Chinese Literary Works Research Articles

The Translator’s Dilemma: Howard Goldblatt’s Translation Strategies in “Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out”

Since the 21st century, under the backdrop of the “going global” strategy of Chinese culture, the international influence of Chinese literary works has been growing. Among them, Howard Goldblatt’s translation of “Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out” is an outstanding representative of the English translation of contemporary Chinese literature. The translator Howard Goldblatt’s masterful translation of the original work’s national culture, linguistic form, and special structure is key to the success of the translation in overseas markets. This paper studies specific translation examples from Goldblatt’s English version of “Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out” and analyzes the translator’s translation strategies from the perspective of Polysystem Theory. It also explores the reasons from several angles, including the translating subject, content, strategy, and sponsors. The study finds that the translator Howard Goldblatt has seized the opportunity of Chinese culture “going global” and skillfully combined domestication and foreignization in the translation process of “Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out” effectively conveying Chinese cultural elements to readers while considering their reading interests and cultural backgrounds, thus making the translation more appealing to target language readers and promoting its effective overseas dissemination.

Translating Four-Character Structures in Chinese Literary Works on Traditional Architecture—A Case Analysis of Canal Towns South of the Yangtze and Folk Houses South of the Yangtze

Traditional Chinese architecture boasts a unique style and profound cultural connotations. Accordingly, the related literary works attain value for international dissemination. The four-character structures in these works serve as concise expressions for describing architectural details and design concepts. However, due to their linguistic implicitness, grammatical structure diversity, and rich cultural images, their translation into English requires multidimensional shift, redundancy elimination, and the avoidance of cultural defaults. This research has developed an effective translation workflow that leverages the synergistic strengths of Large Language Models (LLMs) and the human translator. By strategically employing tailored methods and techniques, it addresses the challenges in the translation process. Analysis suggests: It is recommended that the technique of shift be employed to address the implicit content and complex grammatical structures in translating four-character structures in Chinese literary works on traditional architecture into English. Besides, the selective application of combination and omission can help deal with information redundancy. Furthermore, it is advisable to apply foreignization and a combined method of literal translation and paraphrasing in conveying cultural images. These approaches will, to a certain extent, convert the untranslatability of four-character structures into translatability, enhancing the dissemination of the essence of traditional Chinese architecture.

A Study on the Strategies for Translating Four-Character Idioms into English from Cross-Cultural Perspective

As one of the important representatives of Chinese culture, Chinese literary works are rich in four-character idioms with far-reaching meanings, which should be paid full attention to in the process of translation. Cross-cultural theory is a comparative analysis of attribution and difference of cultural phenomena, aiming at the understanding of cultural differences. Based on a cross-cultural perspective, this paper analyzes the four-character idioms in Qian Zhongshu's work, Besieged City, which translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao from three aspects: thinking pattens, communication audience and purpose, and translation aesthetics. The conclusion shows that to a certain extent, the translator's selection of specific translation strategies can effectively convey the meaning of Chinese four-character idioms, make the target language fit with the cultural context of the original text, and achieve the purpose of cross-cultural communication.

The study of female images in modern Chinese literary works

This article is a study of female images in modern Chinese literary works. The author analyzes the evolution of representations of women in modern Chinese literature and their important role in the democratization of society. Through an examination of the works of authors such as Lu Xun, Lao She, Chen Zhongshi, Yu Hua and others, the article reveals diverse aspects of women's experiences, including social injustice, discrimination and exploitation. In addition, the author highlights the influence of literature in shaping public opinion about the role and rights of women, and discusses possible paths towards creating a more equal and inclusive society in the future. The subjects of the study are the works of modern Chinese writers and the female images of these literary works. The main research materials are the modern Chinese literary works of various genres and movements, including novels, short stories, poems and essays. Research methods – analysis of literary sources on the research topic, comparative analysis, content analysis, interpretation of texts, historical method. The purpose of the study is to analyze and evaluate ideas about female characters in modern Chinese literary works, taking into account their influence on the processes of democratization of society. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the fact that it represents an initial research look at female images in modern Chinese literature and their influence on the processes of democratization of society. The work is based on the analysis of contemporary literary works and includes the study of various aspects of women's experience in the context of Chinese culture and society. As a result of the study, new trends and patterns in the representation of female characters will be identified, as well as new approaches to understanding and solving the problems of gender inequality and social discrimination in Chinese society will be formulated.

