A Study On The Chinese Version Of On China From The Perspective Of Manipulation

On China, published in 2011, is a monograph on Chinese issue written by Henry Kissinger, the U.S. former Secretary of State. In this book, the writer analyzes the diplomatic tradition of China and the underlying mentality since the Opium War, and interprets the major diplomatic events in modern China. The Chinese version of On China was published by China Critic Press(hereafter cited as CCP) in 2012. It was rewarded Wenjin Prize of the national library and a social-science book of the year. After a comparison between the Chinese version and the original, the author finds that some comments on Chinese leaders and Chinese diplomatic and military events are deleted, and that some neutral ones are rendered into commendatory words. Therefore, this thesis attempts to analyze these translation phenomena from the perspective of manipulation theory.Since the “cultural turn” in the 1970 s, cultural school in translation study rose. Different from comparative study of text in linguistic approach, cultural school pays more attention to extra-textual elements and puts translation study in a broader environment, like history, society, politics and culture which provide a new perspective and method for translation study. Manipulation theory is a branch of cultural school, which proposes that translation is a kind of rewriting guided by certain purpose. As a main representative figure of manipulation theory, Andre Lefevere believes that translation is manipulated by ideology, poetics and patronage.This thesis takes Lefevere’s manipulation theory as the theoretical basis to analyze the manipulation of ideology, poetics and patronage on the translation process of On China. Through analysis, it is found that: on poetics level, translators employ words with Chinese characteristics, phrases with four-character, and repetition. On ideology level, translators delete negative comments on Chinese leaders and biased opinions on Chinese policy and historical events. Translators also use addition and diction to transform neutral remarks into commendatory remarks. On patronage level, through initiating the translation activity, selecting translators, and publishing and distributing the translated text, the translation activity is controlled by patron, who has an intervention in the translation process. Consequently, patron has a say on the level of ideology to ensure that the translated text conform to the ideology of target language.It is concluded that during the process of political text translation, translators should conform to patron’s ideology to ensure their versions published and distributed. To make the translated text conform to the dominant ideology of target language, translators also should employ addition, deletion, and diction to reconcile the social, political and cultural differences between the two languages. Meanwhile, translators should make adjustments on vocabulary and syntax level to meet target readers’ poetics.