On Ha Jin’s Cultural Translation Strategies In Waiting From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Although scholars both at home and abroad have carried out researches on Ha Jin’s works from various perspectives in the last decade, few have noticed the translational characteristics embedded in Ha Jin’s early works. This thesis explores and evaluates Ha Jin’s employment of translation strategies in Waiting with methods of detailed reading and objective analysis from the perspective of Skopos theory.The Skopos theory, put forward by Hans J. Vermeer, attaches much importance to the function of target text and believes that the communicative purpose of the target text helps translators to decide what translation strategy to use. Even though the target text may be different from the original one, it is still considered to be justifiable and acceptable as long as it has achieved the intended purpose, i.e. the end justifies the means.According to Peter Newmark’s classification of culture, the author would classify Chinese culture in Waiting into material culture and social culture. Through detailed reading and analysis, we find out that Ha Jin employs both the translation strategies of foreignization and domestication while translating Chinese culture. It should be clarified that in Ha Jin’s case, foreignizing translation refers to the presentation of the original Chinese culture to American readers almost without any change, while domesticating translation means the adaptation of Chinese culture to American culture. Then the thesis would make an attempt to evaluate Ha Jin’s employment of translation strategies under the guidance of three rules in Skopos theory. According to the Skopos theory, the Skopos rule is the top-ranking rule, with coherence rule and fidelity rule subordinate to it. Any translation strategy is justifiable as long as it could help target text function in target context to achieve a certain purpose. As a well-educated scholar, Ha Jin is able to ascertain the translation Skopos based on the conditions of the initiator. The translation Skopos is to make Waiting accepted by American readers. Basically, it requires Ha Jin’s familiarization with the reading expectation and psychology of American readers. American readers are eager to know something real about Chinese culture, but unfortunately they are trapped in their psychology of cultural superiority. Finally, through detailed analysis, the author of this thesis realizes that Ha Jin selects the dross of Chinese culture to translate and not all the foreignizing translation of the dross of Chinese culture in Waiting is true to the reality. Meanwhile, Ha Jin’s domesticating translation of a few Chinese culture-loaded words is not faithful to the corresponding Chinese linguistic forms. However, the fidelity rule in Skopos theory states that the degree of faithfulness to source text depends on the translation Skopos. Ha Jin’s foreignization of those dross aspects of Chinese culture and domestication of some culture-loaded words obey both the Skopos rule and coherence rule. Therefore, it is safe to say that Ha Jin’s employment of translation strategies is acceptable and justifiable. Nevertheless, it should be noticed that Ha Jin’s foreignization of a few culture-loaded words has hindered the comprehension of American readers, thus violating the coherence rule. In addition, the Skopos rule has also been breached as it has incurred criticism from some American readers, which may affect the acceptance of Waiting among American readers. Viewing from this perspective, we maintain that Ha Jin’s employment of translation strategy is imperfect. All in all, the above analysis demonstrates that Ha Jin applies both the translation strategies of foreignization and domestication in Waiting. Judged from the Skopos theory, his employment of those strategies is justifiable on the whole but imperfect to some degree, which remains to be improved.