A Postcolonial Perspective On Lin Shu’s Translation

Since the end of the1980s, postcolonial theory has been applied to translation studies. With this came postcolonial translation theory. Postcolonial translation studies broke away from the traditional practice of translation studies which focuses on texts and issues such as fidelity and veracity of translation. It sets translation into a certain historical background and probes the political, social, cultural and historical reasons of a certain translation phenomenon."The politics of translation" is an angle of postcolonial theory. It is a way of questioning in a postmodern context since the1960s. The politics of translation refers to the strategies chosen by translators and the underlying factors. Therefore, from the selection of original texts to the choice of a word, the whole process involves ideologies and power relations.Lin Shu is a translator and writer who contributed a great deal to the development of modern Chinese literature. Though Lin was not qualified in any foreign language, he translated over180works from11countries in the way in which his collaborators dictated in Chinese from the original works while he wrote them down as literary texts. Because of his ignorance of foreign languages, there are many mistakes in his translation. Additions, reductions and rewritings are present throughout his translated versions. Therefore, he constitutes a special case for translation studies. Lin lived in the late Qing Dynasty (1618-1911) and the early Republic of China (1912-1949) when China suffered from Western imperialists, which launched political, economical and cultural invasions against China. China transformed from a feudal society to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Chinese people lived in an abyss of misery by the oppression of imperialists from outside and the corruption of the Qing Dynasty from inside. Under these historical circumstances, patriotic translators such as Lin Shu regarded translation as a tool to fight against the oppression of Western powers and the corruption of the Qing Dynasty. Their translations expanded Chinese people’s horizon and awakened them to the colonial realities, leading their compatriots to stand up to cultural invasion from Western powers.This thesis sets Lin Shu’s translation against the political, social, cultural and historical background of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. It examines Lin’s translational thoughts and strategies from a postcolonial perspective and analyzes the politics of translation in Lin’s translated novels. The thesis adopts descriptive research methodologies and does some case studies on certain works translated by Lin Shu. It tries to find out the reasons why Lin adopted those translation strategies and the influences those strategies exerted on the emotional and spiritual rebuilding of the Chinese people. Through the research on his translated novels, the thesis arrives at the following conclusion:Lin’s translations expanded his countrymen’s horizons, raised the literary status of the novel and novelists, served as a warning to his fellow countrymen and encouraged political and social improvement. These aims can also be regarded as the methods that he took to meet his further needs concerning anti-colonialism and the survival of China. This study shows that Lin Shu reached his translation goals by his selection of source texts, rewriting women, handling religious elements and renaming the novels.To sum up, this thesis aims at setting Lin Shu’s translation in the historical background of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China and studying Lin’s translation purposes and strategies from a postcolonial perspective. It is expected that this thesis can provide some new ideas to Lin’s translation studies and enrich the research on Lin Shu.