Han Suyin’s translation philosophies in the context of Mainland China since the 1950s

ABSTRACT

As a significant member of the Chinese translation community, Han Suyin’s views on translation evolved through the years in tandem with the changes in Mainland China. Covering the historical and cultural contexts of Mainland China between the 1950s and the early 21st century, this article examines the development of her translation philosophies through three distinct phases. The first (1950s–1970s) sees her translation philosophy influenced by Chinese national politics and the Cold War; the second (1980s–1990s) reflects her beliefs in translation as an art as well as a creative process; the third phase (1990s–2000s) is characterized by Han’s influential nurturing of other translators, and her patronage of translation scholarship as a means of spreading Chinese literary culture. Her views and works not only contributed to the development of the field of translation studies but were dynamic and progressive. Most of her views are still of practical relevance today.

KEYWORDS:

• Han Suyin
• translation activities
• translation philosophies
• historical and cultural contexts
• practical relevance
• People’s Republic of China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The three previous waves in the history of translation in China include translations of scripture between the Eastern Han and Song dynasties, translations of western technological advancements during the fall of the Ming dynasty and the rise of the Qing dynasty, and translations of western political, philosophical, and literary discourses between the fall of Qing and the May Fourth Movement.

2. The Chinese translation of this book, 早晨的洪流：毛泽东与中国革命, was produced by Wei Wenshuo and Qi Li and published by Beijing Publishing House in 1979. A later version titled 赤潮：毛泽东与中国革命 was published by Shanxi People’s Publishing House in 1993.

3. Han Suyin visited the PRC in 1999, when she agreed to be interviewed by Qiu Jianjin, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency. As a special correspondent with Cultural Exchange (文化交流), Qiu conducted a three-hour interview with Han at the Beijing Hotel (see Han 1999).

4. The exact period of Han’s official membership of the China Writers Association is still unknown, and has not been validated. On its founding in 1949, the association was named the China National Literature Workers Association (中国文联), and then renamed the China Writers Association (中国作协) in 1953. Han only arrived in China in 1956, seven years after the establishment of the Association. The “not long after the establishment”, as claimed by Qiu Jian, thus becomes a point of contention. However, the fact that Han did join the China Writers Association should not be disputed, given that Qiu’s 1999 essay was based on an interview with her, and that Han has always declared her intimate affiliation with the China Writers Association.

5. The Three-anti Campaign (三反运动) (1951–52) was aimed at members within the CCP and bureaucratic officials to weed out corruption, waste, and bureaucracy.

6. In April 1952, Translation Bulletin (翻译通报) published a special series on the critique and self-critique of translators in the context of the Three-anti Campaign. In the foreword, the editors claim that the volume was a beginning to the campaign as “part of the ideological remolding in the translation sector, and we still have a long way to go” (Editors 1952, 3).

7. Jiang Qing was a Chinese communist revolutionary, an actress, and a major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). Married to Mao in Yan’an in November 1938, she was Mao’s fourth wife and served as the inaugural “First Lady” of the PRC. She played a major role in the Cultural Revolution and in forming the radical political alliance known as the “Gang of Four”.

8. Han’s speech was later published in Trends and Trails (动向与线索) and the Shanghai Journal of Translators for Science and Technology (上海科技翻译). The Chinese Translators Journal (中国翻译) also published the seminar’s newsletter (see Jiao and Gao 1987, 38; Han 1986, 59).

9. This presentation was published as a newsletter in issue 1 of the Chinese Translators Journal (Rui 1994, 18).

10. This talk was held in conjunction with the inauguration of the Han Suyin Literature Fund (韩素音文学基金). The presentation was later summarized in the Journal of Hangzhou University (Jin 1994).

11. An early attempt at systematically researching translation activities as a creative process from a cultural perspective was undertaken by Professor Xie (1999) of Shanghai International Studies University in his Medio-translatology (译介学).

12. In his recollection, Li Jingduan mentioned that the conversation occurred in the early 1990s, after he took over as editor-in-chief of Yilin Press, but did not specify the time.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Feng Cui

Feng Cui is a senior lecturer in the Chinese Department at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is deputy director of the Master of Arts in Translation and Interpretation programme, the coordinator of the Minor in Translation programme, and the coordinator of the Han Suyin Scholarship Fund (in Translation Studies) at NTU. His research focuses on the history of translation in China, translation theories, 20th-century Chinese literature, and comparative literature. He has published nearly 20 book chapters and 20 papers in journals such as Chinese Modern Literature, Comparative Literature in China, Chinese Translator, Shanghai Journal of Translators, and Babel. His monograph Translation, Literature, and Politics: Using World Literature as an Example (1953–1966) was published in 2019.