Chinese online literature in the anglophone world and beyond: Translation, dissemination and impact

Abstract

Chinese online literature has attracted wide overseas attention over the past decade. As a newly emerging form of literature in the twenty-first century, the ‘digitalness’ of this literary form enables its translators to overcome the cultural gap and introduce this subculture to the rest of the world. The translation of Chinese online literature plays a significant role in its worldwide dissemination, greatly facilitates the promotion of Chinese culture and also sheds new light on multimedia translation studies. This article will focus attention on the translation of Chinese online literature in the anglophone world, aiming to map out a detailed overview of its overseas journey, namely how it made its way to the anglophone audience, to elaborate on the role of translation in this process, and how the translation of Chinese online literature facilitates the reception of the novels and contributes to their popularity outside China. Finally, this article argues that the human translation of online literature, tailored to this digital form, could bring insights into the promotion of Chinese culture and also into studies on multimedia translation.