The Problem of Translation in Modern China: A Brief Study on Lu Xun and Qian Zhongshu

• Main Author: Yo, Jia-Raye
• Other Authors: Johanna, Liu
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Translation Theory; Early Modern China; 0305
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/32503

This thesis aims to explore translation theory in modern China to shed light on the thought of inter-culturality through translation in the age of globalization, focussing on the works of Lu Xun and Qian Zhongshu. This paper attempts to unveil the constitution of modernization, the cultural way of crossing boundary, and the construction of imaginary otherness. The first chapter examines the methodological problems of translation in Lu Xun and Qian Zhongshu, separately, to demonstrate their contributions to Chinese modern translation theory from aesthetic viewpoints. The second chapter discusses the purpose of translation, investigating the cultural meaning of boundary crossing in translation. The third chapter examines the problems of the translatability and untranslatability from Lu Xun’s and Qian Zhongshu’s aspects, by contrasting with the concept of differences and translatability in post-structuralism theory, discussing the possibilities of mutual understanding between two cultures and languages through the imagined other in translation.