Collaborative translation as an instrument for creating Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the early twentieth century’s China

Abstract

The reception of translations of foreign literary works can vary depending on a variety of historical, social and cultural factors. The paper endeavors to examine how the collaborative translation between an interpreter and a writer can effectively address those interrelated factors that constrain the reception of the translation of foreign literary works with a case study of Wei Yi and Lin Shu’ translation of Harriet Beacher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in China in the early 20th century. When translating the novel, Wei Yi and Lin Shu Wei Yi and Lin Shu combined their strengths as an interpreter and a writer. They manipulated the original themes of slavery and religious belief to express their patriotic ideals and raise awareness of the national crisis, while also arousing their readers’ national spirit. Besides, they employed different translation strategies: additions to supplement the traditional Chinese literal styles and bridge the cultural gap between English and Chinese; deletions to overcome cultural vacuum and handle religious materials; abridgement to remove what they thought was trivial messages, and adaptation to rewrite the cultural knowledge. The paper contends that Wei Yi and Lin Shu’s collaboration as an interpreter and a writer contributed the more appropriate contextualization and reception of the Chinese translation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin to the target readership in the Chinese context in the early 20th century. This study of collaborative translation between an interpreter and a writer is expected to shed some light on literary translation across different countries.