A Report On The Translation Of Kingdom Of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern (Chapter One)

Reforms were difficult as domestic troubles and foreign attacks were surging in modern China.In order to change this situation,some patriots began to turn to education for help.Chapter One of Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern introduces Wang Zhao,a participant of Hundred Days of Reform of 1898,who had made great efforts to achieve universal education as well as propagated his Mandarin Alphabet.The language of this chapter is concise but vivid;thus the translator has to pay more attention to reproduce its simplicity,faithfulness and historicity.Under the guidance of George Steiner’s fourfold translation motion,the translator finished this translation practice through 4 steps: the translator bonded with the source text through“trust”,then understood the original and translated it into target language through“aggression” and “incorporation”,finally made “compensation” for the source text by providing footnotes and other solutions.In this process,some words that convey historical flavor had to be translated correctly so that the original charm could be achieved.And the translator searched for information to translate culture-specific words,added or deleted the original information at large.In this way,the accurate translation of the original text and translator’s subjectivity were realized.Under the guidance of George Steiner’s fourfold translation motion,this report adopts addition,negation and affirmation,translation of passive sentences into active ones and many other translation methods.Through this process,the translator gained more translation experience,improved translation competence,and found solutions to address problems in these kinds of texts.