| For most of his lifetime, Lin Yutang was dedicated to writing and translating, by means of which he fulfilled cultural exchange between the East and the West. Besides the big volume of translation works, he also has his voice on translation theory——his academic paper On Translation systematically renders a comprehensive view on translation. To the translation studies in the 1930s and 1940s when this paper was published, Lin's theory held a significant position for its originality and thoroughness. As a translator of persistent translating practice as well as of his widely recognized theory, Lin Yutang provides rich source of study and research in the translation field.Since Susan Bassnett and AndréLefevere suggested in 1990 that translation studies take the"cultural turn"and that the field of cultural studies should move closer to translation studies, new life and energy have been injected into this academic area. Not only have the boundaries of translation studies been pushed back, but more diversified perspectives of research are being explored, making it possible to effect more thorough and objective studies in this area. In light of the cultural turn, elements like the translator's cultural identity and cultural inclination are increasingly attracting the researchers'attention, and this thus entails the feasibility to examine translation from a cultural point of view in the case of Lin Yutang. Born from the oriental culture, Lin Yutang has a profound knowledge of his mother culture and finds it impossible to break away from its ties. Meanwhile, he received the initial Christian education first from his father, a Christian Pastor, then from missionary schools. Besides, he had lived in western countries, mostly in America, for over 30 years. All these experiences endowed him with a background of western culture. This unusual dual cultural origin and identity has entitled Lin to a profound understanding of both the eastern and the western cultures. The blending of both cultural sources in his cultural identity, together with the practical inequality and imbalance between the East and the West, has led to Lin's complicated cultural stand which is a combination of two seemingly paradoxical tendencies, a close attachment to the oriental cultural and an inevitable orientalism. That is, on the one hand, he has deep devotion to his mother culture, while on the other he tends to deliberately misrepresent the eastern culture in the face of the western readers. According to the broad sense of intertextuality, one given text might be affected by ubiquitous social knowledge and practice as well as the influence of other texts. Accordingly, between Lin Yutang's written texts and his cultural stand undeniably exists an intertexual connection, that is, his cultural inclination may pose influence on his writing practice, while his written texts may reflect his cultural inclination. Meanwhile, the same intertextual correlation also exists between his translation texts and his cultural inclination: the cultural stand influences his translating practice, while the latter in turn embodies the former. Given the inseparable relationship between culture and translation, if we are to study Lin Yutang, a translator with dual cultural identity and special cultural inclination, a cross-culture perspective may be a sound approach to effect a thorough and comprehensive examination on his translation.Starting with a discussion on Li Yutang's cultural inclination which involves a paradoxical combination of orientalism and his attachment to the oriental culture, the writer in this research will make a tentative probe into the source behind Lin's cultural inclination. Based on this analysis, further examination will be made on his Chinese-English translation from a cross-culture perspective. Given the intertextual relation between the translator's cultural inclination and his translating practice, Lin Yutang's cultural stand between his attachment to the oriental culture and his orientalism may find its traces in his translation works, an observation of which from different perspectives may in turn shed light on the real influence that Lin's cultural inclination has posed on his translation. On the whole, this research concerns the following discussions:Above all, Lin's translation theory and the striking characteristics in his translation are a very important reference for the research of his translation as a whole. Regarding this premise, the writer, by means of a descriptive approach, elaborates first on the primary views as well as the values of Lin's translation theory, and then draws a recapitulation of the features of language and his translation strategies seen in his Chinese-English translation works.Then, based on an introduction of the concept of orientalism, the writer makes a tentative analysis on Lin's cultural background, which leads to further probing into the causes of the seemingly paradoxical combination of Lin's orientalism and his oriental cultural attachment. Meanwhile, under the notion of intertextuality, the writer examines the traces of the eastern and western cultures in Lin's literary works and Chinese-English translation in an effort to render a general sketch of his cultural inclination.The pivot of this study is the correlation between Lin's cultural inclination and his Chinese-English translation. Based on the intertextuality concept, the writer attempts to analyze and interpret Lin's employment of translation strategies and the typical characteristics found in his translation by referring to his cultural inclination.In this research, the writer will demonstrate four points. In the first place, two factors, the practical inequality and imbalance between the eastern and western cultures, and Lin Yutang's dual cultural identity, have substantially