"Foreignizing" Translation Of Cultural Blanks In Chinese Classics

Ranked as “The Third Talented Masterpiece” and created in Ming and Qing dynasties,Iu-Kiao-Li describes a love story that after having gone through many ups and downs, thegenius Su Youbai and the beauties Bai Hongyu, Lu Mengli finally got successful marriageand lived a happy life. This novel focuses on the theme of independence on marriage and thepursuit of ideal love, exerting a far-reaching influence on the creation of later Novels ofGenius and Beauty. After being initially translated into English in1821, Iu-Kiao-Li waswidely spread in European countries and was translated into French, German, Latin andRussian successively. It was popular in the West and even has several versions in differentlanguages; while so far the contrastive translation research of its Chinese and English textshas still been in its preliminary stage.The transmission of ancient civilizations’ cultural treasures and literary classics to thewestern culture has being a dream of many Chinese scholars since the beginning oftranslation theory and practice. The universality of culture makes translation possible, whilethe diversity of cultures may unavoidably cause cultural blanks. How to tactfully transmitChinese cultural elements to the West has always been a big problem for translation theoryand practice. Iu-Kiao-Li, as an outstanding representative of Chinese classics, its Englishtranslation of cultural blanks is worth studying.Based on the English version of1827and its valuable preface, the thesis attempts tomake a contrastive research on the Chinese and English versions of Iu-Kiao-Li from theperspective of foreignizing translation of cultural blanks, with an aim to reveal whether thetranslation of cultural blanks follows the maxims in the preface, namely, to respect and keepthe exoticism (Preface: xxix-xxxii). Guided by Venuti’s “Translation Ethics of Difference”and its specific device Foreignizing Translation, this study explores translation strategies incultural blanks mainly from three perspectives:1)culture relating to metaphors, honorificsand self-abasing terms and official titles;2)language concerning reiteratives and numerals;3)stylistics both in the level of literary genre and narrative pattern. After the descriptivecomparison and analysis, it can be pointed out that the translator respects and transcribes theoriginal foreign cultural capitals to a large extent. Firstly, foreignizing translation strategiessuch as preservation, literal translation, annotation and explanation are applied in translatingcultural blanks of metaphors, honorifics and self-abasing terms, official titles, reiterativesand numerals, which can be helpful in disseminating Chinese culture into the western world.Secondly, the target text is faithful to the literary genre and narrative mode without distortion, introducing exotic flavor from the Chinese mode of thinking. However, there are some otherlimitations on deleting, omitting or misinterpreting cultural blanks in the process oftranslation. With the development of the Information Age, the author tentatively put forwardseveral schemes, namely, notes compensation, illustrations compensation andelectronic-books compensation to tackle the problems of limitations on translating culturalblanks. Though these three compensatory strategies are not yet mature, it is meaningful ifthey can complementarily make up for more cultural blanks and introduce more culturalcapitals to the western readers. It is praiseworthy that under the guidance of the “TranslationEthics of Difference”, early sinologists adopt some appropriate foreignizing strategies totransmit heterogeneity, which can assist in satisfying the expectation of readers, realizingtranslators’visibility and constructing Chinese cultural identity.There is no end in the circle of literary creation, translation, retranslation and translationcriticism, and translation should keep pace with the times. This thesis, a case study of theEnglish and Chinese versions of Iu-Kiao-Li on its foreignizing translation of cultural blanks,will shed light on the historically dissemination of classical Chinese literature into the Westto some extent, with an expectation to enlighten the ways of translating “Chinese Learning tothe West” in contemporary context.