We also need to prevent cutting our feet to fit our shoes. We should avoid talking to ourselves and tell Chinese stories well. Sinologists | culture | talking to ourselves

Language and writing are the key to civilized dialogue. In the process of telling Chinese stories well and promoting Chinese culture to go global, translation plays an important bridging role. On August 22nd, the press conference for the new books "Chinese Story English Communication Trilogy" - "Middle School's Journey to the West", "Stones from Other Mountains", and "Return to Different Balance" was held at the Jiali Center in Jing'an.

"There are huge cultural differences, vastly different ways of thinking, ideologies, and beliefs between China and other countries, especially Western countries. It is difficult to accept our self talk during the translation process." Zhu Zhenwu, the author of the "Trilogy" and a professor at Shanghai Normal University, emphasized that cultural and creative consciousness should be highlighted in the translation of Chinese literature. "While 'going out', our foreign translation work should still be centered around me and serve me, rather than losing oneself, compromising, and blindly following the preferences and values of others. In fact, the less distinctive one is, the more difficult it is for your literature to go out."

How Sinologists "Write" China

It is reported that the "Chinese Story English Communication Trilogy" includes "Middle School Westward Journey: The English Communication of Sinologists and Ancient Chinese Literature", "The Stone of Other Mountains: The English Communication of Sinologists and Modern Chinese Literature", and "The Return to Different Balance: The Chinese Story Writing of Sinologists in the English World", published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press.

These three books form independent volumes and systems, yet they are interrelated and correspond to each other. The author combines heterogeneous cultures and historical backgrounds to conduct a comprehensive study and systematic examination of the translation motivations, translation strategies, translation styles, and existing problems of 46 sinologists, including Ge Haowen, Min Fude, and Jin Jiefu. They systematically study why they translated, what they translated, how they translated, what impact they had, what inspirations they gave us, and how to tell Chinese stories well. They also deeply reflect on the cultural phenomena behind them.

Why study the translation of Chinese literature and culture by sinologists?

Zhu Zhenwu said that this is to reflect and summarize Chinese literature's going global from another perspective, providing reference for cultural going global. On the one hand, conducting research from the perspective of sinologists can provide a different perspective on the position, changes, and influence of Chinese literature in the world, and establish a new understanding of Chinese literature through diverse dialogues; On the other hand, the ultimate goal of studying the translation of sinologists is to truly promote Chinese literature and culture, turn the subject of translation into our own bilingual literary and cultural scholars, and ensure the more authentic dissemination of Chinese literature and culture.

For a century and a half, there has been an imbalance in the translation of Chinese literature into foreign languages and related research. The research on the English translation of ancient Chinese literature mainly focuses on the Book of Songs, Tang and Song poetry, and the four great classics, while the research on the English translation of modern and contemporary Chinese literature focuses on a few writers such as Lu Ba, Mao Guo, Lao Cao, and Mo Yan.

The Chinese Story English Communication Trilogy not only focuses on well-known works, but also provides a systematic and complete view of representative works from various periods. Zhou Min, a Changjiang scholar from the Ministry of Education, believes that the "trilogy" examines the path of Chinese literature going global, not only depicting the coordinates of Chinese literature on the world literary map, but also depicting a beautiful painting of the form of Chinese civilization on a global scale.

Telling Chinese Stories with Authenticity and Calling for Local Scholars

In the "Trilogy," Zhu Zhenwu proposed the theoretical viewpoint of "the balance of domestication and alienation," believing that excellent translators always seek a balance between "domestication" and "foreignization.". On the one hand, starting from the original work, always adhere to the attitude of being faithful to the original text, and preserve the temperament and charm of the original work; On the other hand, moderate changes should be made to cultural information with strong heterogeneity to reduce readers' reading and comprehension difficulties. Only by perfectly combining "alienation" and "domestication" can overseas readers have emotional resonance with the Chinese culture and aesthetics contained in the work, truly realizing the integration and expansion of Chinese culture.

Huang Zhonglian, the chief expert of the National Social Science Foundation's major project "Research on the Development History of Chinese Translation Theory", believes that the "trilogy" can explore the heteronomy in the English translation of Chinese stories, reveal the self-discipline within it, and then approach the coherence within it. It can be said that the theoretical innovation of the "trilogy" is a powerful response to the phenomenon of only Westerners and outsiders following suit in theory.

Professor Zhang Man from Shanghai Foreign Studies University believes that the "trilogy" presents for the first time a more complete and diverse landscape of Chinese literature overseas, allowing us to see that Chinese literary translation has both social, literary, historical, and political qualities; The first proposal of the law of equivalence in translation has theoretically explained the significance and value of Chinese literature going global and entering the world.

At the press conference, several translation scholars, including Professor Zhao Yanchun from Shanghai University and Professor Xiao Weiqing from Shanghai Foreign Studies University, believed that the "trilogy" conducted a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the process of sinologists translating and disseminating Chinese literature, opening up a new paradigm for translation research and criticism, and playing an important role in promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign literature.

In Zhu Zhenwu's view, the more than 400 year long process of translating and introducing Chinese culture by Western missionaries and sinologists has made important contributions to promoting cultural exchange between China and the West. However, most of them still struggle to break free from the inherent perspectives and cognitive tendencies of Westerners.

"To tell the story of China well, achieve mutual learning of civilizations and cultural diversity, it is also necessary for Chinese scholars with good bilingual literary and cultural literacy, cultural consciousness, and cultural confidence. The dissemination and translation of Chinese culture must be based on myself and for my own use. Only in this way can Chinese culture better go global, Chinese stories be told in their original form, and the image of China be accurately disseminated."

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