A Study Of Eileen Chang's Self-translation

Eileen Chang (also Zhang Ailing,1920-1995) has established herself as one of the few bilingual writers as well as skillful translators in the history of the 20th-century Chinese literature. Despite the fact that there has been a lasting interest in her works among readers and critics at home and abroad, researches on her translation works are rare, especially her self-translation works. People are very familiar with her novels and essays, but they are ignorant of her translation works.Self-translation is a unique translative practice. In the west, there have been many famous self-translators, and the academic field has made great efforts in exploring the translative activity and self-translations. However, their focuses are only restricted in the western world, ignoring the equally significant contribution of eastern world in this aspect. Eileen Chang was an excellent translator who did not only translated others' works but also transferred her own works between English and Chinese. With regard to enriching researches in the field of self-translation studies as well as Eileen Chang's writing, this paper makes analyses on her self-translation from The Golden Cangue to The Rouge of the North.In self-translating The Rouge of the North, sometimes Chang translated faithfully to transfer the culture of the source text, and sometimes rewrote. As a self-translator, they have dual identity as author and translator thereby conferring them an authority, and the "privileged translator" status facilitates their self-translating, so Chang sometimes uses the translation methods such as amplification, deletion, rewording to overcome the cultural obstructions in self-translating. She always took the reader's reception into consideration and believed the author is the only one who can fully understand and translate the essence of the original text.