A Study Of Translator Harold Acton In The Context Of Cross-cultural Communication

After World War I,it was increasingly pressing for Chinese and foreign scholars as a community of shared destiny to come up with a solution to peace through exchanges and mutual learning among cultures.At that time,the pure aesthetics,placidness and broad-mindedness of the Chinese civilization had become a treasure house where overseas Sinologists in the early 1900 s explored peace and wisdom.Sir Harold Acton(1904-1994),a Sinologist who admired fine traditional Chinese culture,made a significant contribution to the retrieval of the roots of the Chinese civilization and mutual learning between Chinese and western cultures.Despite increasing scholarly attention to the achievements of Acton in the historical data of cross-cultural communication and translation of Chinese literature,there has not been any systematic specialized research work available.Particularly,the achievements of Acton,as a bridge between Chinese and western cultures,in Chinese literature translation and writing of China’s stories are exactly a pertinent footnote for his spiritual home of “aesthete”.Therefore,examining Acton’s identity as a cultural bridge and revealing the formative experience of his spiritual home of “aesthete” and how he aligned with the Chinese cultural roots through Sinological studies represents an important route towards a fuller picture of Acton’s cultural thoughts and its Sinological achievements.In terms of structure and content,this paper is divided into eight sections including the introduction,the main body which consists of six chapters and the conclusion.The introduction part discusses the current status,object,significance and routes of relevant research,and presents a review of domestic and foreign studies of Acton,followed by an establishment of the entry point of this research based on precedent achievements.Chapters 1 to 6 respectively discuss the construction process of Acton’s spiritual home of“aesthete” and present a study of his translation of Chinese literature centered upon the spiritual home with the purpose of connecting and integrating Chinese and western cultures.Based on Acton’s re-interpretation of aestheticism,drawing evidence from historical facts and original works and building upon Acton’s personal narrative and biography,Chapter 1 analyzes Acton’s maverick cultural identity as an Oxford “aesthete” on dimensions of lifestyle and aesthetic pursuit.From the perspective of Acton’s inclusion and seclusion as a cultural bridge and cultural drifter,his aspiration to turn the spiritual home of “aesthete” into a “courier station” for mutual learning among cultures is presented.Using the historical and biographical approach,the aesthetic “China’s stories”from the perspective of Acton as a cultural “other” is presented,and the projection of China impression and its reconstruction process are explored in Acton’s cultural behaviors.Revolving around the theme of “who the translator is”,the content of this section mainly describes the origin of Acton’s identity of “aesthete” and the background of the formation of his spiritual home.Revolving around the “aesthetic spiritual courier station”,the “China’s stories” of the aesthetic “other” Sinologist and the projection and reconstruction of China impression in the exploration of the ancient past(taogu,淘古)and spiritual attachment(shenjiao,神交),this section further discusses three progressively unfolding themes: how Acton’s spiritual home connected with China,how the spiritual home was really implemented in China and the variation of the spiritual home in China.Referencing historical facts,Chapter 2 examines the collision and integration process of Acton with China’s Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism in order to identify how his identity as a bridge between Chinese and western cultures was formed.In the meantime,the Confucian,Buddhist and Taoist practices of Acton’s spiritual home of“aesthete” were reproduced to highlight the aesthetic perspective that he took in advancing exchanges and mutual learning from the Chinese culture.Drawing on Acton’s biography and fictions,the self-distillation process by which Acton transformed himself into an “aesthete” cultural bridge integrating both Chinese and western knowledge was analyzed with a view of identifying the real causes of cultural behaviors in the research of Acton’s translation of Chinese literature.The question of how Acton as a cultural bridge connecting Confucianism,Buddhism,Taoism and Christianism pursued the notions of aesthetics and peace is answered.By recording Acton’s Confucian,Buddhist and Taoist impressions and how he practiced these cultures,integrated Chinese and western religions and commented on religious doctrines,this paper reproduces the entire process of the exchanges and communications between the spiritual home of “aesthete” and the Chinese culture.With Acton’s translation of modern and ancient Chinese poems as an entry point,Chapters 3-4 present a review of how he integrated his spiritual home of “aesthete” into the Sinological practices of poetry translation based on the original textual literature and translation theories.Chapter 3 focuses on Acton’s translation of modern Chinese poems.Drawing on his contradictory impression towards modern Chinese poems,this chapter summarizes his suggestions for the creation of modern Chinese poems as “referencing from the past”(jiangu,鉴古)and “incorporating the new”(naxin,纳新),followed by a discussion on Acton’s ideal concerning the revitalization of fine Chinese culture in the creation of modern Chinese poems.From Acton’s perspective of inheriting the roots of the Chinese culture,a comparison between the original tests and translations of the most typical modern poem by Lin Keng is presented,and the inheritance of the ancient styles in Lin’s poems is analyzed from the dimensions of purity,classic and sense of history.An in-depth analysis of the foreshadowing technique in Modern Chinese Poetry by Harold Acton and Ch’en Sh’ih-Hsiang is presented to illustrate how translators define the scale of “referencing” in modern poems.Starting from the strategy adopted by Acton and Ch’en Sh’ih-Hsiang in selecting and translating modern Chinese poems and focusing on the wordings integrating both Chinese and western styles and literary imageries intertwined with ancient and modern notions,the cases of unrestrained sentiments and poetry-idea departure are presented.The symbolic,gorgeous and painting-like aesthetics are used