Translation Strategies In Ken Liu's Version Of The Three-Body Problem From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

On August 23^rd,2015, Liu Cixin, the best-known Chinese science fiction writer, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel with his masterpiece The Three-Body Problem, which raised the curtain for Chinese science fictions' entering the international market. However, Chinese sci-fi has developed at a slow pace all along, in consequence, the English-Chinese versions of sci-fi novels were and still are a major part of Chinese sci-fi, while the Chinese-English versions are uncommon. Therefore, the importance of turning Chinese sci-fi novels into English is self-evident to spur the development of Chinese sci-fi. The Three-Body Problem is translated by Ken Liu, an American-Chinese sci-fi writer, whose success would serve as an important reference for the study of sci-fi novels'C-E translation.From the perspective of Skopos theory, this thesis takes the English version of The Three-Body Problem as a sample for case study, aiming to analyze the translation strategies. This thesis, to be more specific, intends to discover the Skopos and effects of the strategies employed by the translator.Based on the research, the following conclusion is drawn:the English version of The Three-Body Problem embodies the key concept of the Skopos theory, that is, 'the end justifies the means' ?Nord,2001:29?, and it is in accordance with the relations of the three rules of 'Skopos', 'coherence' and 'fidelity'. In the translation process the translator retains Chinese cultural features and scientific knowledge to the greatest extent, which reflects translation's 'fidelity', while translation's 'betrayal' is revealed by the application of such strategies as deletion, addition and free translation. But the so-called 'betrayal', in fact, is translator's endeavor to render a source text to a target text that is much closer to the target reader's cultural background and reading habits.There are not many people in Chinese academia studying C-E translation of sci-fi, let alone studying the English version of The Three-Body Problem from the perspective of Skopos theory. That's where the practical value of this research lies, and this paper is in hope of being valuable for the researches in future.