A Study Of The English Translation Of Big Breasts And Wide Hips From The Perspective Of "Gate-keeping" Theory

Feng Ru Fei Tun, as the most “weighty” work of Mo Yan, is not only epic novelof over500,000words, but also a grand narration covering almost the wholetwentieth century of China from Anti-Japanese War to the Reform and Opening up,featuring astonishing depth of historical description, profound message and fresh aswell as innovative narrative perspective. Crowned as “the most important translatorof modern and contemporary Chinese literature”, the renowned American translatorHoward Goldblatt (1939-) translated the novel into English, which later got publishedand introduced to the English-speaking world by Arcade publishing in America. It isthe only widely-recognized English version until now, which offers a chance for theWest to know Mo Yan. Meanwhile, the mainstream media in the West highly praisethe artistic value of the novel, considering it as Mo Yan’s grab for the brass ring. MoYan even states that “you can skip my other novels, but you must read Feng Ru FeiTun”(173). Owing to the pervasive coverage on the western media, the appearance ofthe English translation of Big Breasts and Wide Hips draws much attention, plus theastounding popularity after the Nobel winning, all of which contribute to the fairlygood reader’s reception. Therefore, the thesis takes it as a typical case study on theChinese literature “going-global”.The studies on English translation of Chinese literature have been seeking forinnovations and breakthroughs in perspective. With the advent of “Cultural Turn”which brings along an expansion in the scope of translation studies, translation startsto seek for inter-disciplinary researching directions. The thesis adopts the“Gate-keeping” Theory in Communication Studies, with the English translation ofBig Breasts and Wide Hips as a case, probing into the whole translation process,including the selection, translating, editing and publishing. The communicativeattribute of translation decides that the translation process is actually cross-culturaltransmission or communication. Therefore, the principles and theories in Communication Studies are applicable for translation studies as well. According to“Gate-keeping” Theory, information flows in certain channel, inside which there exista lot of “gates”. Gatekeepers’ execution of gate-keeping forces determines theswitching of the “gates”. As a result, information will be screened and transformed bythe gatekeeper, then presented to the recipient totally different from the original.The thesis explores the gatekeepers during the translation process of Big Breastsand Wide Hips, which includes the translator, the publisher, censors, critics andreaders, uncovering their gate-keeping forces. Traditional translation studies mainlyconcentrate on the translator and the translated work, paying insufficient attention oreven ignoring the other factors described above during the whole English translationprocess. From the perspective of “Gate-keeping” Theory, all the factors that influencetranslation’s transmission can be concluded with the concept of gatekeeper. The thesiscombines the theory with a typical case study to help clarify the influences of thosefactors. Meanwhile, it provides a comprehensive insight for the observation anddiscussion of the English translation of Chinese literature.