! WUXIA AS FANTASY: AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF JUEDAI SHUANGJIAO! ! 武俠即奇幻：絕代雙驕之英譯! ! ! ! A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION ! ! NATIONAL TAIWAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY! ! 國立台灣師範大學翻譯研究所碩士論文! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Ryan Kueck! 柯潤元! ! Thesis Advisor: Dr. Sharon Lai! 指導教授：賴慈芸博士! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! December 2013! 2013年 12⽉ ! Contents! Partial List of Gu Long’s Novels……………………………………………….……..iii! Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iv ! Introduction…………………………………………………........................................1 ! Motivation…………………………………………………………….…………….2! Significance to the Field……………………………..…………….……………..3 ! Background on Wuxia Fiction……………………….……………………….…..4 ! Literature Review..…………………………………….…………………………………11 ! Wuxia in English Translation…………………………………….….……………11 ! Reviews of Translation…………………………………………….……………..13 ! Reviews of Reception……………………………………………….……..……..16 ! Gu Long: His Life, His Works, His Style……………………………………….…….22 ! His Life…………………………………………………………………….………..22 ! His Works…………………………………………………………………………..25! His Style………………………………………………………………….………...30! Legendary Siblings…………………………………………………….………….39 ! Legendary Siblings in English………………………………………….……………..43 ! Setting……………………………………………………………….……………..44 ! Proper Names……………………………………………………………………..45 ! General Problems………………………………………………………………….52 ! Conclusion………………………………………………………………….……………..58 ! References………………………………………………………………….……………..61 ! Appendix A: List of Gu Long’s Novels……………………………….………………67! Legendary Siblings in Translation…………………………………………………….71! ! !ii Partial List of Gu Long’s Novels! ! The following is a list of the titles that I will be referencing throughout my thesis. As only Gu Long’s The Eleventh Son (Xiao Shiyilang 蕭十一郎) has been published in English, I have made my own translations of the titles for easier reading. A complete list of his works is provided in Appendix A.! ! 1. A Fine Sword (Mingjian Fengliu 名劍風流)! 2. Legendary Siblings (Juedai Shuangjiao 絕代雙驕)! 3. The Legend of Chu Liuxiang (Chu Liuxiang Chuanqi 楚留香傳奇)! 4. The Sentimental Swordsman (Duoqing Jianke Wuqing Jian 多情劍客無情劍)! 5. The Happy Hero (Huanle Yingxiong 歡樂英雄)! 6. Meteor, Butterfly, Sword (Liuxing, Hudie, Jian 流星·蝴蝶·劍)! 7. The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng (Lu Xiaofeng Chuanqi 陸小鳳傳奇)! 8. Betrayal of the Eleventh Son (Huobing Xiao Shiyilang 火併蕭十一郎)! ! !iii ! ! Abstract! ! !The Chinese wuxia novel has enjoyed a long history spanning millennia. While even within the last century there have been hundreds of published wuxia authors, only a handful of names are ubiquitous in the Chinese-speaking world. This thesis will introduce one prolific wuxia novelist who is well-known and studied in China and Taiwan, but overlooked for the most part by Western academics: Gu Long (古龍). After an introduction to his life and works, I will compare his writing style with that of Jin Yong (金庸), the wuxia author favored by academia. I will also introduce my own translation of Gu Long’s Juedai Shuangjiao (絕代雙驕) and state my case for why Gu Long’s novels, which closely resemble fantasy novels, are excellent candidates for translation into English to extend the wuxia genre to English readers,.! ! Keywords: Gu Long, wuxia novel, Juedai Shuangjiao, translation, fantasy" !iv ! 摘要! ! 武俠⼩說的歷史悠久，儘管近數⼗年，華⽂⽂壇裡已有幾百位武俠作家，但是達到 家喻⼾曉境界的作家屈指可數，更何況在歐美國家，讀者對於武俠⼩說就更陌⽣了。本論 ⽂以古⻯作為研究對象，探究其⽣平、著作並且與⾦庸對⽐，藉此機會介紹古⻯的作品給 ⻄⽅。除此之外，筆者翻譯了《絕代雙驕》，並且在本論⽂討論所使⽤到的翻譯策略，最 後提出古⻯的作品較容易進⼊⻄⽅世界的原因。 ! 關鍵字：古龍，武俠小說，絕代雙驕，翻譯，奇幻 !v Chapter One! Introduction! ! ! Chinese martial arts novels, wuxia xiaoshuo 武俠⼩說, have enjoyed a long history. There have been hundreds of modern wuxia1 novelists over the past century; however, only a handful of their names are ubiquitous throughout the Chinese-speaking world. Jin Yong ⾦庸 (Louis Cha 查良鏞 1924- ) is almost synonymous with wuxia novels; he has been celebrated as the greatest author of the genre and has even been honored with his own “study of Jin Yong” (⾦學) as academics have begun studying and analyzing his works. The English-speaking world has also recently begun to recognize his works. Within the past few decades there have been academic works focusing on Jin Yong both written and translated into English. A selection of his novels has been translated into Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, and English (Lai 1998, 134).! ! This thesis, however, will introduce another prolific wuxia novelist, also well- known and studied in China and Taiwan, but overlooked for the most part in Western academia: Gu Long 古龍 (Xiong Yaohua 熊耀華 1937-1985). Gu Long and Jin Yong’s careers overlapped, but as Gu Long continued to experiment with each of his new 1! There is no consensus on the exact starting point of “modern martial arts fiction,” but