Vacillating Between East And West

Under post-colonial context, the East is often deemed as the "other" and presented as orientalized stereotypes. Taking overseas Chinese image for example, due to cultural aphasia of Chinese nation, it is the West which dominates the oriental image construction and it is via Western literature works that the overseas Chinese images are disseminated. Today, with strengthened cultural exchange, oriental intellectuals also take part in their self-portrayal. But influenced by Western colonial discourse and cultural hegemony, they display "self-orientalizaiton" tendency. In this regard, this thesis studies on writing and English translation of Fusang, and proposes the notion of "double orientalization".To be specific, "double orientalization" refers to:Eastern intellectuals compose literature works from Western perspective and present self-orientalized images. As these texts are translated into English by Western translators who aim to cater to Western public culture, these images are further orientalized and thus accord with orientalism discourse. The writing and translation of Fusang is a typical case of double orientalization. Yan Geling is an American Chinese writer who is influenced by Western mainstream ideology and therefore Fusang presents a series of stereotypes. Cathy Silber, as an American translator and the gatekeeper of Western culture, intervenes the texts through such methods as domestication, simplification and deletion, thus further marginalizing these images.This thesis carries out an in-depth discussion on double orientalization of Chinese images in Fusang and its translation, and points out self-dilution of orientalism in the writing and the translation. Through analyzing Yan Geling's original text, this thesis, finds out that Fusang depicts such images as exotic oriental prostitutes, undifferentiated migrant coolies, national bad habits and the "yellow peril" cliche". At the same time, the author of this thesis also notices that Yan adopts the "Mother Earth" metaphor and presents individuality description, thus implicating positive Chinese image. In other word, Yan's self-orientalized writing is a mimicry, similar but not the same as orientalism. Cathy Silber's translation is also featured with hybridity and ambivalence. Being a protester against discourse hegemony and colonization, though weakens the divinity of Fusang and masculinity of Da Yong, Silber faithfully conveys the Chinese culture and depicts forgiveness and self-salvation of the orient, thus diluting the orientalism paradigm of the West being superior to the east.In this way, the writing and translation of Fusang, though presenting stereotyped Chinese images, dilutes the orientalism in a certain extent. As a consequence, via "double orientalization" in writing and translation, Chinese intellectuals enter into the Western culture, and promote the dissemination of the Chinese culture.