Re-presenting China through Retranslation: A Corpus-based Study of Liaozhai Zhiyi in English A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Yongming Pei August, 2018 © Copyright by Yongming Pei 2018 All Rights Reserved Except for previously published materials Dissertation written by Yongming Pei M.A., Southwest Normal University, 1999 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2018 Approved by ______________________________, Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Brian Baer ______________________________, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Erik Angelone ______________________________, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Judy Wakabayashi ______________________________, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Babacar Mbayi ______________________________, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Jay Lee Accepted by ______________________________, Chair, Modern and Classical Language Studies Keiran J. Dunne ______________________________, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences James L. Blank TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS…..……………………..………………….………………..…iii LIST OF TABLES...…………..…..………………………………….…………………viii LIST OF APPENDICES……..……………………………………….…...………………x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……...……………………………………………………....xii CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Questions……………………………………………………………………1 1.2 Pu Songling and His Collecting of Liaozhai.…………………………………………1 1.3 Liaozhai as a Chinese Key Cultural Text………………………………………...……4 1.4 Liaozhai as Pu’s Utopian World…………………………….…………………………5 1.5 Diverse Liaozhai Stories & Its Diverse Translations.…………………………………8 1.6 Significance…………………………………………………………………………..11 II. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Retranslation…...…………………………………………………………...………..14 2.2 Translation as a Subjective Norm of Image-making………………………...……….17 2.3 Research on Liaozhai and its Translations…………..……………………...………..19 III. METHODOLOGY iii 3.1 Corpus………………………………………………………………………………..26 3.2 Periodization……………………………………………………………..…………..28 3.3 Categorization of Dominant Themes…………………………………..……...……..30 3.4 Other Classification ….…………………………………………………………….. 31 3.5 Data Collection…………………………………………………………..…………..33 IV. CONTRADICTORY TRANSLATIONS OF LIAOZHAI IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..35 4.1.1 The Opium War in China….…………….……………………………………..36 4.1.2 The Victorian Era in Britain: An Age of Contradictions …….…………….…..37 4.1.3 Orientalist Translation….……..………………………………………………..38 4.1.4 An Overview of English Liaozhai in the Colonial Period….…………...……..39 4.1.5 Contradictory Translations in the Colonial Period…………...…………….…..44 4.2 Contradictions between Victorian Paratexts and TTs………………………………..46 4.2.1 Othering China………..………………………………………………………..47 4.2.1.1 Othering China in Victorian Paratexts…..……………………………..47 4.2.1.2 Othering China in Victorian TTs……………….………………..……..51 4.2.2 Domesticating Liaozhai in Victorian TTs…….…...………………………..….56 4.2.2.1 Domesticating Liaozhai through the Selection of Stories…………..….57 4.2.2.2 Domesticating Liaozhai through the Application of Translation Strategies……………………………………………………………….60 iv 4.3 Contradictions within Colonial TTs……………………………...…………………..64 4.3.1 Hillier’s Liaozhai as a Chinese Aesop’s Fables…………...……………….…..65 4.3.2 A Romantic Liaozhai with Horror Stories in Soulié’s Translation…………….66 4.4 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….……..70 V. VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS OF LIAOZHAI IN THE DECOLONIZING PERIOD 5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..73 5.1.1 A Chaotic and Closed China…………………………………………………...73 5.1.2 US-China Relations in the 1930s and 1940s………………………….………..77 5.1.3 An Overview of English Liaozhai in the Decolonizing Period………………...78 5.2 Translating Liaozhai for Children…………………………………………………....81 5.2.1 Selection for Children………………………………………………………….83 5.2.2 Othering or Domesticating……………………………………………………..86 5.3 Liaozhai in Brandt’s Language Textbook……………………………………………89 5.4 Performing China: Quong’s Romantic Translations of Liaozhai…………………….90 5.4.1 Poetic Paratexts Full of Chinese Elements…………………………………….91 5.4.2 Quong’s Selection: Romantic Love Stories…………………………………..101 5.4.3 Conservative Rendering of Sexual References……………………………….104 5.4.4 Performing China through Othering...………………………………………..104 5.5 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….107 VI. COMPETING TRANSLATIONS IN THE POST-MAO PERIOD v 6.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………109 6.1.1 Chinese Feudalism……………………………………………………………109 6.1.2 Overview of English Translations of Liaozhai in the Post-Mao Era…………110 6.2 Anti-feudal Liaozhai in Translations Published in Chinese Contexts………………114 6.2.1 Anti-feudal Paratexts………………………………………………………….116 6.2.2 Anti-feudal Selection of STs..………………………………………...