A Study On Chi-Chen Wang’s Translation Versions Of Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Orientalism

In1978, the representative figure of postcolonial translation theory, American famous scholar Edward W. Said put forward the theory of Orientalism in his work Orientalism. It is defined as a mode for the West to control, reconstruct and dominant the Orient. In the eyes of the Westerners, the Orient is a symbol of stagnant, mysterious, strange and esoteric while the West represents civil, developing, advanced and democratic. The traditional translation theory is based on the experiences of translation practices, concluding "standards" to judge the translation works and "techniques" to guide translation practice. However, from the Oriental perspective, if a translation from the Oriental world expects to be accepted by the Western readers, it has to cater to the Westerners’ expectation for the Oriental world. In this sense, the target culture would necessarily affect the translation work of a translator, such as the choice of translation strategies, the selection of the content, etc. while the characteristics of the translation work would also reflect the target culture.Hong Lou Meng, one of the most famous classic novels, gives a picture of Chinese traditional culture and carries profound connotations of Chinese traditional cultures. It has been translated into more than20languages, among which14are in English. However, most of the translation study on English versions of Hong Lou Meng is about the completely translated versions by Yang Xian-yi and Gladys Yang as well as David Hawks and John Minford, although Chi-Chen Wang’s two abridged translation versions have played a significant role in the process of the oversea spread of this great work.This thesis has analyzed the translation, simplification and omission of the plots, the transition of the chapter titles, character names as well as the poems in Chi-Chen Wang’s two versions of Hong Lou Meng in great details and tries to explore the embodiment of Orientalism in the two versions.This thesis could be of some significance in further appreciating Said’s theory of Orientalism In addition, it is also an academic attempt to apply Orientalism to the oversea transmission of Chinese literary classics.