A Post-colonial Translation Of Si Shi Tong Tang:Exploring Into And Beyond Text

Lao She’s Si Shi Tong Tang is a masterpiece in modern Chinese literature. The book was co-translated into English by the author himself and Ms. Ida Pruitt during Lao She’s visit to the United States in the1940s, and was then published under the name of The Yellow Storm.Through text analysis, the translation is found to be characterized by a strong sense of post-colonialism. Ida Pruitt strived to keep the Chinese flavour of the original text, both in terms of culture and linguistic features, while translating it into English, world’s dominant language. This demonstrates Pruitt’s intention of conveying Chinese culture to the western world as it is. Although Lao She condensed the work by cutting and revision during his oral account, the major plot and the quintessential part of the text are not compromised. And the condensation is made to accommodate the readers’ taste so as to better popularize the book and promote further communication of cultures.This post-colonial approach of translation is attributed to Lao She and Ida Pruitt’s cultural orientation. Therefore, the thesis further explored the cultural background of Lao She and Ida Pruitt to find the root of their cultural orientation. The conclusion is that the translators’ cultural background has a strong bearing on the translated work. Hence, literary translation with a clear purpose of promoting cultural communication, especially under the circumstance of translating from a peripheral culture to the dominant culture, should choose translators with not only bilingual ability, but also a genuine understanding of and sympathy for the source culture. Only in this way can cultural communication on equal terms be realized. As for translating and introducing Chinese culture to other countries, author’s participation in the translation should be encouraged, so that the essence of the source text can be best kept.