Manipulation In The Chinese Translation Of Autobiographical Works On The Cultural Revolution By Overseas Chinese—A Case Study Of Life And Death In Shanghai Translated By Cheng Naishan And Pan Zuojun

The Cultural Revolution has been a disaster for a generation of Chinese people. In the 1980s, "Wound Literature" and "Reflection Literature" dominated the literary circle of China's mainland. At the same time, literary works on the Cultural Revolution written in English by overseas Chinese also began to emerge, among which the most popular ones are those autographical works that gave a true account of the authors'own experience during the Cultural Revolution. With the avid desire for books, the adoption of Reform and Opening Up, and the need in China to reflect on the past to promote future development, some of these books were translated into Chinese, and received great applause.However, comparing the source text and the target text, it could be found that compared with the source text, the target text is usually less politically aggressive. The author of this paper holds that these changes are produced by the translation process, and decides to approach this topic through a case study of the Chinese translation of Nien Cheng's Life and Death in Shanghai translated by Cheng Naishan and Pan Zuojun.After detailed analysis, the author finds that compared with the source text, the target text is less politically sensitive and less aggressive, while having a Shanghai flavor. The translators mainly use attenuation, omission and Shanghai dialect to achieve this effect. After analyzing theories on manipulation in translation and the translator's responsibility, the author finds that two factors lead to these changes: external factors, which could be further divided into the dominant ideology and the need of the general public, and the translators'personal consideration, which is further divided into the translators'identity as Shanghai style female writers and the translators'responsibility.