A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Translations Of China Men From The Perspective Of Postcolonial Translation Theory

Postcolonial translation studies emerged in the 1980s.It is based on both translation studies and postcolonial studies.Translation has traditionally been thought of in highly mechanical ways:as an impersonal process of transferring a meaning from a source text to a target text without changing it significantly.Unlike the traditional translation theory,postcolonial translation theory focuses on the external conditions that control the generation of translation and the subversion of target culture after the translation is generated.Through exploring the relationship between translation and historical conditions,it attempts to reveal the historical conditions and power relations that constrain the production of the translation.As the core element and important perspective of postcolonial translation studies,power relations influence translators'choice and adoption of translation principles and translation methods.In a deep sense,translation constrained by power relations plays an important role in cultural colonization.Based on this,the postcolonial translation theorists have tried to deconstruct the power relations by retaining the cultural differences of the original texts in translation,thus changing the role of translation.This thesis takes the two Chinese translations of China Men,one of the Chinese American Writer Maxine Hong Kingston's masterpieces,as the research object.China Men is mainly about the hard times of early Chinese Americans,especially male Chinese Americans.In addition to reimagining the history and culture of the United States at the time,Kingston also intersperses adapted Chinese mythology,American laws and memoirs;therefore,this novel reflects the author's cultural heritage from the two countries.Li Meihua translated China Men in 1985 and Xiao Suozhang translated it again in 2000,which are the only two Chinese translations in mainland China.This thesis compares the two Chinese translations from the perspective of postcolonial translation theory.First of all,through analyzing the historical background of the two Chinese translations and the comprehensive analysis of the contextual materials such as the prefaces and the postscripts of the two translations,the author recognizes the different power relations behind the two Chinese translations.Then through comparing in detail the different translation methods of the same words and expressions from the original,the thesis reveals power relations' constraint on the productions of the two translations.At last,the author of this thesis attempts to search for possible strategies to retain cultural differences in translation and use translation as deconstruction in light of Spivak's translation theory.This study finds that under the influence of different power relations the two translators have chosen different translation principles—Li's translation is generally based on the principle of "target-reader-oriented",while Xiao's principle tends to be "source-text-oriented".Under the guidance of different translation principles,the two translators adopted different translation methods as well.This thesis studies on power relations in translation process,which will contribute to a more comprehensive evaluation and analysis of literature translation,and promote the equal communication between different cultures.