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Book Review Serena Jin Sheng Hwa

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Book Review Serena Jin Sheng Hwa Across Languages and Cultures 12 (1), pp. 135–139 (2011) DOI: 10.1556/Acr.12.2011.1.6 Book Review Serena Jin Sheng Hwa 金聖華: Renshi Fanyi Zhen Mianmu 認識翻譯真面目 (Knowing Translation’s True Face) Hong Kong: Cosmos Books Ltd. 2002, 192 + vii pp. ISBN 962993694-1 Containing two major sections, Knowing Translation’s True Face is an important work for both practitioners and scholars of English–Chinese translation. The first section is a collection of three articles, with insightful observations on important issues in translation studies, such as translationese and its negative impact upon the Chinese language. The second includes five interviews with five renowned translators – George Kao 高克毅 (1912–2008), 1 Luo Xinzhang 羅新璋, Yu Kuang-chung 余光中, Lin Wen-yueh 林文月 and Yang Xianyi 楊憲益 (1919–2009) – and two interviews with Fu Cong 傅聰 and Fu Min 傅敏, sons of the prominent translator Fu Lei 傅雷 (1908–1966). These interviews are very valuable – providing not only guidance for translation practitioners, but also first-hand data on the work of these translators. Two of the translators, George Kao and Yang Xianyi, were over eighty years old at the time of the interview (they passed away in 2008 and 2009 respectively), and had it not been for Jin’s creditable efforts, we would have lost the opportunity to record their valuable reflections on translation. Since China opened her doors to the outside world at the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), a great development has taken place in almost every aspect of social life, including the field of translation studies. In Hong Kong, a city where East meets West, a city not much affected by the Cultural Revolution, there has been even greater and more consistent development than in any other part of China. Translation departments or programmes were established in most universities. During this process, there have been different opinions and even heated debates among Chinese translation scholars. As a founder of the Department of Translation in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the first such department in Hong Kong, Jin is very concerned 1 Kao also used 喬志高 [Qiao Zhigao], a Chinese transliteration of the name George Kao, as a pen name. 1585-1923/$ 20.00 © 2011 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 136 BOOK REVIEW about the conflict between two extreme views. Some scholars believed that there is no translation theory and thus no need to establish translation programmes, while others maintain that if translators, however eminent, do not have their theories, they can only be considered to be “translation craftsmen”. Such extreme opinions may lead to a situation in which those who do translation despise theories, while those who talk about translation do not know how to translate (p. 9). Jin opposes both these views and maintains that, to meet the needs of society, translation programmes must be established and translation theories should be studied and developed (p. 36). Without rejecting translation theories imported from the West, she holds that it is unhelpful to uncritically adopt theories developed by Western scholars who do not know Chinese, and to dogmatically observe them in English–Chinese translation practice and research (p. 17). Another issue Jin addresses is the serious problem of translationese in translations from foreign languages to Chinese. Although this type of language looks unnatural – neither like Chinese nor English – superficially it is correct and is widely used in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland (p. 34). In Hong Kong, a city with more than a century of British colonial rule, the problem may be more severe. Jin does not suggest that translators should erase every trace of foreignness in their translations; however, she is opposed to the extremely Europeanized style and is worried that it may greatly contaminate the Chinese language, and warns that the destruction of the ecology of Chinese may be no less severe than the destruction of the ecology in nature (p. 53). Excessive use of foreignized expressions may have a negative impact not only on modern Chinese in general, but also on particular styles, such as the style of official documents (p. 49). Jin thinks that Europeanized Chinese should never be allowed to become the canon in writings or translations (p. 35). Jin herself is an eminent translator. An expert on Fu Lei (see Jin 1994a, 2006), she is also a translator of the French and English letters in Fu Lei’s Family Letters [傅雷家書] (2000).2 Readers may find that her translations are too faithful, natural and elegant to be distinguished from original Chinese letters. She does not think that the Chinese language is backward – what is backward is the long-time self-depreciation in the heart of Chinese people (p. 52). She holds that, on the one hand, one should not resist learning English; on the other hand, one should not look down upon his/her own native language (p. 35), which, she believes, is also able to express complicated thoughts and delicate feelings. In order to promote Chinese literary works in the world, she has so far held four 2 Her other important translations include The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (Carson McCullers 1975), Stone and Shadow (Michael Bullock 1993) and An Outcast of the Islands (Joseph Conrad 2000). Across Languages and Cultures 12 (1) (2011) .
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