The Representation Of View On Women In Translating Moment In Peking:A Comparative Study Of Its Two Chinese Versions

This current study comes out of the reading of Yu Fei’s and Zhang Zhenyu’s translations of Lin Yutang’s Moment in Peking,where the author of this thesis discoveres that the representations of some aspects of Lin Yutang’s view one women in these two translations are different from that of the original.As the representative literary work of Lin Yutang,Moment in Peking has made a great success in shaping many different female characters and it gives high compliment to women’s capability.Besides,it also criticizes the suppression on women in the old society and encourages women to break the restrictions of feudal traditions.However,for Lin Yutang,women’s independence does not mean they are totally in control of their life,because he still thinks that women should stay at home.He speaks highly of traditional Chinese women with good characters like diligence,selflessness,supporting husband and caring for children etc.,but he also believes that women’s bound feet are pleasing to the eyes and harmless and it is innocuous for a husband to have several concubines.His deep-rooted backward view on women in feudal Chinese society is implied between the lines.So,Lin Yutang’s view on women is quite contradictory with both the feminist ideas of equality between men and women and the backward gender ideologies in the feudal patriarchal society.Yet,after examining and comparing Yu Fei’s and Zhang Zhenyu’s Chinese versions of this novel,it is found that Lin’s complicated view on women had different representations.Some of his views stay the same in one version,but being distorted in another.This thesis employs multiple-case study as research methodology to answer the following questions:1)what are the differences between the representations of view on women in Yu Fei’s and Zhang Zhenyu’s Chinese versions of Moment in Peking and Lin’s view on women in the original?2)What is behind the different representations of Lin’s view on women in Moment in Peking?Or which factors lead to Yu Fei’s and Zhang Zhenyu’s manipulation of the target text resulting in the different representations?It is found that Yu Fei’s version changes Lin Yuang’s attitude toward feet-binding and also showed more sympathy for women through his variation of some wording from the original,while Zhang’s version alters Lin’s view on freedom of marriage by reconstructing Silverscreen’s image and shows a tendency of aggravating male supremacy in feudal Chinese society.Yet,these differences have not completely distorted Lin Yutang’s view on women in the original since both translations have not changed or deleted any plot or altered the fate of any female character.Therefore,only partial views on women are distorted,and the rest are mostly faithfully represented.To explain the differences,the author of this thesis uses Lefevere’s manipulation theory and Dukate’s typology as the theoretical framework and employs Halliday’s register theory to analyze the context because gender ideologies embodied in the examples have to be understood in the specific context.And in this case,the author of this thesis found that translation beliefs,poetic and personal gender ideology are more important factors than social gender ideology in forming the different representations in both translations.