contributed to the orientalism and his attachment to the oriental culture. Secondly, part of his English literary writing may be viewed as his Chinese- English translation. On the one hand, most of his English novels are set in China, so in most cases they concern the Chinese culture and language, which definitely involves Chinese-English translation in his writing. On the other hand, in order to display the Chinese culture and language to the full, Lin may deliberately resort to Chinese English (Chinglish) in his English writing. The above two factors may indicate that Lin's English writing is to some extent regarded as Chinese-English translation. Thirdly, since there is a broad intertextual connection between a text and other texts as well as social knowledge and practice beyond texts, the same intertextual relation is to be seen between Lin's cultural inclination and his English writing and Chinese-English translation. Fourthly, Lin's complicated cultural attitude affects his choice of source texts and translation strategies; on the other hand, the typical characteristics found in his translation embody Lin's orientalism and his attachment to the oriental culture.Comparing with traditional patterns of case studies on translators and translation, this research sets its own mode by approaching Lin's translation from the perspective of his complicated cultural inclination of orientalism and his attachment to the eastern culture. This perspective not only fits the cultural turn in translation studies, but also renders novel ideas on studies of translators and translation. And more importantly, it may lend some inspirational thoughts to studies of Lin Yutang's translation in general. In addition, innovation in this study also lies in that the abundant materials, especially translation examples employed as important references in the process of research are all collected first-hand. Apart from that, the originality of this research is also seen in the flexible but cautious application of relevant theories and concepts, which primarily concern orientalism and intertextuality. The writer interprets the leading points of these concepts and then relates them to the discussion in this research, which helps highlight the writer's views more effectively. The appropriate employment of such theories also renders alternatives perspectives in the research while strengthening the force of argument.The whole research is carried out on the framework of theories, with historical and academic data as its foundation, analysis of Lin Yutang's translation examples as its basic references, and Lin's cultural inclination as the clue, along which the writer probes deep into his translation in an effort to dig out the source behind the various translation characteristics and interpret them justifiably.The first chapter is the introduction of this research. Lin Yutang, as a distinguished linguist, philosopher, writer and translator, bears great value of study in different fields. For historical reasons, while he had attracted great attention in other countries and areas, especially in America and Taiwan since the 1930s, he remained silent in mainland China until late 1970s, when people started to turn their interest in this once neglected scholar. Then studies on his philosophical ideas, his literary inclination and his cultural choice began to yield rich outcomes. In early 1990s, scholars began to notice his translation and academic papers on this study gradually came out. But researches on Lin's translation are incomplete and mostly confined to a comparatively narrow scope——in most cases, such studies are focused on a certain translation work, Six Chapters of a Floating Life, in particular. Meanwhile, to effect a full-scale study on his translation, broader perspectives are yet to be explored. In such a context, this research bears its own significance in that it concerns the major body of Lin's Chinese-English translation and observes it as a whole from a novel perspective. In this chapter, the writer also renders a comprehensive elaboration on one of the key concepts, orientalism. On the basis of this, the writer further analyses the causes of the paradoxical composition of Lin's cultural inclination: his deep root in the eastern culture has nurtured his close attachment to his mother culture, while the western readers and alien cultures he is faced with have overtaken that attachment from time to time. When he caters to the western readers'expectation and taste, orientalism has risen to dominance in his cultural stand. These two contradictory cultural inclinations work alternately in his translating which in turn manifests a seemingly paradoxical cultural stand of the translator. Since a general knowledge of Lin Yutang's translation, including his translation theories and typical characteristics in his translation is a very necessary foundation for further discussion, the writer draws a descriptive sketch of Lin's translation in Chapter Two before tackling the correlation between his cultural inclination and his translation. In the first place, Lin puts forward his own criteria of translation: faithfulness, fluency (naturalness) and beauty (aesthetical value), and he demonstrates the importance of these key criteria to the full. Also in his theory, he expounds his views on other aspects concerning translation, such as the translator's qualifications, the translator's psychological function in the translating process, the unit of translation, translation of poems, etc. Put together, these points form a comprehensive theory of Lin, which will definitely affect his own translating work. Besides his theory, some typical characteristics are conspicuous enough to attract attention. From his Chinese-English translation, we find his alternate employment of the two