Nationalism in Lin Shu’s Translation of Haggard’s Adventure Stories

Ning Li

doi:10.11648/j.ijla.20200804.19

Abstract

Sir Henry Rider Haggard’s adventure stories are the great and influential contributions in the numerous works in Lin Shu’s translated novels, which are also popular in late Qing China. Moreover, the nationalism started from the late Qing period, which has great influence on the national renaissance in terms of dealing with the national crisis and inspiring the national spirits or reform and exploration. In practice, the translation works have great contribution, among which Lin Shu’s fiction translation is of highest value. His translation works are analyzed from the aspects of source text selection, translation principle and skills. As a translator, Lin interfered with the original text by his prefaces and epilogues in the process of translation. It is necessary to discuss reasons why Lin Shu translated large amount of Haggard’s adventure stories from the perspective of nationalism on Lin’s sense of mission in translation during then society. It also tries to figure out the great influence and meaning of Lin’s translated novels from Haggard’s adventure stories in the academic circle of late Qing China.

Highlights

In modern China, the trend of ideological nationalism flourished in the crisis of invasion of China by foreign powers, which had shown a strong ideological atmosphere with national rights and interests as well as the national emotions gradually booming into the core idea
After the invasion and partition by the foreign powers, the patriots of the late Qing Dynasty began to realize the limitations of westernization movement and the importance of cultural enlightenment from the Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and the failure of “Joint Petition of Imperial Examination Candidates to the Emperor led by Kang Youwei in 1895 to oppose signing of theTreaty of Shimonoseki and institute reforms, marking the beginning of the Reformist Movement”
In the face of the colonial aggression of the imperialist powers, Liang raised his arms and appealed to cultivate the inherent nationalism as soon as possible to fight against the old times, and only can fight against the national imperialism of the foreign powers to save lives and prevent disasters in late Qing China

Summary

Introduction

In modern China, the trend of ideological nationalism flourished in the crisis of invasion of China by foreign powers, which had shown a strong ideological atmosphere with national rights and interests as well as the national emotions gradually booming into the core idea. Under this background, Lin Shu’s translated novels have appeared on the historical stage. In order to promote national consciousness and the spirit of nationalism, Lin Shu translated large amount of foreign novels, hoping to enlighten the wisdom of people and save whole nation from danger. He once wrote in his translation preface clearly pointed out, “If I want to enlighten the people, firstly I must establish the school, but is goes slowly. This study tries to analyze the nationalism in Lin Shu’s translation of his choice on western novels, as well as the discussion on his thoughts and techniques of translation, analyzing its social influence and significance of progress

An Overview of Nationalism

Spiritual Representation of Haggard’s Novels

Nationalism in Lin Shu’s Translated Novels

Analysis of Social Influence of Nationalism in Lin Shu’s Translations

Conclusion