A Study On Canonization In The English Translation Of Mai Jia’s Jie Mi

As the only Chinese contemporary novel selected by “Penguin Classics”, Decoded: A Novel not only sets off a hot topic about Mai Jia(1964-), Chinese contemporary writer and scriptwriter, in Europe and America after the popularity of Mo Yan(1955-), the Nobel Literature Laureate in 2012, but also transcends the impossibility of the commercialization of Chinese fiction overseas. What is more, it also sets a new royalty on books for the Chinese writers abroad, up to 15%, which equals the remuneration level of the local best-selling authors. Decoded: A Novel, translated by the sinologists Olivia Milburn(1976-) and Christopher Payne, with its peculiar literature temperament, its fascinating subjects, precisely designed content and self-contained unique writing style, gets the focal report and unanimous praises from the oversea mainstream media and considerable readers as well as the rapid recognition from readers after the collaborative publication of the two world top publishing houses, Penguin and FSG(Farrar Straus & Giroux). Under the circumstance of inefficient practice of Chinese literature “going-global”, such a successful translation case definitely deserves our attention. On account of this, this paper will take its English version as a typical successful case of Chinese literature “going-global”.With its cultural turn, translation studies no longer follows the traditional research approach and gradually moves its studies from the in-text perspective to the factors beyond the text itself. Under such an overall background of translation, the broader factors beyond the text of translated works like ideology, poetics patronage and so on are all highlighted and get more attention from the translation studies scholars. Patrons are in the center of the power system and the success or the canonization of a translated work must attach largely to the patronage net system. In the supporting net of Decoded: A Novel’s popularity abroad, patronage is a key factor. Considering the coincidence of the importance of patronage in the two cases, this paper will make an analysis of the popularity of Decoded: A Novel abroad from the angle of patronage.This paper mainly discusses the role of patrons like translators, reviewers, publishers and media both within and outside the literary system from the perspective of patronage of Lefevere’s rewriting theory. It concludes the success translation and effective communication of the translated work must consider the important role of patrons in the power system and value the non-text literary factors behind the translation.