A Study On The Foreignization Of The English Version Of A Dream Of Red Mansions

A Dream of Red Mansions is a classical Chinese novel,in which refined writing techniques are displayed in the description of Chinese traditional culture,diet,poetry,characters and surroundings.Scholars have shown a great interest in its English translation for a long time.Among its different English versions,Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang's version and David Hawkes's version are the most famous.Owing to the fact that Yang Xianyi is a Chinese and he shows a special love for Chinese culture,in the process of translation he attempts to maintain the original features of the source language text as much as possible.According to Venuti's foreignizing translation strategy in which the translator seeks to preserve the original features of the source language text,such as language structures,cultural elements and words,in the target language text,Yang's version aims at making the target language readers experience the thoughts and feelings of the source language text without damaging its original meanings.Hence this paper takes Yang's version as an example to explore how Yang's version transmits Chinese culture into foreign countries under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory.At present,researchers have mainly studied Yang's version from the skopos theory,the subjectivism of the translator and other aspects.There are many representative research works in China and abroad.Newmark(2001)holds that Yang's version is difficult for some foreign readers for they may not be very familiar with Chinese culture,but Yang's version has done a very good job in transmitting Chinese culture to foreign countries and it is helpful for many foreign readers to know more about Chinese culture.Meanwhile,Lefevere(2005)points out Yang's version has retained many Chinese elements which are good for the cultural communication between countries.There are also many research works done in China.Xiong Lijuan(2013)has studied the translation of poems which describe the fates of different girls in the novel from the functional equivalence theory,and she finds that Yang's version shows a great respect to the sentence structure and word selection of the source language text than any other English versions of A Dream of Red Mansions,Guo Xiaoling(2014)points out that Yang's version shows a strict equivalence between the source language text and the target language text in the poem rhythm and part of speech.Although much research is done about English versions of A Dream of Red Mansions both at home and abroad,the research based on the functional equivalence theory to estimate the use of the foreignizing translation strategy is limited.The author of this paper holds that the foreignizing translation strategy is beneficial to keep the original cultural and linguistic features of the source language text and it contributes to transmitting the Chinese social,humanistic,and language features to other countries in the world.Yang has adopted the foreignizing translation strategy,such as the literal translation,transliteration,explanation and other ways to keep original features of the source text unchanged in the translation of A Dream of Red Mansions.This paper aims at finding answers to the following questions:1.How is the foreignization strategy reflected in the Yang's version?2.Is it feasible to convey the Chinese culture in A Dream of Red Mansions by means of foreignization?3.What is the advantage of the foreignizing translation strategy used in Yang's version in the transmission of Chinese culture to other countries?The analysis of the questions above is based on Nida's functional equivalence theory which is used to estimate the effect of the foreignizing translation strategy in A Dream of Red Mansions.The research result shows that under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory,Yang's version reveals the meaning of a deep level,and keeps the foreign features of the source language text intact.The use of the foreignizing translation strategy is well shown in Yang's translation of poems,idioms such as the folk saying,two-part allegorical saying,allusions,some Chinese culture-loaded words,and various figures of speech in the source language text.Yang's version has clearly presented the meanings and features of the source language text.Consequently,the author of this paper supposes that Yang's version has an advantage in transmitting Chinese culture to other countries in the world.Guided by Nida's functional equivalence theory,this paper will be of great help for readers to comprehend the foreignizing translation strategy in Yang's version of A Dream of Red Mansions.This paper will also provide some theoretical basis for the future research.