The Translating Of Lady Chatterley's Lover In China: An Ideological Approach

Lady Chatterley's Lover, the last as well as the most controversial work of D. H. Lawrence, has raised a lot of dust in the publishing as well as critical circle in English-speaking countries. The translating of this novel also underwent a lot of frustrations in China. This paper begins with a historical review of its translating process in China from the year of 1934 to 2004.Then from an ideological angle it analyzes how two circumstances have decided such a bumpy road: a special part of the overall Chinese ideology, especially those long-standing sexual taboos and ethics and morals concerned with marriage and family, decided the process would not be easy throughout its translating process while the dominant ideologies at different historical stages decided whether Lady Chatterley's Lover met the expectations of the times and therefore, could enter their selection of texts or not. At last it elaborates on how translators and patronage have controlled the interplay between the translating of the novel and its circumstances. The former poetically and ideologically rewrote the original to bring it in line with the dominant ideology and poetics of their times and even exceeded their power to preach to their readers against possible vulgar interpretation while the latter not only exerted its influence and power over both the translating and publishing of the novel but also reinforced the dominant ideology by using its yardstick to fix the translations of the novel fast on the non-canonized stratum of the Chinese literary system.