Style Of European Literary Translation Theory Of The May Fourth Period

Chinese literature and language have experienced a great transformation since the MayFourth Movement. The traditional ones were broken down, while new ones were notperfect enough to express the complicated modern feelings at that time, which led to ablank appeared in China’s literary history. According to Even Zohar, translated literaturewould occupy a central position and construct the new social system as soon as there’s agreat turning point happened to some literature system. The same has happened to Chineseliterature and language.The adequacy of translation would be considered first when the translated works is atthe centre of the literal system. And literal translation strategy would be adopted. Thewestern works in the May Fourth period were translated word to word to a very largeextent, which is called “Europeanization”. A considerable number of new words andstructures entered Chinese language. But it should also be recognized that, some of the“new” words or structures do not belong to Europeanization, but roots in tradition language.In this paper, this point would be demonstrated.The Europeanization in May Fourth Movement gave Chinese such a deep impact thatit has and will influence the whole nation’s culture in the future. So it is necessary to findthe elements that caused Europeanization. Translators in May Fourth Period often hadmultiple identities---they were sometimes translators, creators, politicians as well asadvocators of social reform. Therefore, the Europeanizing accounts for not only thedevelopment of language, but also for the ideology, literary theory, and economic reasons.