Translation and the relocation of global cultures: mainly a Chinese perspective

Abstract

Starting from Homi Bhabha’s concept of cultural translation, the author holds that one of the important functions of translation lies in that it could relocate different cultures in the age of globalization. To the author, culture in such a global era is characterized more by diversity than homogeneity，which is a direct consequence of the location and relocation of global cultures. Thus, in this aspect, translation has been playing a dominant role: mediating and translating among different cultures. But its traditional definition has long transcended changing from one language into another. If the large-scale literary and cultural translation in the first half of the twentieth century in China brought Chinese literature and culture closer to the mainstream of world literature and culture, then the Chinese literary and translation practice in the past decades has enabled Chinese literature and culture to carry on dialogue on an equal footing with their western counterparts as well as international scholarship. But the difference lies in that the former was realized at the sacrifice of an “overall Westernization” of Chinese language and culture, while the latter is to enable Chinese literature and culture to contribute more to global cultures and world literature(s). In view of this, the author calls for putting more emphasis on translating from Chinese into the major world languages so that translation could “relocate” global cultures and contribute more to the remapping of world literature(s).

Keywords:

• cultural translation
• cultural location
• translating from Chinese into foreign languages
• Chinese culture
• internationalization

Notes

1. It is especially true of many cases. For instance, at the annual conference of Academia Europaea, no matter where it is held, the working language is exclusively English. Similarly, in China, when we organize international conferences, English is always used as the working language.

2. In language, it lies in the establishment of over four hundred Confucius Institutes in the world, and in literature, it culminates in Mo Yan’s winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012.

3. Rt Hon Lord Neil Kinnock’s “Foreword” to David Graddol’s book English Next 2006, 1.

4. It is true that many of the Chinese American writers, such as Maxine Hong Kingston, have even forgotten how to speak and write in Chinese for the purpose of identifying themselves with those mainstream American writers.

5. I myself have since the late 1990s been invited by some leading international journals to edit twenty special issues, among which are: Global in the Local: Ecocriticism in China, in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (Autumn 2014) 21 (4), and Rediscovering China: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (co-edited with John Aldrich), in European Review, 23.2(2015), forthcoming.

6. “Chinese writer Mo Yan wins Nobel prize” (The Irish Times, October 11, 2012). Accessed October 11, 2012. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1011/breaking27.html

7. Morrison, Donald. (2005 February 14). “Holding Up Half The Sky.” TIME. Accessed February 14, 2005. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501050221-1027589,00.html

8. According to Howard Goldblatt, the major English translator of Mo Yan’s works, his translations include the following works by Mo Yan: Hong gaoliang (Red Sorghum), Tiantang suantai zhige (The Garlic Ballads), Jiu guo (The Republic of Wine), Shifu yuelaiyue youmo (Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh), Fengru feitun (Big Breasts and Wide Hips), Shengsi pilao (Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out), and Tanxiang xing (Death by Sandalwood).