strategies of foreignization and domestication; also peculiarities such as Chinese English, deduction, amplification, notes, adaptation, etc. are not uncommon in his translation works. These traits in translation strategies or language, when appearing repeatedly, are not to be ignored or taken as the translator's random choice, but could to some extent manifest the writer's tendency in his translation. So through a recount of these characteristics, the writer makes a material preparation for more focused discussion.Considering the correlation between the translator's cultural inclination and his writing and translating, a thorough review of the former will facilitate the interpretation of the latter. So in Chapter Three, the writer probes into the eastern and western sources of Lin's cultural inclination in light of the concept of intertextuality. In Lin's religious and philosophical system, Christianity represents the western source, while elements of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism represent the eastern source of his philosophy. In fact, Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism are fused, thus constitutes the soul of his eastern philosophy composition dominated by concepts of spiritual freedom and comfort. Because of intertextual impact, these religious and philosophical attitudes are reflected in his literary and translation works. By means of an analysis on the themes, characters and plots in his works, the writer attains a general glimpse of Lin's philosophical views as part of his cultural inclination. Besides, Lin's dual cultural backgrounds determine his complex attitude toward woman. That is, in Lin's ideology, he adheres to the east traditional and conservative views that woman should be humble and obedient to men and should keep all feminine virtues expected in the oriental culture; while on the other hand, he is tolerant of women's freedom and liberation and advocates equality between men and women. Under an intertextual observation, the writer finds the feminine traits in morality, behavior, aesthetics, etc. of women characters depicted in Lin's literary works manifest in various degrees Lin's blended and paradoxical views on women.In line with Lin's philosophical ideology are his aesthetical views. On the one hand, Lin's aesthetical views are subject to the influence of his oriental philosophies represented by Taoism, calling for spiritual freedom and comfort, stressing the aesthetical strength of simplicity and naturalness in literature. On the other hand, in Lin's time, Benedetto Croce's theory dominated the western aesthetics studies, and Lin Yutang, who was deeply involved in the western culture, was deeply influenced by the former. Based on his understanding and interpretation of Croce's theory, Lin applies it to his literary writing and translating, which in turn proves to be of significant referent value in studies of his translation. Despite their opposite origins, the oriental philosophy and western aesthetical theory are well blended in Lin's aesthetical ideology and work harmoniously in his writing and translating process.Taken as a whole, the examination in this chapter of the eastern and western origins of Lin's cultural inclination from an intertextual perspective has laid a necessary foundation for the cross-culture study on his translation.Chapter Four is the pivot of this research, in which the writer interprets the typical characteristics found in Lin's Chinese-English translation from the cross-culture perspective. First of all, in his selection of the source texts, Lin Yutang tends to choose the literary works embodying the oriental philosophies, especially those advocate spiritual freedom and comfort and self-contentment, for such texts represent Lin's personal life philosophy on the one hand, and could meet the western readers'spiritual need and expectation of the oriental culture on the other.Secondly, an intertextual observation of Lin's Chinese-English translation reveals that in each of his translation strategies, there are traces of his cultural inclination. For example, Lin's orientalism is demonstrated in some degree by his employment of cultural transposition, by which it means adapting the source text to the speaking habit of the target language readers, because such a strategy centers on the target text readers, and aims at meeting the mold of thinking and aesthetical expectation of the target culture. While some other strategies, such as cultural borrowing, by which it means shifting the structures from the source text to the target text without any adaptation, see Lin Yutang's endeavor to maintain the habits of thinking and expressing in the source language (Chinese), and it reflects his undeniable attachment to the oriental culture. In fact, these two seemingly paradoxical cultural stands are fused in most of Lin's translation strategies. That is to say, when one specific strategy or characteristic in his translation embodies one end of Lin's cultural stand, traces of the other end are likely to be found in the same strategy.In the same way, Lin's approaches employed to realize the aesthetical effect of the source text, including the translation of poems, of fuzzy language and other rhetorical devices, also display the interlaced work of his orientalism and his attachment to the oriental culture.The whole research is concluded in the Fifth Chapter. The writer believes that to this study, there still remains much room of further research and improvement. Lin Yutang's translation and literary writing are a rich resource of research and the writer anticipates that based on the current academic outcomes, new perspectives and approaches are to be explored so that more profound thoughts in this area will be provoked.
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