A Study Of Chen Bochui’s Translation Of Children’s Literature

Chen Bochui (1906-1997), whose primitive name was Chen Ruxun, was born in Luodian Town, Baoshan District, Shanghai. He was a writer, a translator, an editor and a publisher in the field of children’s literature, crossing two historical periods of modern and contemporary. He was one of the pioneer and founder of Chinese modern children’s literature, known as the "Andersen of The East". He had been living for90years, and almost74years was dedicated to the Chinese children’s literature. At the beginning of writing children’s literature by1923, he had a persistent wish of "write children’s literature for children". He wrote "Beautiful Lady","The Son of China","A Cat Who Wants to Fly" and so on stories, translated "The Wizard of Oz","Heidi","The Story of Doctor Dolittle" and many other books which have met with great favor in Chinese children. Chen Bochui also devoted himself to the study of children’s literature theory, wrote and published the first book of children’s literature theory "A brief talk on Children’s Literature" in New China. These children’s literature works not only accompanied generation after generation of children in China, but also had a profound influence on the whole process of Chinese children’s literature.By contrast, the academic circles has paid more attention to the creation and theory of Chen Bochui’s children’s literature, and ignored his translations.In fact, Chen Bochui had used the American educator Thorndike’s test method, introduced many foreign fairy tales to Chinese children. Since published the first translation "A Disturbance on the Hill" by1930,Chen Bochui had translated more than20foreign classic works of children’s literature for Chinese children. These books brought precious energetic grain for Chinese children who lived in the specific period, and also provided valuable experience for children’s literature workers at that time and later. To a certain extent, these books also played a positive role for exchange and communication between Chinese and western culture. Based on the special background, and the recognition of the status quo in the study of Chen Bochui, this paper will stands upon on his translator career, through in-depth and meticulous analysis of his children’s literature translations and creations, in reference, comparison and contact, to give a more comprehensive understanding of his creations and writing style, to study the influence which from times and social on his translations and creations, as well as their relationship. This paper will study his translation activities more deeply, and provides a certain foundation for the construction of Chen Bochui. At the same time, I also hope to give a more complete, comprehensive and in-depth understanding and display for Chen Bochui’s contributions to the Chinese children’s literature.This paper includes five parts:The introduction part mainly elaborates the significance of topic selection and value, research status and problems of related topics, and this thesis research ideas and research methods, etc.The first chapter emphatically analyzed how dose Chen Bochui start the road of children’s literature creation and translation, from self-factors, age and social factors, and discussed such "sponsors" point of view, analysis of how he came into contact with children’s literature and interested in the began work as a child, what is the background of literary creation and translation, and in the process by which the related factors and the influence of children’s literature predecessors.The second chapter is based on text reading, focusing on the analysis of Chen Bochui’s children’s literature translation, the mutual influence, similarities and differences between the creation and translation. Also, this chapter will Study the four major characteristics in his "Childlike Innocence Theory", such as "childish","literariness","educational" and "knowledge".The third chapter focuses on the analysis of Chen Bochui’s translation skills and strategies in children’s literature. Discusses how the identity of the children’s literature workers and social ideological factor influence the choice of translation strategy and from the translator’s dilemma objective view to evaluate Chen Bochui’s translation of children’s literature and translation effect.Conclusion part summarizes the full text, and points out that the translator’s translation activities are influenced by itself, the times, the society and the mainstream poetics and other factors. It will also review Chen Bochui’s contribution and influence in children’s literature translation activities, and the characteristics, the shortcomings of his translations.