On Transferring Chinese Cultural Elements In The Gay Genius:The Life And Times Of Su Tungpo:Memetics Perspective

Using the memetics as the basic framework and memetic theories established by Kate Distin,Francis Heylighen as the theoretical basis,this thesis conducted a research on the editing and translation of The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo from the perspective of memetics.Regarding translation contents as memes,the translator can facilitate the acceptance and assimilation of the translation works,and help target readers better understand the translation works,In this sense,meme theory is relevant and applicable to translation studies.As an important figure both in Chinese and Western literature realm,Lin Yutang contributed a lot to introducing Chinese culture to Western readers.According to Lin,The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo is one of his favorite creations.After the publication of this book,a lot of Western scholars showed much interest in Su Tungpo and his works,and the research on Su Tungpo seemed to increase overnight.According to Lin Yutang,Su Tungpo is not only a politician,a poet in Northern Sung dynasty,he is also an optimist,a great humanitarian and an extremely talented painter.Lin's understanding of Su Tungpo is slightly different from that of other scholars.Despite the difference,The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo attracted numerous readers.What accounted for the success of the book and the acceptance of Su Tungpo by Western readers?What efforts and changes has Lin made during the editing and translation of The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo?Kate Distin holds that during the process of meme assimilation,five factors are at work,namely memetic environment,genetic environment,physical environment,human psychology and memetic content.Francis Heylighen believes that there are four stages involved in the process of meme replication,which includes assimilation,retention,expression and transmission.At each stage,different selection criteria will influence the success of meme replication,which are objective selection criteria,subjective criteria,inter-subjective criteria,and meme-centered criteria.Since this thesis is mainly based on the analysis of the editing and translation of The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo,which only concerns the assimilation stage of meme replication,that is how the target readers understand and accept this book.Therefore,combining Kate and Francis's theories together,this thesis conducted a research on The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo,analyzing how memetic environment,human psychology and subjective criteria influence the editing and translation of this book.The research findings are listed as follow:(1)the meme theory can be used for the descriptive analysis of The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo;(2)the editing part of The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo facilitates the process of Western readers' understanding and accepting this book and the memes and culture contained in it.(3)the translation methods adopted by Lin Yutang during the translation of the poems and passages also help Western readers better comprehend the memes and the book as a whole.Because of the limitation of time and the length of the thesis,this thesis mainly selected memetic environment,human psychology and subjective criteria for the analysis.In the later study,more emphasis can be attached to memetic content,genetic environment and physical environment,which will enhance the comprehensiveness of this research.Besides,since the examples selected from The Gay Genius:The Life and Times of Su Tungpo are only part of a big picture,more examples and deeper analysis in the future will be preferred.