Wing-tsit Chan’s Translation Of Chinese Philosophical Classics:a Postcolonial Perspective

In late Qing Dynasty, there has been a tremendous imbalance in the communication between China and the West. Chinese culture, rich in philosophical thoughts, lost its attraction to the West, and its philosophy was nearly ignored by western scholars.Wing-tsit Chan, one of the world’s leading scholars of Chinese philosophy and religion, enjoyed great reputation in the United States. In1960s, his translation works, such as A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Neo-Confucian Terms-Explained by Ch’en Ch’un, won many praises from western readers, however he was little known to people in China. Wing-tsit Chan devoted himself to the dissemination of Chinese philosophy in the western world, and could not stand the Western egotism and Westerners’ignorance to other philosophical cultures. Through translation, Chan had been trying hard to spread philosophy of ancient China in the hope of shaping Chinese cultural identity and improving the influence of Chinese culture.Postcolonial translation theory, rising in western countries in1990s, provides an efficient perspective for the study of Wing-tsit Chan and his translation. It believes that translation is not a pure linguistic activity, but an asymmetrical activity involving economy, politics, culture and others. This dissertation analyzes the cause of Chan’s translation and his translation strategy to find some implications for the study of postcolonial translation and contemporary translation of Chinese Classics.The dissertation begins with a brief introduction to Wing-tsit Chan. Then, after reviewing postcolonial translation theory, the author goes on to analyze the motivations of Wing-tsit Chan’s translation. Chan personally saw the ignorance and distortion of Chinese philosophy in the West, and he also wanted to make use of the key period for the development of Chinese culture in the US. Besides, Chan’s dissatisfaction with the previous translation and his attempt to introduce Chinese culture all drove him to transmit the Chinese culture to the West based on the strategy of foreignization. In Chan’s translation, he interpreted Chinese philosophy on an overall understanding of it and tried to reflect different ways of expressing Chinese philosophy from that of Western philosophy. He takes a variety of translation methods, such as creative interpretation, thick translation, and diversified translations.Chan’s translation has brought some implications to the study of postcolonial translation. First, in the postcolonial context, translation is a process of constructing culture identity. Only when constructed in a right way, can a culture be accepted by others. Second, domestication and foreignization can be used dynamically in the postcolonial translation. Whether it is a tool of colonization or decolonization depends on the social background of translation and the translator’s motivation.Chan’s translation also gives some implications to the translation of Chinese Classics. Translators who are going to do classics translation in a certain field should possess a professional qualification of that field before translating; a profound understanding of original texts and their background is also indispensable for classics translation. Only the translators with professional expertise and a comprehensive understanding of Chinese classics can be considered qualified for the translation of ancient Chinese culture and better disseminate Chinese culture.