………119 6.3 English Translations of Liaozhai Published in Western Contexts………………….126 6.3.1 Page’s Relay Translation……………………………………………………...127 6.3.1.1 Paratexts: A Philosophical Liaozhai………………………………….127 6.3.1.2 Selection: A Romantic Liaozhai………………………………………129 6.3.2 A Strange Liaozhai in Minford’s Translation…………………………………131 6.3.2.1 Paratexts Accompanying Minford’s Translation……………………...132 6.3.2.2 Minford’s Selection of Liaozhai Stories………………………...……132 6.3.3 Sondergard’s Complete Translation: A Moral and Mysterious Liaozhai……..135 6.4 Translation Approaches in Post-Mao Translations…………………………………137 6.4.1 Othering Liaozhai…………………………………………………………….137 6.4.2 Deviations in Post-Mao Translations…………………………………………142 6.5 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….144 VII. CONCLUSION 7.1 Retranslation as a Photograph Recording Changes………………………………...147 7.2 Rethinking the Retranslation Hypothesis…………………………………………...149 vi 7.3 Beyond Foreignizing and Domesticating…………………………………………...152 7.4 Translator as a Barometer of International Interactions…………………………….153 7.5 Porous Periodizations……………………………………...………………………..154 7.6 Retranslation and Directionality……………………………………………………155 7.7 Limitations and Future Directions………………………………………...………..156 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………189 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Profiles of Colonial Translators……………………………..………………….41 Table 2: Publication Information of Colonial Translations……………………………...43 Table 3: Information in the Paratexts…………………………………………………….48 Table 4: Supernatural Stories in Colonial STs and TTs……...…………………………..52 Table 5: Distribution of Themes in Victorian ST & TT ……………………………...….58 Table 6: Social Problems Criticized in Giles’ Translation……………..………………...59 Table 7: Sexuality in Colonial STs and TTs……….………………………………….….61 Table 8: Examples of Domesticating Translation………………………………………..64 Table 9: Percentage of Horror and Violence Stories in Colonial TTs……………………68 Table 10: Sexual References in Soulié’s TTs…………………………………………….69 Table 11: Publication Information of Decolonial Translations…………………………..80 Table12: Translators Profiles in the Decolonizing Period….…………………………....81 Table 13: Distribution of Themes in Decolonial TTs…………………………………....85 Table 14: Some Notes in Chu’s Translation………………………………………….….86 Table 15: Martens’s Selection of Stories with Chinese Otherness……...……………….87 Table 16: Martens’s Translation of Stories with Sexual References..……………...……88 Table 17: Introductory Poems in Quong’s Translation…………………………………..95 Table 18: Romance & Family Related Stories with Other Types of Themes……..……103 Table 19: Quong’s Translation of Stories with Sexual references…………………..….104 Table 20: Publication Information of Translations in Post-Mao Era……………..…….113 Table 21: Translators’ Profiles in Post-Mao Era………………………………………..114 viii Table 22: Percentage of Anti-feudal Stories in TTs ………………………………..…..120 Table 23: Distribution of Themes in the Post-Mao TTs……………………….………..125 Table 24: Sexual References in Buber and Page’s TTs…………………………………129 Table 25: Introductory Essays in Sondergard’s Translation…………………...………..136 Table 26: A Comparison of Number of Notes in Post-Mao Translations………..……..143 ix LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Historical Event and English Translation of Liaozhai………………..…..158 Appendix 2: Publication Information…………………………………………….…….159 Appendix 3: Translators’ Profile…………………...……………………….………….160 Appendix 4: Information in the Paratexts……………………………………...……….161 Appendix 5: Bowdlerization in Giles’ Translation……………………………………..165 Appendix 6: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Gutzlaf (1842) ..............................167 Appendix 7: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Williams (1848) ............................167 Appendix 8: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Mayer (1867) ................................167 Appendix 9: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Allen (1874-5) ..............................168 Appendix 10: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Giles (1880) ................................168 Appendix 11: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Hillier (1907)...............................172 Appendix 12: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Soulié (1913) ..............................172 Appendix 13: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Martens (1921)............................173 Appendix 14: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Brandt (1927) ..............................173 Appendix 15: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Chu (1937) ..................................174 Appendix 16: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Quong (1946) ..............................174 Appendix 17: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Yang et al. (1981) .......................175 Appendix 18: List of Liaozhai Stories Translated by Lu et al. (1982)............................175 Appendix 19: List of