Przedstawienie i analiza xiehouyu w literaturze oraz jako zjawisko językowe

My work is concerned with the topic of xiehouyu, a phenomenon specific to Chinese language, but little known in Poland. I try to present and analyze xiehouyu and its use in literature. The paper consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, I describe xiehouyu in general. The second chapter analyses the use of xiehouyu in Chinese literature. The last chapter offers a summary of the significance of xiehouyu. By means of concrete examples and textual analysis, the article aims to help readers grasp the meaning and value of xiehouyu, and to deepen their understanding of Chinese literary works and Chinese way of thinking.

A Comprehensive Analysis of Text Value and Linguistic Characteristics of Chinese Language Literature Based on Text Mining Technology

Abstract In this paper, webpage information is extracted by the directed crawling method in data crawling technology so as to obtain a collection of Chinese language literature, which is processed by data cleaning, Chinese word splitting, and de-duplication. Text mining techniques such as machine learning, the LDA model, and semantic networks are used to perform operations such as sentiment analysis, theme extraction, and linguistic association analysis on the acquired text. Based on the mined text, text value assessment and linguistic characterization of literary works written in Chinese are carried out. The text value is quantified and graded using the PMC index model, and the linguistic features of the text, including punctuation, vocabulary, and sentences, are analyzed by constructing a linguistic feature model. Eight of the 10 Chinese literary works selected in this paper, including Alive, have text values at an excellent level. The frequently used punctuation mark in works is the period. The average word length is around 2.75, and the degree of discreteness of sentences is small.

Optimization of Translation Techniques between English and Chinese Literary Works in the Information Age

Abstract Under the background of cultural globalization, English-Chinese literary translation plays an important role in which it is not only a process of language conversion, but also a process of cultural conversion. In this paper, the BiGUR-LM-Attention optimization model is fused and constructed using the WordNet semantic similarity model, GRU-LM one-way gated similarity model, and BiGR-LM two-way gated similarity model. The LDA theme model is selected to generate the 3-layer Bayesian network structure of literary works’ paragraphs, themes and words to obtain the probability information that represents the highest attention of the work’s text theme, which constitutes the attention mechanism feature word vector. Finally, five classic literary works are selected as the training corpus to compare and analyze the translation quality between machine translation and human translation in the mutual translation of English and Chinese literary works. The results show that the number of errors and the total score of machine translation are 95 and 275, which are significantly lower than those of manual translation, 105.37 and 360.19. The new model has outstanding translation performance in semantic recognition, dialect, and special nouns, which effectively improves the translation quality of literary works and is of great significance for the dissemination of cultural works.

Translation and Communication of Shanhaijing under Transknowletology

Shanhaijing has unique academic value and cultural significance, and its rich content, ingenious expressions and in-depth research have received widespread attention not only from domestic readers, but also from overseas readers. With the wide dissemination of Chinese literary works in the international arena, it has become a topic full of contemporary significance to present Chinese classic literature to the world, to promote the globalization of local knowledge, and to incorporate it into the vast fence of world literature. Shanhaijing, with its rich intellectual connotation, remarkable literary style and distinctive local characteristics, has become an outstanding representative of this proposition. Starting from the characteristics of the original works, integrating the relevant theories of intellectual translation, and giving full play to the advantages of modern multimedia and materials, the translation practice should be in line with the pulse of the times and satisfy the readers' preferences, so as to ensure the effectiveness of the translation and dissemination of Shanhaijing.

One Hundred Years of Chinese Literature Translation in Bulgaria

Abstract The translation of Chinese literature in Bulgaria had a relatively late start. This can be attributed to the five centuries of foreign domination that constrained Bulgaria’s political, economic, and social development, as well as its interactions with external civilizations. These circumstances significantly influenced the dissemination of foreign cultures within Bulgaria. In the mid-19th century, Bulgarian scholars began to show interest in China and its culture, leading to an increasing presence of Chinese literary works in Bulgarian newspapers and magazines. Chinese literature’s journey in Bulgaria over the past century and a half has seen both prosperous periods in the 20th century, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as less vibrant decades in the 1970s. This is an encouraging sign that the Bulgarian readers’ interest in Chinese literature has remained unwavering. Since the adoption of the Belt and Road Initiative, the translation and publication of Chinese literary works in Bulgaria have experienced rapid growth in terms of both quantity and quality. Currently, Chinese literature in Bulgaria has matured over the course of long-term development, gradually becoming more systematic, and yielding increasingly abundant translation achievements.

