A Study On Modern Fujian Translators

During the modern and contemporary era, numerous translators and interpreters werecultivated in Fujian Province (also called as Min), a coastal and mountainous province inSouth-east China, with unique geographic surroundings and rich cultural heritage. Formore than one hundred years, from the Opium War in 1840 to the founding of thePeople's Republic of China in 1949, China witnessed many historical events, such theSecond Opium War, the Westernization Movement, the 1894 Sino-Japanese War,theReform Movement, the Chinese Revolution of 1911, the May 4th Movement and theNew-Democratic Revolution. The Fujian translators made aspiring contribution to thesocial development of modern China as almost every revolution had certain relation withthem. This thesis in the historical way, delves into the translating activities, theachievement and the social influences that the Fujian translators made in the threedifferent periods of 1840-1894, 1895-1910, and 1911-1949. On the basis of the previousstudy in the academic field, the paper focuses on introducing the leading translators andtheir main works in different periods, taking Lin Zexu, Chen Jitong, Yan Fu, Lin Shu, GuHongming, Lin Yutang and Zheng Zhengduo etc., as examples. At the meantime, someunknown translators and their works are also our concern in the paper, esp. the collectionof the translated works by some students and scholars who studied in Tokyo, Japan andwho founded an academic school called Min Xuehui (Fujian Academy). On studyingthis, an outline of modern translation history in China is drawn, with Fujian translators asits main participants; and the interrelationship between Fujian and the colony oftranslators is discussed, ie, the link of the translators to, say, the Fujian Arsenal Academy, the moderrn Christianity in Fujian, the immigrants, the phenomenon of studying abroadand the westernized education. According to the author of this thesis, owing to thesuperior landscape and the profound accumulation of its social culture, it is not accidentalto have the emergence of large quantities of outstanding translators in modern Fujian. TheFujian translators played a leading role in the Chinese translation history not only becauseof the large number of the translators and the translated works, but also because of theexcellence of the works which were unsurpassable for over a century. To some degree, the translation history of Fujian can be claimed as that of China, for the works translated by them were of practical utility and closely related to the current affairs at that time. Thetranslators exerted great influences on the modern society of China and theircontribution was closely bound up with the every progress of Chinese modernization.At last, the passion of the translators to their hometown can never be neglected, whichdevoted a great chapter to the history of Fujian Province.