Cultural Hybridity In The Third Space: A Study Of Cultural Translation In David Henry Hwang’s Play Chinglish

In the past decade, scholars at home and abroad have studied the Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang’s plays from various perspectives. The research is mostly focused on his magnum opus M. Butterfly, while rarely on his newest play Chinglish, particularly from the perspective of Cultural Translation. In this thesis, the author starts from the angle of Cultural Translation, referencing postcolonial master Homi K. Bhabha’s concepts of "Hybridity" and "Third Space". Through a close reading of the script, the author tries to use Cultural Translation as a means for analysis, to make literary criticism toward this play, multiply elaborating its postcolonial color and Cultural Translation traits. Moreover, the author exerts this dramatic text as the support, to initiate a discussion on the mistranslation of signage and the main character Xi Yan’s Chinglish. The author assumes that, Chinglish is one of the best practice of cultural translation, and the playwright attempts to construct an ideal "Third Space" where different cultures are able to mutually-communicate and co-exist, through performing the cultural "Hybridity".First of all, this thesis carries out an introduction to Hwang’s life and literary achievements, as well as a review of the previous studies on his renowned and important plays. In this way, the author figures out the lack of research on Hwang’s plays from the perspective of Cultural Translation in the previous studies, as well as reveals the demerits of theory and biased viewpoints in the previous studies on this latest play. Secondly, the author undertakes a systematic review of the basic concepts of Postcolonial Translation Studies represented by Bhabha, and particularly analyzes his two concepts of "Hybridity" and "Third Space" in accordance with his notion of Cultural Translation, which plays a dramatic role of the theoretical framework of this thesis. Thirdly, this thesis adopts the notion of Cultural Translation as a way to carry out literary criticism, making a multiple analysis of this play. The author explores the postcolonial ethnic color embodied in this play, to unearth playwright’s fact of immigrant ethnic identity, who belongs to "the people who are translated". Also, the term Translation is redefined in this thesis to illuminate that Hwang’s cross-cultural writing is a postcolonial form of translation, as well as elaborate the unique writing style which can be commonly seen in the postcolonial works embodied in playwright’s "translating in writing". Moreover, under the guidance of the concept of "Hybridity", the author also examines the Cultural Translation traits of this play, emphasizing on the hybridity phenomenon of languages, cultures and consciousness. Furthermore, in accordance with the concept of "Hybridity", this thesis also analyzes the reason that why in this play the translators’hybridity of cultural identity in the process of their translation activities is a failure, and carries out a possible solution existing in the "Third Space". Fourthly, the author again turns his perspective from literary criticism to translation criticism. On the basis of this unique literary text, this thesis attempts to make a cross-cultural translation study on the cultural mistranslation of the signage and Xi Yan’s Chinglish in this play.Based on the above analysis, the thesis finally comes to the conclusion:Hwang’s Chinglish employs the concept of "Hybridity" in the "Third Space", and is indeed a concrete practice of cross-cultural translation, during which Hwang has applied the strategies of Domestication and Foreignization, hybridized the cultures of the East and West, to subvert the hegemonic position of English; in this play, Hwang has constructed an ideal "Third Space", in which different cultures could communicate with each other equally, and co-exist harmoniously.