A Study Of Xiao Qian’s Self-translation In The Forties

Xiao Qian was a renowned writer, journalist and translator who has made a greatcontribution to the cultural communication between China and the west. As a translator, XiaoQian not only translated lots of foreign literature works, but also self-translated dozens of hisown stories and essays. His literature works and reports have been much researched, littleattention has been given to the translation works, let alone the self-translations.This essay systematically deals with Xiao Qian’s self-translations, especially theself-translations in the forties, in order to study the characteristics of his self-translations andthe translating strategies. There are5parts in the main body. Chapter1serves as anintroduction to the research background, starting from the current research status of Xiao Qianand self-translation, objectively analyzing the achievements and shortcomings of the research,stating the purpose and significance of the study. Chapter2reviews the life of Xiao Qian, histranslation and self-translation, observing his education and work background, finding out thefactors that influenced XiaoQian’s self-translations. Chapter3discusses the subjective andobjective factors that influenced Xiao Qian’s self-translation in the forties, analying thebackground and purpose of self-translation, stating the selected materials and his competenceof self-translation. Chapter4intoduces and analyzes Xiao Qian’s self-translted works,including three sections, firstly introducing his self-translated works, then analying thecharacteristics of these works, such as reproducing the theme of the original, being faithful tothe spirit of the original, readable language, style of conciseness and creative rewriting. In thethird section, through comparing the original and the translation, the essay analyzes hisflexible translating strategies with many examples. His translating strategies are deletion,amplification, compilation and creative rewriting and so on. Chapter5makes a conclusion ofthe whole essay.Xiao Qian’s self-translation is completed under certain circumstances, the specialbackgroud makes the self-translator use flexible translating strategies, which gives the futureself-translators a great inspiration. Self-translation is a frontier subject, and more and morepeople begin to translate their own works. Xiao Qian’s self-translation offers a good examplefor us, we can learn some translating strategies used by Xiao Qian. So it is valuable to systematically study Xiao Qian’s self-translation. The study proposes to make a contibution tothe research on self-translation and Xiao Qian on all aspects.