The Removing and Preserving of CLEs in Translated Versions of the Novel—Based on Two Translated Versions of <i>Luotuo Xiangzi</i>

Abstract

Camel Xiangzi is the representative work of the famous modern Chinese writer Lao She, which boosts of its important position in the history of modern Chinese literature. Taking Communication Theory as the theoretical framework of the study, it selects the Culture-loaded Elements from the source language text and the corresponding ones in the target language texts of Lao She's novel <i>Camel Xiangzi</i> as the research data. It then analyzes the characteristics of the source language, the cultural differences between the source language and the target language, the translator's encoding and decoding process, translation strategy and communication effect. The two versions are Rickshaw Boy translated by Evan King and Camel Xiangzi by Shi Xiaojing respectively. It is generally acknowledged that Shi Xiaojing mainly chose foreignization strategy whereas Evan King adopted domestication mostly in their translation versions respectively. It can be seen that the foreignization translation strategy achieves the equivalent transmission effect in terms of material culture-loaded words and ecological culture-loaded words, which is helpful for foreign readers to understand Chinese people’s way of thinking, values, aesthetic orientation as well as traditional customs and is of great significance to the dissemination of traditional Chinese culture and the enhancement of national cultural soft power.