poetics and patronage in the then society. The in-depth analysis of the study finds that it is the Sino-US alliance partnership at war time, the sexual liberation movement and the left-wing criticism that co-influence the whole course of Evan King’s translating Luotuo Xiangzi, including the selection of the source text, the rewritings made in the target text and the success of the translation in the target culture. Therefore, the case study of Rickshaw Boy translated by Evan King exemplifies Lefevere’s rewriting theory. Meanwhile, through this case study, it is found that the three manipulative factors of ideology, poetics and patronage do not work independently from each other; rather, they interplay as an organic whole with each other, and that in order to make the appropriate translation choices and decisions, historical, social and cultural factors should be taken into full account in translating practice and translating evaluation.