Study On The Construction Of Hong Kong’s Cultural Identity In My City: A Hong Kong Story From The Perspective Of Postcolonialism

Wo Cheng,a novel written by Xi Xi,is one of the representative works of Hong Kong’s local literature,portraying a generation of Hong Kong people.In 1993,Eva Hung translated this book into English with the name of My City: A Hong Kong Story.Centering around the cultural identity of Hong Kong constructed in My City,this thesis explores the methods adopted by Eva Hung to achieve “name-rectification” for Hong Kong culture and motivations of this translation activity from the perspective of postcolonialism.In My City,Eva Hung breaks the Western stereotype of Hong Kong by adopting the foreignizing translation strategy.By deliberately choosing appropriate text to convey positive cultural images,using expressions that do not conform to grammatical norms or heterogeneous language to destroy the fluency of the text,and maintaining the elements of the traditional Chinese culture and regional culture of Hong Kong culture in translation,Eva Hung presents a positive,plebeian and modern Hong Kong culture,and constructs a cultural identity of Hong Kong people of a sense of belonging to Hong Kong and reminiscing about the mainland.This translation activity is motivated by Eva Hung’s desire of eliminating cultural prejudice of the West and strengthening her own self-identity.After reflecting on this translation activity,this thesis draws some useful strategies for the mission of Chinese literary translation when its goal is to promote the construction of a positive Chinese cultural identity in the international context: 1)in terms of text selection,it is better to choose positive and profound literary works that reflect cultural wisdom,rather than catering to the target readers merely for the purpose of the dissemination of the translation;2)in terms of translation technique,translator can adopt various techniques such as transliteration,direct translation,annotation,and italics to highlight the heterogeneity of the source culture in the text,thus promoting the coexistence of multiple cultures;3)in terms of translator model,local translators tend to have a stronger resonance with the source culture and a higher sense of cultural responsibility than Western Sinologists,which is more conducive to the construction of a positive cultural identity.