Lingnan University

Faculty Member, Translation

Other Affiliations: University of Oxford, International Gender Studies Centre

Assistant Professor

St Antony's College & Institute for Chinese Studies, University of Oxford (2005 grad)

Thesis Title: Politics of Translation: Mainland Chinese Novels in the Anglophone World in the Post-Mao Era

About

My research and teaching interests are interdisciplinary, covering theories and histories of translation, language use and cross-cultural communication, contemporary Chinese culture, and intellectual history of overseas Chinese.

When time allows, I take on legal interpreting in the UK as a chartered linguist, and I offer Chinese cultural training to British firms and organisations as a consultant. What makes me happiest though, when I want to wind down from work, is to do voluntarry work for Half the Sky <www.halfthesky.org&gt;.

An outline of my doctoral thesis here: it is an examination of the English translation of a collection of 181 novels and short story collections published in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during the post-Mao period (1976 to 2001). By applying the 'manipulation school' of translation theory, my study is based on the premise that all translations are purposefully embedded with a degree of manipulation/intervention during the process of translating so that the target text will be in line with a particular notion of correctness. Translation agents, such as translators employed by official translation institutions in the PRC, translators who are academics or commissioned by a commercial press outside the PRC, as well as editors and literary critics, all participate in the complex business of (re-)presenting Chinese literature to the Anglophone world through translation.

My analysis is largely empirical. Case studies show how the roles and working conditions of translation agents create particular translations with particular impact on the target audience. Chapter One surveys the uses to which ideology puts Chinese literature and the relevance of translation studies theories to the case of China. Chapter Two examines overseas translation agents and compilation of anthologies as a comprehensive presentation of writers and texts. Intellectuals employ translation as a means to realise their agenda, such as building up a non-mainstream literary history. Chapter Three examines the roles of state-owned translation agents in mainland China, which are likely to present a different canon of Chinese literature from that by an overseas commercial press. The operations of state-owned translation institutions demonstrate a clear case of translation driven by ideological agenda. Chapter Four discusses the power of individual translation agents along two lines: how culturally-specific elements are treated and how aesthetic standards are used as evaluative tools. Chapter Five enumerates the manner in which gendered presentation of Chinese women writers may be reflective of a need for cultural voyeurism in the Anglophone world, while simultaneously empowering the original authors. Chapter Six presents a brief summary of the various findings on the roles of translation agents in Chinese-English literary translation.

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