Study On Luotuo Xiangzi’s Cultural Translation Factors In Evan King’s Translation-from The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

Lao She was an outstanding representative of contemporary Chinese literature in thetwentieth century. And he was also a world famous Chinese writer. The language in his workswas humorous, vivid, natural and refined, which was the most important features of Lao She’sworks. Special Beijing charm and local flavor made his works win universal praise. Lao She’sworks have been translated into over ten languages, which boosted the development of thecultural exchange between China and western countries. But there are few studies on thetranslation of Lao She’s works. Therefore, the paper will analyze Evan King’s version ofRickshaw Boy, the representative works of Lao She.Luotuo Xiangzi was Lao She’s first novel after he became a professional writer, whichwas also a work with apparent awareness of social criticism. The novel was set in the Beijingcitizens’ life in the late1920s. The main plot was the bitter life of Xiangzi, a rickshaw puller.It exposed the darkness of the old China, made a complaint against the ruling class’sexploitation of the laboring people and showed his deep sympathy for the laboring people.The novel was a great success and played an important part in the history of modern Chineseliterature. So far there have been38different versions.The American writer Evan King translated the name of Lao She’s novel Luotuo Xiangziinto Rickshaw Boy in1945. This version was a great success in the U. S. And it sold well inthe U.S. at that time. Evan King’s version promoted the worldwide spread of Luotuo Xiangziin a certain degree and the translation exchange between China and the western countries. Itnot only conveyed the special Chinese culture to the west but also version enriched the targetlanguage and target culture. But this version was not completely loyal to the original work.Evan King’s significant rewriting resulted from the special cultural, historical and socialfactors and did not happen by chance. Nida’s theory of functional equivalence was the main theoretical framework.It stressedfunctional equivalence. Nida divided equivalence into two kinds: maximal equivalence andminimum equivalence. According to Nida’s classifications of culture, cultural translationfactors in Evan King’s version of Rickshaw Boy were mainly analyzed in the paper. Culturehas outstanding national characters and local flavor and is one of the difficult points intranslation. Nida divided culture into five categories: ecological culture, linguistic culture,religious culture, material culture and social culture. Material culture was subdivided intocooking culture, clothing culture and residential culture. Linguistic culture was divided intoaddress form and dialect. Social culture was divided into birthday celebration, wedding andfuneral. By listing the examples of cultural factors in the original work, the correspondingtranslations of them in Evan King’s version were analyzed in the paper. Through analysis, theauthor found that the language in the translation could not completely equal the one in theoriginal work due to the differences in two cultures. But the translator should try to pursue themaximum equivalence. Some examples of Evan King’s version reflect the maximalequivalence in functional equivalence, that is to say, the translation realize the highest level ofequivalence,“which can make the target listeners or readers have the same reaction whenreading and appreciating the translation as the listeners or readers of the original work whenthey are reading and appreciating the original work”(Nida,2004:58). Evan King’s version isloyal to the source text and reflects its style. Although there are some changes in some plotsand some mistranslations in the Evan King’s translation of Rickshaw Boy, yet the versionspreads the Chinese culture, enriches the target language and the target culture to a certaindegree. It can be regarded as a successful translation.