most critics agree on the consequential contribution of Extraordinary Heroes on River and Lake (Jianghu Qixia Zhuan 江湖 奇俠傳) by The Unworthy Son of Pingjiang 平江不肖生 (Xiang Kairan 向愷然 1889-1957) published in 1922 (Lai 1998, 30). !1 stories, he gradually separated his writing style from the traditional backdrop which Jin Yong maintained.! !This introductory chapter will give a brief overview of my motivation for writing this thesis, the significance of this thesis, and background information on the wuxia genre. Chapter Two will introduce recently published English translations of wuxia fiction and review some of the academic papers focusing on those works and opinions on the reception of this new genre. Chapter Three provides a biography of Gu Long and an analysis of his writing style. In Chapter Four I will discuss some of my thought processes and the hurdles I encountered during the translation of Legendary Siblings (Juedai Shuangjiao 絕代雙驕). And Chapter Five concludes with my ideas on the translation of Chinese martial arts fiction and advice to future translators in this field. Appendices attached include a list of Gu Long’s novels and my translation of Legendary Siblings.! !This thesis will not provide an in-depth analysis of wuxia or Gu Long’s position in literature as a whole or of Gu Long’s life and how that may have influenced his writing.! ! Motivation! !Like many Americans born in the mid-1980s, I was introduced to the wuxia genre by Hollywood films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002), and House of Flying Daggers (2004). These were also my first introduction to the Chinese language and culture before I began studying Chinese in 2007. After stepping into the field of translation, I decided early on that I would like to try my hand at translating something that piqued my interests and had yet to be translated into English.! !2 !My experience reading parts of the few Chinese martial arts novels in English translation failed to live up to the excitement I had felt watching those wuxia films in my youth. On the recommendation of my advising professor, Dr. Sharon Lai, I read and began translating Gu Long’s Legendary Siblings. After comparing Gu Long and Jin Yong, it became clear to me that Gu Long’s novels would be easier to translate and more likely to be accepted by a western audience. It is my hope that this thesis and translation can continue to widen the selection and reach of Chinese martial arts fiction as I sincerely believe that Gu Long’s later works lend themselves to translation much better than any of Jin Yong’s novels.! ! Significance to the Field! !According to Lin Baochun 林保淳, “in recent years, Jin Yong has become the dominant figure, nearly the sole figure, in academic analyses of wuxia novels. People instinctively bring up Jin Yong when discussing the genre and most readers are only familiar with his books, rejecting outright all other wuxia novels”2 , 3 (洪文軒 3).! !There have been innumerable studies of modern Chinese martial arts fiction conducted in the Chinese-speaking world. The majority focus on Jin Yong, Gu Long, and Liang Yusheng 梁羽生 (Chen Wentong 陳文統 1926－2009), three prominent authors in the genre. In comparison, English academic works on the subject have !2 Originally from Lin Baochun’s “救救台灣的武俠小說 — 解構金庸及走出金庸體系的迷思” published in 《明報月刊》Volume 31卷2期, February 1996. !3 All quotations from sources originally in Chinese are my own translations unless otherwise noted. !3 developed tunnel vision on Jin Yong. In terms of the translation of wuxia novels, while there is by no means a large selection, there is also a bias towards Jin Yong’s works. ! !The present thesis aims to slightly offset the partiality given to Jin Yong—in both academia and translation—in favor of his colleague, Gu Long. I have translated the first book of Gu Long’s seminal work, Legendary Siblings,4 which is included at the end of this thesis. If published, my translation will be the second English rendition of a Gu Long novel after Rebecca Tai’s translation of Xiao Shiyilang (蕭十一郎) entitled The Eleventh Son. I will also introduce my own take on translating this genre, citing some specific strategies which vary from previous translators.! ! Background on Wuxia Fiction! !Chinese wuxia fiction is a genre of traditional Chinese fiction. Fiction with martial arts themes has evolved over thousands of years from the storytelling tradition and has appeared in many forms throughout Chinese history (Lai 1998). However, before the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the term wuxia xiaoshuo 武俠小說, as the genre is described today, did not exist (葉洪生 11). ! !Chinese tales of xia 俠—chivalrous as most translate the term today—heroes can be traced back to the Warring States period (403-221 BCE) (Liu, James 1); Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji 史記), written from 109 to 91 BCE,5 includes