Construction Of China’s Auto-images In The English Translation Of The Red Opera The White-haired Girl

Image studies have a close relationship with translation studies,and the two fields reinforce each other.Red operas were born in China’s revolution for national liberation and have played a critical role in promoting the Party’s principles and history and adapting Marxism to the Chinese context.In this sense,the construction of auto-images through translation strives to reduce western countries’ prejudice and misunderstanding about China,contributing to the national translation capacity-building.As a classical revolutionary opera themed on "the old society forced men to turn into ghosts,but the new life changes ghosts back into men",The White-haired Girl constructs different patterns of China’s images.As the work is translated by Chinese translator Yang Xianyi,the construction of China’s image can be seen as one of auto-image.This research expects to see how China constructed its auto-images through translation to deconstruct the hetero-images shaped by the western society.The research is based on Yang Xianyi’s translation of The White-haired Girl.It aims to answer two questions:What images of China are built up in the translation of The White-haired Girl?How are the images constructed in terms of translation strategies?This study is a qualitative study and follows the steps of thematic analysis and critical discourse analysis.Within the framework of imagology,strategies of constructing China’s images are explored at both intra-textual and extra-textual level.Through analysis,the images of China are summarized as a community of a shared future;resilience,tenacity and courage to fight;profound love for children;respect for the rule of law;and people-centered philosophy.The strategies employed in constructing China’s images include:applying foreignization in most cases to demonstrate China’s images in an accurate manner;addition and omission is used to highlight China’s images;and applying domestication when functional equivalence can be achieved.