Cover not available
Article published In:
FORUM
Vol. 18:1 (2020) ► pp.86–104

Translation and canon formation

Four decades of Chinese fiction in English translation (1978–2018)

| Tianjin University of Commerce

As an essential part of the “Globalization of Chinese Culture” strategy, the translation of Chinese fiction into English has gained more significance and deserves more academic attention. Through making a survey of Chinese fiction in English translation from 1978 to 2018, the article not only presents different trajectories of the development of Chinese fiction in English translation in mainland China and the English-speaking countries but also shows that different canons of Chinese fiction in English translation have been formed in the course of this development. Reasons for the formation of the prevailing canon(s) are explored and explained from perspectives taking into account concrete factors such as ideology, poetics and patronage as well as influences of the literary award mechanism. Based on this description and explanation, the article concludes with a few suggestions for the future development of cultural activity of introducing Chinese literature into English-speaking countries.

Keywords: canon, ideology, poetics, patronage, literary award
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The canon of Chinese fiction in English translation
  • Mechanisms of canon formation
    • Ideology and canonization
    • Poetics and canonization
    • Patronage and canonization
    • Literary awards and canonization
  • Prediction for future development
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.19010.yu
References
Barmé, G.
1979 “Chaotou Wenxue – China’s New Literature.” The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs No. 2: 137–148. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Duke, M. S.
1990 The Problematic Nature of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Fiction in English Translation. In: Goldblatt, H. (ed) Worlds Apart: Recent Chinese Writing and Its Audiences. New York, NY: M. E. Sharpe. 198–227. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1991 Walking toward the World: A Turning Point in Contemporary Chinese Fiction. World Literature Today Vol. 65. No. 3. 389–394.Google Scholar
Even-Zohar, I.
1990 Polysystem Studies. Poetics Today No. 1. 1–262.Google Scholar
Farquhar, M. A.
1999 Children’s Literature in China: From Lu Xun to Mao Zedong. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Gentzler, E.
2001 Contemporary Translation Theories. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.Google Scholar
Goldblatt, H.
2000 Translator’s Note. In Goldblatt, H. (trans.) Republic of Wine. New York: Arcade Publishing. v–vi.Google Scholar
2004 Introduction. In: Goldblatt, H. (trans.). Big Breasts and Wide Hips. New York: Arcade Publishing. vii–xii.Google Scholar
Hermans, T.
2004 Translation in Systems: Descriptive and System-oriented Approaches Explained. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.Google Scholar
Hong, Z.
2009 A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature. Trans. Michael M. Day. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.Google Scholar
Hsia, C. T.
1971 A History of Modern Chinese Fiction. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
1981 Introduction. In: Joseph S. M. Lau, C. T. Hsia and Leo Ou-fan Lee, (eds) Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas 1919–1949. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. xiii–xxvii. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Innes, C.
1991 Foreword. In: Ronald R. Janssen & Jian Zhang (trans) Old Floating Cloud: Two Novellas. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. ix–xvii.Google Scholar
Jones, A. F.
2003 Translator’s Afterword. In: Andrew F. Jones (trans) Chronicle of a Blood Merchant: A Novel. New York: Pantheon Books. 253–263.Google Scholar
Lefevere, A.
2004 Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.Google Scholar
2007 Translation and Canon Formation: Nine Decades of Drama in the United States. In: Alvarez, R. (ed) Translation, Power, Subversion. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 138–155.Google Scholar
Leung, C. K.
1993 Review of Turbulence. World Literature Today Vol. 67. No. 1. 232–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Q.
2000 Searching for Roots: Anticultural Return in Mainland Chinese Literature of the 1980s. In Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang (eds) Chinese Literature in the Second Half of A Modern Century: A Critical Survey (pp. 110–123). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Link, P.
1983 Introduction. In: Link, P. (ed) Stubborn Weeds: Popular and Controversial Chinese Literature after the Cultural Revolution. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1–27.Google Scholar
2012 Does This Writer Deserve the Prize? The New York Review of Books. [URL] (accessed May 24, 2018).
Louie, K.
1989 Between Fact and Fiction: Essays on Post-Mao Chinese Literature & Society. Broadway: Wild Peony.Google Scholar
McDougall, B. S.
2011 Translation Zones in Modern China. New York, NY: Cambria Press.Google Scholar
Mo, Y.
2001 Preface Hunger and Loneliness: My Muses. In: Goldblatt, H. (trans) Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh. New York: Arcade Publishing. vii–xix.Google Scholar
Ng, J.
1996 Review of Strange Tales from Strange Lands: Stories by Zheng Wanlong. Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) No.18. 217–219.Google Scholar
Wang, Der-wei. David
1992 Fictional Realism in Twentieth-Century China: Mao Dun, Lao She, Shen Congwen. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, N.
2004a Canon Formation, or Literary Revisionism: The Formation of Modern Chinese Literary Canon. Neohelicon No. 2. 161–174.Google Scholar
2004b Globalizing Chinese Literature: toward a Rewriting of Contemporary Chinese Literary Culture. Journal of Contemporary China Vol. 13. No. 38. 53–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010a Rethinking Modern Chinese Fiction in a Global Context. Neohelicon No. 37. 319–327. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010b World Literature and the Dynamic Function of Translation. Modern Language Quarterly Vol. 71. No. 1. 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, N. and Ross, C.
2016 Contemporary Chinese Fiction and World Literature. Modern Fiction Studies Vol. 62. No. 4. 579–589. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Williams, F. C. P.
2001 Twentieth-Century Fiction. In: Victor, H. M. (ed) The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press. 732–757.Google Scholar
Yang, X.
2002 White Tiger: An Autobiography of Yang Xianyi. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
Zhao, Y. H. Henry
1993 Introduction: The New Waves in Recent Chinese Fiction. In: Zhao, Y. H. (ed) The Lost Boat: Avant-garde Fiction from China. London: Wellsweep Press. 9–18.Google Scholar