From an Angle to a Filial Daughter: Lin Shu’s Rewriting of Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop

Abstract

Nell, the protagonist in The Old Curiosity Shop, is an angle but was translated into a filial daughter adhering to the Confucian doctrines by Lin Shu in late Qing China. The translator, Lin Shu reshaped Nell’s appearance, mental activities and behaviors to construct a role model of filial piety. Lin’s translation is actually rewriting. Such rewriting is necessary to fulfill his translation purposes: to defuse the national crisis by introducing beneficial elements from Western culture; to re-glorify the Confucian doctrines by proving that the Westerners upheld the same morality as those in traditional China. This paper thus argues that translation, the means of introducing foreign images, is a vehicle for Lin Shu to construct and imagine self-image.