A Study Of Shi Xiaojing’s English Version Of Luotuo Xiangzi From The Perspective Of Translation As Adaptation And Selection

As a novelist, writer and playwright, Lao She is one of the prominentrepresentatives of modern Chinese literature of the twentieth century, and enjoys thereputation of “People’s Artist”. His masterpiece Luotuo Xiangzi is the first of the newliterature to depict the urban poor, occupying very important position in the history ofmodern Chinese literature. Popular among scholars and readers at home and abroad,the novel has been translated into many languages, including English, Japanese,French, German, Italian and Spanish and so on. In1982, the movie adapted from theoriginal novel was shown on screen and won the China’s Golden Rooster Award nextyear, which is undoubtedly another affirmation to the novel. Up to now, there are asmany as38versions of it, among which four are English versions translated by EvanKing, Jean M. James,Shi Xiaojing and Howard Goldblatt in different years. Thereare a great many studies on the four English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi with a lot oftranslation theories and linguistic theories involved, but studies conducted from theperspective of translation as adaptation and selection are rarely found.The theory of translation as adaptation and selection was put forward by HuGengshen, who was influenced by the international trend of ecological wave of“return to nature” and enlightened by the “natural selection” principle of Darwinianbiological evolution. In this theory, he defines translation as a selection activity of thetranslator’s adaptation to fit the translational eco-environment. In general, translationmeans “adaptation” plus “selection”, with the former referring to the translator’sselective adaptation and the latter the translator’s adaptive selection. This theoryhighlights the subjectivity and central position of the translator, providing a newperspective for translation studies.Based on the theoretical framework of an approach to translation as adaptationand selection, the thesis carries out the research on Shi Xiaojing’s English version(1981) of Luotuo Xiangzi published in1955. Shi’s mastery of English and Chineselanguages and the bilingual cultures, and the long-term translation practice equip herwith the ability to translate Luotuo Xiangzi into English. The study shows that Shi Xiaojing’s translation of Luotuo Xiangzi is the outcome of selections made on thebasis of her adaptations to the translational eco-environment. In the process oftranslating, Shi adapts to the need for survival, the need of the society, the need tosatisfy her interest and fulfill her value; and adapts to some factors of translationaleco-environment, such as the original author, the source text, the client and the targetreaders. On the basis of multidimensional adaptations, Shi makes selections andtransformations from linguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicativedimension. Be it in the process of adaptation or in the selection phase, Shi is able toadopt different translation methods flexibly without being constrained by a certaintranslation strategy. This makes the translator-centeredness and her subjectivity standout, demonstrates her skillful translation competence and manifests her translationstyle which is faithful to the original. In addition, the feasibility and explanatorypower of the approach to translation as adaptation and selection is also testified.