Study on the Dissemination Path of Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literature in the Background of the Internet

Abstract This paper first establishes a literary communication SICR model on the basis of the communication SICR model. It adopts cultural communication state transfer to construct a social network composed of N-closed individuals. Secondly, the dissemination threshold when the model reaches a stable state is discussed from the beginning and end of the literary work dissemination process. Finally, numerical simulation research using MATLAB software is used to analyze the propagation process of modern Chinese literary works, with examples provided. The results show that the number of literary ignoramuses (I) transformed into literary propagators (S) gradually rises when the initial values are S(t)=8915, I(t) =3414, C 0 =5288, and R 0 =850 in the dissemination process of X novels in Fictum, a Chinese online literature, and reaches the dissemination threshold when the dissemination rate reaches 0.856. This paper aims to provide a guide for advancing the advancement of modern and contemporary Chinese literature to the outside world and advocating for cultural dissemination.

A Study on the Upsurge of Translated Detective Story from the Perspective of Polysystem Theory

From 1890s to 1930s, the detective novels carried a big weight in Chinese literary works, with the characteristics of mass audience, large quantity and deep influence. Since detective novels were originally imported and translated into Chinese by translator, they have attracted the attention of a large of scholars. Base on the polysystem theory proposed by Itamar Even-Zohar, an Israeli literary theorist, this paper will analyze the reason for the rise and the increasing popularity of translated detective novel in that period.

Analysis of artistic features of ancient Chinese literary works based on multi-scale feature fusion network

Abstract Against the background of the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, the use of artificial intelligence technology to improve the efficiency of artistic feature analysis of ancient Chinese literary works has become a hot topic of current research in literature. In this paper, we propose a multi-scale feature fusion network for the artistic feature analysis of ancient Chinese literary works to address the problems of a single structure and inflexible adaptation of features that appear in RPN networks and path aggregation networks. Then, features are extracted from ancient Chinese literary works, and several adaptive multi-scale feature extraction modules are used to squeeze the incentive and adaptive gating mechanisms for artistic feature extraction and fusion. Finally, the evaluation index system of artistic features of literary works is constructed, and the multi-scale feature fusion network weights the artistic features of ancient Chinese literature. The results show that the average weights of humanistic spiritual features, national patriotic features, literary emotional features and transformative artistic features in ancient Chinese literature and art features are 26.11%, 24.97%, 23.89% and 25.03%, respectively, and the average weight of humanistic spiritual features performs better compared with the other three. This study analyzes the artistic characteristics and cultural values of ancient literary works, which is an effective initiative for modern people to study ancient culture and inherit the national spirit and has important historical significance for developing Chinese literature.

Research on Novel's Overseas Translation Model and Strategy: A Case Study of the English Translation of Red Sorghum Family

In the process of globalization, the overseas translation of Chinese literary works is imperative to promote excellent culture to the world and show the charm of Chinese culture. At present, Chinese literature enjoys great popularity in the world. Nevertheless, except Mo Yan's novels that have been successful in translation, other excellent Chinese literary works have not been known because of various factors. It is undeniable that the successful translation and communication of Mo Yan's novel results from a combination of factors. This paper attempts to comprehensively consider the relationship between the translator, the aesthetic of the text from the aspects of accuracy, artistry, beauty reconstruction as well as literary circulation to explore the unique connotation presented by the English translation of Red Sorghum Family.

Moon Imagery and Poetry Emotions: A Corpus-Based Analysis from the Perspective of Conceptual Metaphor

The moon is abundant in imagery, and Chinese poets have expressed various emotions via this imagery. Based on the BLCU Corpus Center (BCC), this paper used the conceptual metaphor framework to analyse the moon imagery and emotions expressed in randomly selected 220 Song Cis. The author counted the frequency of different emotions, grammatical and lexical annotations, and analysed the imagery using specific conceptual metaphors (i.e., structural metaphor, orientation metaphor, ontological metaphor, and container metaphor). The paper also analysed the distribution of different emotions in the poems selected from the corpus using chi-square tests. Through the analysis, the author found that more negative emotions than positive ones were expressed in the selected Cis and that there were more Cis that express personal emotions and fewer that express concerns about society and changing dynasties. This paper draws on the structural, directional and ontological metaphors of conceptual metaphor to analyse the relationship between lexico-grammatical features and emotions expressed in Song Cis. The results revealed that poets used adjectives frequently in expressing different emotions and that more negative emotions were expressed by poets regardless of the dynasties in which those poets lived. This study has implications for future corpus-based analysis of typical imagery in classical Chinese literary works from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.

