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Beyond translation: facilitate mutual understanding

Author  :       Source  :    Chinese Social Sciences Today     2014-03-21

For Chinese literature and culture, “going-global” is going to take more than simply translating. Three issues and two phenomena demand our attention.

Neglect the goal of effective communication

The present state of affairs in the translation and dissemination of Chinese works reveals that the following issues have prevented Chinese literature and culture from going global effectively. First of all, we are held back by too simplistic an understanding of the translation process—people tend to believe that all it takes for material to “go-global” is for it to be translated into a foreign language. As a result, we’ve limited our focus to the concrete details of translation, i.e. word to word conversion, but have neglected to contemplate broader issues. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese Literature (a magazine published in English and French from 1951-2000) and Panda Books have been responsible for putting a lot of Chinese classics into print in foreign languages, and at present a large-scale Library of Chinese Classics is in progress. However, several studies have shown that with the exception of a limited amount of works, these platforms have not promoted Chinese literature and culture effectively. The chief reason is that we have gotten lost in the details, paying attention only to the most fundamental mechanics of converting one language to another while ignoring the broader goal of translation—to facilitate mutual understanding and effective communication. Because we have not focused on getting translated classics to stick—getting foreign audiences to accept them and spread them to the point where they even influence the target culture— our translation has not had the anticipated success.

Contributing to this is our tendency to frame “in-coming translation” and “out-going translation” as symmetrical, when in fact they should be asymmetrical processes. Caught up in superficial similarities—both types of translation encompass converting one language to another—we have failed to observe the differences in cultural context. What we might call “in-coming translation” is driven by a strong demand for works in the source language by readers of the target language, while what we might conversely call “out-going translation” introduces the literature and culture of the source language into the target language regardless of the level of demand among readers of the target language. For the former, translators need only concern themselves with translating foreign literary works and cultural classics precisely, accurately and fluently, as the demand for these works already exists and thus readers are willing to work to grasp novel settings and unfamiliar concepts. However, for out-going translation to be successful, the process is often not so easy. Because there is not necessarily a demand or even a mature, receptive environment for works of out-going translation, it is unlikely they will achieve the same levels of success as in-coming translations if they follow the same formula. Instead, translators of out-going translations must be sensitive to readers of the target language’s reading habits and aesthetic tastes, ideologies and conceptions of poetics, as well as translation styles, methods and strategies.

A major factor exacerbating our weakness in this area is our lack of knowledge of the rules of translatology and the cross-language dissemination of literature and culture. As a general rule, culture tends to flow (get translated and introduced) from strong cultures to weak cultures. Translators from weak cultures are always the initiators who bring stronger, outside cultures into their own culture. Historically, Chinese culture enjoyed unparalleled influence for many centuries in East Asia; surrounding nations actively translated and introduced classics and contemporaneous works. After Western culture came to exercise a dominant influence in East Asia during the late of Qing Dynasty, Chinese intellectuals began translating the defining works of Western culture into Chinese. Western culture remains in a dominant position in today’s global cultural pattern, so in “going-global” (our first ambition is to break into the Anglophone world), Chinese literature and culture is essentially attempting to swim against the current. Given this situation, we cannot just translate canonical works of Chinese literature and pat ourselves on the back; we have to consider the situation thoroughly, and move forward by adhering to the rules of translatology to adopt appropriate measures.

“Time gap” and “language gap”

By the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period, the Chinese had begun gaining familiarity with Western literature and culture. However, it has only been in the last twenty to thirty years that an increasing number of Westerners are actively trying to understand Chinese literature. This hundred year difference—the time gap”—means that while Chinese language and culture has already absorbed quite a bit of Western culture, making our readers comfortable navigating translated works of Western literature, the West does not have an equivalent audience who can easily read and understand translated works of Chinese literature. Basically, for the average Westerner today, reading the classics of China would be like the average Chinese reader picking up a Western work when Yan Fu (1854-1921) and Lin Shu (1852-1924) were actively introducing many ideas from Western thought to the Chinese people. This explains why present-day Western translators of Chinese literature often naturalize the language and even make revisions or excisions to the original works. We have to remember that, at the present stage of “going-global”, we are not about to release the magnum opus of Chinese culture to the world. Compiling and translating a collection of fables from Pre-Qin philosophers may make much bigger waves among Western readers than publishing the complete works of the Pre-Qin philosophers.

It is generally much easier for native Chinese speakers to learn and mastering contemporary Western languages than it is for native English speaker or speakers of another Indo-European language to learn and master Chinese. Because of this “language gap”, China has cultivated a number of experts and scholars who have mastered Western languages and are well-versed in Western cultures, coupled with a broad audience of general readers who can at least claim some familiarity with these languages and cultures; the West, on the other hand, has significantly fewer experts proficient in Chinese and knowledgeable about Chinese culture, and a negligible base of general readers who can read Chinese directly or boast familiarity with Chinese culture. We need to recognize, not just at present but likely for a long time into the future, Western readers of Chinese literature will be limited, as will the number of sinologists and translators catering to those readers. The question for us, therefore, is how to cultivate a group of readers and how to increase the number of Western sinologists and translators. This entails providing funding, expert consultation, collaborators and other assistance.

The cross-language and cross-border dissemination of literature and culture is a complicated activity. It involves a wide range of factors and at least as many constraints. Only if by establishing an appropriate and comprehensive idea of translation, following the rules of translation and introduction, and observing phenomena like the “language gap” and “time gap” in Chinese- Western cultural exchange, will we set the stage for Chinese literature and culture’s “going global” effectively.

 

Xie Tianzhen is from the Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation at Shanghai International Studies University.

  

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 553, Jan. 24, 2014.

The Chinese link: http://www.csstoday.net/xueshuzixun/guoneixinwen/87445.html

 

Translated by Zhang Mengying

Revised by Charles Horne

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Editor: Yu Hui

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