A Study Of Ethnic Culture Translation In The Jade King,History Of A Chinese Muslim Family From The Perspective Of Interpretive Anthropology

This Chinese novel Mu Si Lin De Zang Li,created by the famous writer Huo Da,a member of the ethnic group Hui,successfully depicts the life and culture of Hui people,not merely as a love tragedy,but an ethnic history and an ethnography of Hui people,and has been welcomed by readers for thirty years ever since its first publication.Its English translation The Jade King,History of A Chinese Muslim Family,however,does not make a stir at home and abroad.Through a comparative analysis of the ST and the TT,this thesis finds out that incomplete translation in the ethnic culture unique to Hui is due to the frequent applications of alteration and deletion.In order to figure out whether translators have deleted and altered all the descriptions of ethnic culture in the ST,this thesis inquires into the translation method of ethnic culture shared with Han as a reference group data.Under the guidance of the three aspects of"native’s point of view","local knowledge"and"thick description"in the interpretive anthropology of Clifford Geertz,this thesis employs comparative analysis to categorize the translation characteristics of ethnic culture unique to Hui as well as their reasons and consequences with reference to the translation characteristics of ethnic culture shared with Han.After a detailed comparative study,this thesis finds out that due to the lack of native’s point of view and local knowledge,translators cannot explain the ethnic culture unique to Hui and give rise to the loss of ethnic culture.In the translation of ethnic culture shared with Han,however,translators are the culture holders,with adequate local knowledge and the native’s point of view,they can explain the profound implications.Therefore,this thesis comes to a conclusion that,translators should be the culture holders or cooperate with the culture holders,when translating ethnic culture or ethnic literature,in order to make sure that they can take the native’s point of view,acquire adequate local knowledge and thickly translate the ethnic culture.