Cultural Manipulation In The Translation Of Lang Tuteng-From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

Lang Tuteng, written by Jiang Rong, extensively penetrates the mainstream cultural market in the west in the background of China International Book Trade slipping into a serious deficit. Since the Penguin Press successfully purchased the global English copyright of Lang Tuteng in 2005, invited the well-known American sinologist Howard Goldblatt to translate this bestseller and then published English version—Wolf Totem in 2008, the translation of Lang Tuteng has captured international attention to the contemporary Chinese literature. The translation of Lang Tuteng, as a typical example of modern Chinese literature introduced to the world, is not only the success of the translator's technical competence in language, but also manipulated by the extratextual factors if put the translation of Lang Tuteng in the context of the social environment.Andre Lefevere develops rewriting theory that translation is one kind of social activity. He points out that the process of literary translation is manipulated by the ideology of the translator and the target culture as well as the dominant poetics. Rewriting theory emphasizes translation is not made in a vacuum but controlled by various social factors in a certain social environment at a given time of which ideology, poetics and patronage act on the translation activity.The integration of the"unfaithful parts"to the original in the translation of Lang Tuteng with the rewriting theory may provide a reasonable explanation for why the translation of Lang Tuteng can be relatively more popular in America comparing with other contemporary Chinese literature. And we can find that the translation of Lang Tuteng is to some extent a rewriting of the original. This paper attempts to analyze how the translation of Lang Tuteng is controlled by the ideology, poetics and patronage in the recipient culture and how these three control factors interact with each other to enable the translation of Lang Tuteng to get into American market successfully. In all, this paper endeavors to analyze the"unfaithful parts"to the original in the translation of Lang Tuteng from a macro-cultural aspect with the purpose of providing inspiration for the introduction of contemporary Chinese literature to the world.