The outgoing transcultural translation of modern Chinese fantasy novels: an approach to translation in the volatile cultural dynamics

• Main Author: Zhan, Qianrui
• Other Authors: Cui Feng
• Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Humanities::Linguistics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168356
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study mainly explores the mechanism and reasons for the considerable success of Chinese fantasy novels’ translations in the English world. It first probes into the arguments put forward by pioneering scholars in the field of transcultural translation, based on which a holistic grasp of Chinese out-going transcultural translation is developed and explained. By investigating the development of the transcultural translation of Chinese fantasy novels, it attempts to summarize the possible reasons for its popularity in the English world, the implications of the continuing popularity of Chinese fantasy novels worldwide, and cultural insights for Chinese-to-English translation study, with the theoretical help of many disciplines. It is found that reader involvement and the popularity of transcultural translation works have come to be inextricably linked in today’s world, including the degree to which the core spirit of work caters to the spiritual needs of global readers and how much influence readers have throughout the whole process. It then infers a staged guiding approach to outgoing transcultural translation as a whole, from gaining a foothold in another cultural market by, e.g., selecting original works of particular features for the very first batch of translations, to galvanizing enough resources to form a self-sustained developing system through, e.g., multidimensional efforts to allow more and more readers to participate in every possible and pertinent creative aspect. The paper concludes by generalizing the study results and the significance of the current study to hopefully enrich the study of this field and provide concrete, theoretical foundation for future projects of transcultural translation. Keywords: Outgoing translation, Staged approach, Modern Chinese fantasy novels, Subject Analysis, Cross-cultural translation