Comparative Analysis Of Feminist Thoughts In The Peach Blossom Fan

The Peach Blossom Fan is a famous opera in Qing Dynasty of China.Through the love story of Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun,The Peach Blossom Fan presents a panorama of Ming Dynasty in the late years.At the same time,The Peach Blossom Fan summarizes the rise and fall of the country and the heroine Li Xiangjun’s unyielding spirit,which still has certain enlightenment and educational significance today.However,there are few academic studies of its Chinese-English translation.The author hopes that this study can not only arouse scholars’ interests in study of The Peach Blossom Fan and its translation,but also provides some reference for feminist translation theory in opera and opera translation.Under the guidance of western feminist translation theory,this thesis takes two translation versions by Xu Yuanchong and Acton as examples to explore the female images and feminist thoughts in The Peach Blossom Fan and its translation works.Throughout the analysis process,this thesis uses contrastive analysis and documentary methods to deeply explore the feminist thoughts displayed by the writer and two translators,as well as the relevant translation strategies and techniques adopted by the translators.The study first finds that the writer Kong Shangren’s feminist thoughts in the original work can be classified into three categories,namely,positive description of women,highlighting the plight of men and negative description of men.Secondly,the feminist thoughts expressed by the two translators in translating female characters are illustrated,namely,to praise female characters,to emphasize equality between men and women and to respect for female characters.Thirdly,the author summarizes the translation skills and strategies mainly used by translators: supplement,hijacking,footnotes,literal and free translation,domestication and foreignization and so on.Finally,compared the differences between the two versions from the perspective of performance,it can be learned that Acton’s translation is more suitable for text reading,while Xu Yuanchong’s translation is more suitable for acting.