The Textual Travel Of S.I.Hsiung's Translation Of Xixiang Ji-the Romance Of The Western Chamber

Xixiang Ji,written by Wang Shifu during 1295-1307,holds a unique place of honor in Chinese literature in light of its elegant language and delicate rhymes.It enjoys continuing popularity in regionally diversified Chinese theatres and increasing attention from readers and scholars abroad.There have emerged several versions in various languages overseas in recent years.Among them,the first English version of Xixiang Ji was published in London by S.I.Hsiung in 1935.S.I.Hsiung was a bilingual Chinese writer who wrote in English and spread Chinese culture in Europe in modern times.He should have been granted the same praise as another eminent bilingual Chinese writer Lin Yutang,but there was just little academic attention being devoted to him.His works are of not only uniqueness in literary attainments,but also great significance in cultural communication.Xu Yuanchong had entitled him as one of the four persons bringing Chinese culture to the world,along with Ku Hongming,Lin Yutang and Yang Xianyi.As early as 1935,Hsiung finished his full translation of Xixiang Ji,The Romance of the Western Chamber,and published it in Europe.But compared with the great fame of his another two works,Lady Precious Stream and The Bridge of Heaven,the reception of The Romance of the Western Chamber is not so ideal both at home and abroad.Traveling theory is a new approach and perspective proposed by Edward Said to study the thoughts and theories in the field of humanities and social science.Resorting to this theory,domestic scholar Hu Anjiang proposed the concept —textual travel in translation studies.In this theory,translation is metaphorically regarded as the travel of a text,and the theory explores the eight aspects during the textual travel,including: travel types(intra-lingual or inter-lingual),the three elements in travel(departure,passage,and destination),travelers(text,translator,and target readers),traveling route(direct or indirect),traveling pattern(bilingual parallel mode or single language mode),arrival approach(full or abridged translation),traveling results,and the return of a traveled text.From a mobile perspective,the theory of textual travel observes and analyzes the circular route of translation from the origin to the end.It also offers the compensation and enlightenment for the following travel.This thesis applies this theory to the study of the whole journey of Hsiung's The Romance of the Western Chamber from China to the English-speaking world.It explores the factors within and beyond the text with reference to the general environment of cultural communication in China and overseas in the 1930 s.This thesis is a case study of descriptive research.Through combing the traveling path of this text and the comparative analysis of Hsiung's another work Lady Precious Stream,the author finds that Hsiung had three purposes during his translation,including gaining the cultural identification from the west,the self-assessment of his various translation methods and the answer to the western expectation.His translation methods at that time underwent some explorations and transformations.And these different translation methods led to various receptions of target readers overseas.The reasons behind contain the literary characteristics of the original texts,the translator's complete loyalty to the original texts and the effect of Great Depression in the 1930 s.Based on the experience of Hsiung' s translation,the following enlightenment for cultural communication in the future can be attained:faithfulness is by no means the only standard for judging a translated text;to keep the culture functional equivalence is more likely to bring about an ideal reception in the target culture.