| Chinese drama is an important part of Chinese literature. In the Yuan Dynasty,drama has reached a period of high prosperity. Then, after the foundation of People’sRepublic of China, a new leaf has been turned over. Until the reform and opening-up,Chinese drama has played the role of a cultural ambassedor between China and Westerncountries. Chaguan, as a representative of contemporary drama, is not only popular inChina, but also highly awarded in Western countries. As a result of that, its translationhas received great attention. This thesis takes the translation of Ying Ruocheng andJohn Howard-Gibbon as examples from the approach of Descriptive TranslationStudies to study the translating process, translation norms and the influence ofsocial-cultural context.Chapter I is about the research background, which makes a summary and reviewof the previous studies. Then, research questions have been put up about Chaguan.Chapter II systematically introduces Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), includingits development and main ideas. Chapter III is designed to make comparative analysesof the two English versions from the descriptive approach, using Toury’s methodologyintroduced in the book Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. The analysis isproceeded both on the macro-level and micro-level, with the apparatus of themicro-level description scheme initiated by Jose Lambert and Hendrik van Gorp. Basedon the above study, Chapter IV has processed a critical analysis, with efforts to probeinto the influential social and cultural factors. Finally, in Chapter V, a conclusion isdrawn on the two English versions from the approach of descriptive study. |
