A Study On Sidney Shapiro’s Translation Thoughts Through His Special Cultural Identity

Throughout the history of translation studies both at home and abroad, most scholarsgenerally focus their attention on the study of translation theories, translatology and the historyof translation. Therefore, as the subject of translation, translators are always left in a position oftotal invisibility. There are few studies about translators or the subjectivity of translators.However, with the emergence of the cultural turn in the20thcentury, the translation studies areput into a much wider background rather than just confined to the simple transformation betweendifferent linguistic symbols, which makes it possible for the scholars to carry out researches ontranslation studies from a brand new perspective. As a result, the study about the translator’scultural identity is also put on the agenda. As a brand new perspective, the translator’s culturalidentity plays a significant role in the whole process of translation. It exerts great influence onthe selection of texts, the application of translation strategies and the adoption of words etc. Thestudy about the translator’s cultural identity will definitely broaden the field of translation studiesand promote its further development.Based on the theoretical background mentioned above, this paper explores the relationshipbetween the translator’s cultural identity and his/her translation activity through the case study ofSidney Shapiro. Sidney Shapiro is a very special translator in the Chinese translation history. Heis an American Chinese. And during the sixty years of living in China, he has translated dozensof classical Chinese literary works into English. Those works include Shi Naian’s Outlaws of theMarsh, Ba Jin’s Family, Mao Dun’s The Shop of the Lin Family&Spring Silkworms and ZhaoShuli’s Rhymes of Li Yu-tsai and Other Stories/Rhymes of Li Youcai and Other Stories&TheMarriage of Young Blacky, etc. This paper tries to analyze the influence that Sidney Shapiro’sspecial cultural identity has on his translation activity and translation thoughts and expects tore-examine Sidney Shapiro’s translation thoughts through the perspective of cultural identity.