Selection Of Translation Strategies From The Diasporic Perspective

With the frequent interaction between translation studies and other subjects, the concept of diaspora enters the field of translation studies and has been paid great attention by translation scholars. With the development of diaspora concept, a new term “diasporic perspective” emerges. The introduction of the diasporic perspective along with the theory of post-modernism provides interpretation power of the perspective in translation field. Two key terms are presented by this paper, namely, hybridity and cultural translation. Since diaspora represents hybrid language and culture, the diasporic perspective emphasizes hybridity to retain foreignness and span cultural difference. Diasporic translator, having both bilingual ability and bi-cultural vision, is supposed to be a cultural mediator to achieve cultural transmission. Toming Jun Liu is such a translator.Toming Jun Liu is now a professor of English at California State University. The diasporic perspective is taking shape in Toming's mind based on his constant study on diaspora and diasporic literature. In 2011, An Empty Room, translated by Toming and published by New Directions Press in the U.S., becomes Mu Xin's first translated version of his literary works. With the practice of translating for so many years, Toming finally forms his own translation philosophy which is called four-dimension philosophy combined with four characters of “yi”(?, ?, ?,?). This paper reinterprets the translation philosophy by dividing it into language and culture level from the diasporic perspective. Toming flexibly mediates translation strategies of foreignization and domestication so as to achieve hybridity both in language and culture. By means of “?” and “?”, the story book of An Empty Room gains popularity among the English readers.To sum up, this paper emphasizes the value of the diasporic perspective in the translation studies in that it serves as a new perspective for translation research to smooth over the everlasting disputes over the translation strategies of “foreignization” and “domestication”, which inspires translators to mediate translation strategies in order to accomplish their cultural mission of promoting cultural diversity. What can be summarized that foreignization is the main strategy adopted to retain the foreignness in the source language culture and domestication is needed when there exists cultural vacancy between two cultures to facilitate the acceptance of the target readers.