as classification criteria of magnificent modern poems.Similarly,the pastoral poems are discriminated by standards of clear,placid and substantial aesthetics.Different manifestations of life in modern Chinese poems are identified through the classification of humanistic ballads and classical imageries.By carefully reading Acton’s translations and comments on modern Chinese poems,this paper has determined how the translator resumed the roots of Chinese culture,projected the aesthetics of the “China dream” and creation tendency in his aesthetic poem translations.Structurally,the main threads of ancient charms and “expressing aspirations” are followed to reproduce Acton’s comments on modern Chinese literature,highlight his proposition on inheriting and referencing the tradition to select and translate modern poems,and illustrate his presupposition of modern poetry traditions.Focusing on ancient poems,Chapter 4 utilizes the translations of Acton and Hsen-Hsu Hu as an entry point to analyze the causes of their co-translation of poems by Su Shih.Themed on the “referencing from ancient charms”,a structural echoing with Acton’s modern poetry translations is established.From a comparative perspective of the“mirror of the other” and “mutual learning between the ancient and present”,the awareness of cross-cultural dialog in Acton and Hsen-Hsu Hu is identified.Drawing on the cross-cultural dialog platform of T’ien Hsia Monthly,the translators compared ancient and modern poems,determined the “watershed” between the southern and northern schools,and ultimately maintained the tradition of Chinese poetry and carried forward the cultural roots.Gaining a foothold in the broad-minded sentiments of literati,Acton and Hsen-Hsu Hu constructed a cross-cultural aesthetic community with their translation of poems by Su Shih,representing a retuning and resonance in the spiritual worlds between ancient and modern Chinese poets and modern western poets.Chapter 5 focuses on fiction translations.Based on the translations of Chinese folk fictions by Acton and Lee Yi-hsieh,this chapter presents the historical Chinese humanistic data with elements of elegance and popularity in their writings.The translators’ choice of fictions by Feng Meng-lung is analyzed to present their humanistic and aesthetic interpretations of Chinese folk fictions represented by the works of Feng Meng-lung in Four Cautionary Tales.Through their spectacular translations,the poetic,aesthetic and humanistic “China dream” hidden in their motives of translation is highlighted,showcasing the “Chinese style” in their translations.In terms of the content of this chapter,the perspective of mutual learning among cultures by “teaching” and“learning” of universal common senses is taken to present Acton’s view of “mutual verification between literature and history”;themed on “humanistic historical data with both elegant and popular elements”,this chapter analyzes the reason why the fictions by Feng Menglong were selected by the translators.Chapter 6 deals with translations of dramas.Focusing on Acton’s translations and research of Chinese dramas,this chapter reviews Acton’s impression towards Chinese dramas and summarizes the process of his encounter with Chinese dramas.In the meantime,drawing on the translations and historical records,this chapter also discusses Acton’s translation practices in the field of Chinese dramas.A detailed analysis of Acton’s translation of playlets of Kunqu theater is conducted to highlight the humanistic spirit and theme of aesthetically brilliant writing,and analyze how the translator delved into the awakening of women’s consciousness in both Chinese and western contexts,followed by a comparison of Acton’s “heroic tragedies” between Chinese and western cultures.In addition,through the co-translation experiences of Harold Acton,Ch’en Sh’ih-Hsiang and Cyril Birch,this chapter reproduces China’s dream of “translation as a return to home” jointly established by the English translations of the Kun theatre Peach Blossom Fan.Acton’s version of Peach Blossom Fan represents a realization of the elegant vibes originating in the “Peach Blossom Spring” as a result of the mutual learning between Chinese and western cultures,conveying an epic legend about the rise and fall of a dynasty and the story of a beauty in the times of chaos.Famous Chinese Plays,co-translated by Acton and Lewis Charles Arlington comprehensively reveals the translator’s perspective for selecting Chinese Peking operas and translation achievements,which are mainly manifested by the conversion between aesthetic awareness and literary conceptions,stage and script impressions,selection of themes and cultural traits,the literary appeal of the translation and strategy of conceptual translation.In the conclusion section,the process of how Acton gained a foothold in the construction of the spiritual home of “aesthete” and built up the trend of mutual learning among cultures upon the awareness of cultural bridge via his translations of Chinese literature in the context of cross-cultural communication.Following the main thread of Acton’s Sinological practices as a bridge between Chinese and western cultures,this section reveals the China impression he remembered,the China stories he personally experienced,the China attachment and cultural identity he developed in a multi-dimensional way.To expand the approaches of future research,history may be drawn to put Acton’s personal history against a grand cultural history to conduct a multi-dimensional and horizontal evaluation.Acton’s cross-cultural Sinological practices that integrated literature translation,historical research,educational practices,cultural exchanges and biographic writing have provided a rich body of historical data and unique insights for the western world to comprehensively understand Chinese culture,listen to China’s voices,learn Chinese literature and read China’s stories.Acton’s Sinological thoughts and spiritual home complement each other.His wide knowledge and comparative studies of different Chinese literary genres present the Chinese civilization from an aesthetic point of view to the western world,making him a messenger for the promotion of fine traditional Chinese culture.Acton devoted himself to Sinological practices as a cultural bridge and an active part in the dialog between Chinese and western cultures.He not only advanced the spread and inheritance of Chinese cultural roots but also made significant contributions to the promotion of Chinese culture in the English-speaking world.