Eileen Chang’s Creation and Self-Translation of The Rice-Sprout Song

Abstract

Eileen Chang, aka 张爱玲 Zhang Ailing, is one of the most illustrious writers of modern Chinese literature. During her sojourn in Hong Kong in the 1950s, she composed the debut English novel entitled The Rice-Sprout Song, which has been self-translated into a Chinese version, viz. 秧歌 Yangge. The English version of The Rice-Sprout Song abounds with culture-loaded words, which embody ecological, material, social, religious and linguistic culture under the framework of equivalence (Nida 1945). As a consequence, the original narrative is analogous to a translation work, and Chang’s rendering of culturally-enriched expressions is characterised by the strategy of foreignization. In terms of the Chinese version, by virtue of its salient cultural and linguistic adaptations, it should be regarded as covert translation in the sense of House (1977). The translation of The Rice-Sprout Song is featured by addition of culture-loaded words in Chinese as well as omission of politically-sensitive plots and depictions censuring the Chinese Communist Party. Moreover, in the Chinese version, Chang has employed expressions derived from Shanghai dialect.