Childhood, Identity Politics, and Linguistic Negotiation in the Traditional Chinese Translation of the Picture Book The Gruffalo in Taiwan

Abstract

In contemporary Taiwan, the identity politics of childhood are interlaced with changing educational policies that follow a winding course through the Chinese cultural legacy, local Taiwanese values, and Western cultures. One important way in which Western values influence children’s construction of Taiwanese identity is through the translation of texts from English. The Chinese translation of the award-winning UK picture book The Gruffalo is typical of current practices of translation in Taiwan: it demonstrates the attempts to incorporate, fuse, and negotiate heterogeneous Chinese, Taiwanese, and Western cultural elements.