Analysis of Translation of Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from Original Epicenter by Michael Berry in a Post-colonialist Perspective

The West always abashes China by public opinion not only in news report and literature, but also in translation including the ones of the Chinese literature and the ones of diaries, news report, documentaries, government announcement, etc. Researchers have worked on several translations of Chinese literary works; however, they have rarely much worked on diaries. Michael Berry is a professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies at UCLA and the Director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies. He has been a translator who translates from Chinese into English for many years as well, his works include Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers, A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Fiction and Film, and Jia Zhangke's Hometown Trilogy. Therefore, this analysis focuses on the translation strategy of translation of Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from Original Epicenter by Michael Berry, and observe if the translator has demonized China by his translation strategy.

Design and Application of a Methodology for Assessing the Strength of Female Leadership in Chinese Literary Works

Classic works of literature have created many unique figures of female leaders. These works provide excellent material to support this research on the perception of female leadership in their time period. In order to investigate the performance of female leadership in Chinese literature, this paper designs a model for assessing the strength of female leadership in literary figures based on a corpus and Nvivo qualitative research method and integrates it with the analysis of the literary context to form a paradigm for assessing the strength of female leadership in literary figures. At the same time, this research applies and validates this assessment paradigm by selecting female leaders from three different Chinese literary works of different periods. The significance of this research lies in the design of an interdisciplinary model for assessing the strength of female leadership based on leadership theory and realizes qualitative analysis of the strength of female leadership in literary figures. This research also gives three prospects, hoping that future research will be based on a social gender perspective, that more attention will be paid to the role of literature in historical leadership studies, and that a method for assessing the strength of female leadership in literary figures in an international context will be devised.

Modernity in Xu Yuanchong's translation thoughts

Xu Yuanchong, as an outstanding contemporary translator in China, has made important contributions to promoting the translation of Chinese literary works and the going out of Chinese culture. Xu Yuanchong summed up Chinese poetry translation as "beautify art, create competition for excellence" in translation practice, and his translation theory has strong foresight and modernity, which has a positive influence and important role in promoting the innovation and development of Chinese literary translation theory and cultural propaganda. Therefore, the study on modernity of Xu Yuanchong's translation thoughts is helpful to clarify the historical value and orientation of his translation thoughts, and can also provide some modernity schemes for Chinese translation circles.

Reception of the Goldblatt’s Translation of Red Sorghum from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics for Overseas Readers

Literary translation must meet readers’ aesthetic needs and acceptance psychology for literary works. At the same time, the quality of translation should not only be judged by the source text, but also by the acceptance of readers. Reception aesthetics is a theoretical system that takes readers as the center to study the effect of text acceptance. This paper selects Red Sorghum translated by Howard Goldblatt as the research object, collects readers’ comments on this translation from foreign book review websites (www.goodreads.com), and uses the theory of reception aesthetics to analyze the acceptance of this translation among English readers, aiming to provide more ideas for the translation of Chinese literary works.

The Classification of Folk Culture Based on Multicharacteristics

China is an ancient country with a long history. It is composed of many ethnic groups and has formed a variety of unique folk cultures. China has many cultures where each region has its own cultural forms. The diversity and complexity of the Chinese folk culture are locality intertwined. The folk culture with Chinese characteristics and local characteristics deserves attention. The full integration of folk culture into Chinese modern and contemporary literary works can effectively enhance the cultural connotation of literary works and play a very important role in promoting the development of our country’s culture, and at the same time, it can also stimulate readers’ interest in reading in the later period. Further understanding of modern Chinese folk culture is of unprecedented help. Therefore, this paper takes “the analysis of the characteristics of folk culture in Chinese modern and contemporary literary works” as a research perspective, hoping to more effectively promote the integration of folk culture and Chinese literary works through this research and then promote the coordinated development and improvement of the two.

Network Extraction and Analysis of Character Relationships in Chinese Literary Works.

Character relationships in literary works can be interpreted and analyzed from the perspective of social networks. Analysis of intricate character relationships helps to better understand the internal logic of plot development and explore the significance of a literary work. This paper attempts to extract social networks from Chinese literary works based on co-word analysis. In order to analyze character relationships, both social network analysis and cluster analysis are carried out. Network analysis is performed by calculating degree distribution, clustering coefficient, shortest path length, centrality, etc. Cluster analysis is used for partitioning characters into groups. In addition, an improved visualization method of hierarchical clustering is proposed, which can clearly exhibit character relationships within clusters and the hierarchical structure of clusters. Finally, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method succeeds in establishing a comprehensive framework for extracting networks and analyzing character relationships in Chinese literary works.