Manipulation Of Ideology In China’s Translation Activities From 1949 To 1966

The seventeen-year translation activities from 1949 to 1966 were considered as the fourth major wave of translation in Chinese history. There appeared a boom in the translation of literature, politics and science. Yet in translation studies, theoretical analysis at this stage is not given the top priority for a long time. It is generally acknowledged that there are fewer achievements in translation activities which are highly politicized, and little deserves to be studied. Although some scholars have ever discussed them, due to insufficient materials, they tend to place it in a longer history to explore, without an integrated theoretical and practical investigation. The paper resorts to Lefevere’s rewriting theory and Foucault’s theory of power and discourse to make an overall statement about the seventeen-year endotropic and exotropic translating activities. Meanwhile, the methods, combining synchronic and diachronic, micro-and macro-perspectives, theory and practice, are used to explore how patrons and ideology have influenced and restrained translation activities. In addition, by exploring the relationship between translation, power, patronage and ideology, an overall tendency in the seventeen-year translation activities will be exposed, meanwhile, their features and achievements will be described objectively. More historical experience and theoretical principles will be provided in the formulation and implementation of translation policy.There are six chapters in the article. The first chapter focuses on research situation, method and its significance. The second reviewed theoretical study of Chinese translation history and manipulation theory at home and abroad, which lay the foundation for further study. In the third chapter, a theoretical framework is set. For one thing, since 1970s, more and more scholars realized that translation should be put in a broader cultural and social context to study. Then the Manipulation School came into being. A new turn in translation was shaped, which is "the cultural turn". One of the important achievements in "the cultural turn" was that ideology was given the priority. Lefevere was one of the theorists to promote the turn who took translation as a kind of "rewriting". All rewritings implied manipulation of the original, whether we were conscious of them or not. Of all forms of rewriting, translation was viewed as the most obviously recognizable and the most influential one. In addition, translation was manipulated by three main factors, that is, ideology, patronage and the dominant poetics. Literary, as one part of cultural system, was constrained by professionals within the literary system and patronage outside the literary system. Professionals often rewrote the original to fit in with the dominant ideology and poetics; the powerful patrons who stood for the dominant ideology could further or hinder the rewriting of literature. For another, under the influence of Foucault’s theory of power and discourse, in the 1990s, power relation closely related to ideology increased in importance. "The cultural turn" shifted to "power turn". To construct a certain culture, the source text was restrained by power, ideology and patronage to construct a special way it presents.The fourth chapter gives priority to how power interferes ideology and patronage to manipulate culture in the early period of the foundation of the PRC. Based on analysis of C-F translation and F-C translation activities and a large volume of historical documents, political manipulation in translation activities has become a focal point. The fifth chapter analyzes the external factors that climax translation activities and historical experience. In the end, based on the statistics and analysis, the paper concludes that certain power and ideology involvement can advance translation activities, whereas power abuse will lead to one-sidedness and imbalance of translation activities and over-manipulation of the source text.