IN TRANSFERRAL BETWEEN CHINESE AND AMERICAN CULTURES: .

What is it about?

Lin Yutang 林語堂 (1895–1976) was a Chinese American writer who wrote primarily in English and acted as an interpreter of Chinese culture for the west. During Lin’s stay in the United States from 1936 to 1966, he produced some thirty works in English to disseminate Chinese philosophy and customs to a western audience. Although Lin was hailed as a cultural ambassador between China and the United States, his translation and rewriting works are sometimes criticised for complying in the colonial power dynamics between China and the west. In this thesis, I demonstrate that Lin’s English translations and rewritings are not only achievements made from personal capabilities in bilingual transfer, but also products of individual efforts in dealing with cultural obstacles imposed by the authorities. I select Famous Chinese Short Stories, Retold by Lin Yutang as a case, to illustrate that Lin’s reworking on traditional Chinese folktale stories constitutes a reinvention of Chinese cultural legacy. Famous Chinese Short Stories, Retold by Lin Yutang contains a selection of twenty tales from both literati and popular sources in ancient Chinese culture, edited and rewritten in English by Lin using western storytelling techniques. As I argue, Lin’s cross-cultural rewriting helps to uncover the humanistic potential of traditional Chinese resources to modernise ancient Chinese society. Especially, his endeavour in translation and cross-cultural communication demonstrates his compassionate perspective on women’s status in ancient China. In addition, this thesis explores the Chinese translation of Famous Chinese Short Stories, Retold by Lin Yutang completed by a Taiwanese translator Zhang Zhenyu 張振玉, and examines the Chinese translation as part of the continued reception of Famous Chinese Short Stories, Retold by Lin Yutang in the Chinese world. As such, the study of Famous Chinese Short Stories, Retold by Lin Yutang provides a valuable reference for the significance of and challenges in translators’ cross-cultural mediation.

Featured Image

Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash

Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash

Why is it important?

I quote “Ode, Inscribed to William H. Channing” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) to end this thesis. In The Oxford Book of American Poetry, the poem goes as follows (Lehman 2006, 35–37), Ode Inscribed to W. H. Charming Though loath to grieve The evil time’s sole patriot, I cannot leave My honied thought For the priest’s cant, Or statesman’s rant. If I refuse My study for their politique, Which at the best is trick, The angry Muse Puts confusion in my brain. But who is he that prates Of the culture of mankind, Of better arts and life? Go, blindworm, go, Behold the famous States Harrying Mexico With rifle and with knife! Or who, with accent bolder, Dare praise the freedom-loving mountaineer? I found by thee, O rushing Contoocook! And in thy valleys, Agiochook! The jackals of the negro-holder. The God who made New Hampshire Taunted the lofty land With little men; — Small bat and wren House in the oak: — If earth-fire cleave The upheaved land, and bury the folk, The southern crocodile would grieve. Virtue palters; Right is hence; Freedom praised, but hid; Funeral eloquence Rattles the coffin-lid. What boots thy zeal, O glowing friend, That would indignant rend The northland from the south? Wherefore? to what good end? Boston Bay and Bunker Hill Would serve things still; — Things are of the snake. The horseman serves the horse, The neatherd serves the neat, The merchant serves the purse, The eater serves his meat; ’T is the day of the chattel, Web to weave, and corn to grind; Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind. There are two laws discrete, Not reconciled, — Law for man, and law for thing; The last builds town and fleet, But it runs wild, And doth the man unking. ’T is fit the forest fall, The steep be graded, The mountain tunnelled, The sand shaded, The orchard planted, The glebe tilled, The prairie granted, The steamer built. Let man serve law for man; Live for friendship, live for love, For truth’s and harmony’s behoof; The state may follow how it can, As Olympus follows Jove. Yet do not I implore The wrinkled shopman to my sounding woods, Nor bid the unwilling senator Ask votes of thrushes in the solitudes. Every one to his chosen work; — Foolish hands may mix and mar; Wise and sure the issues are. Round they roll till dark is light, Sex to sex, and even to odd; — The over-god Who marries Right to Might, Who peoples, unpeoples, — He who exterminates Races by stronger races, Black by white faces, — Knows to bring honey Out of the lion; Grafts gentlest scion On pirate and Turk. The Cossack eats Poland, Like stolen fruit; Her last noble is ruined, Her last poet mute: Straight, into double band The victors divide; Half for freedom strike and stand; — The astonished Muse finds thousands at her side. 1846

Perspectives