关键词: 中国文学出版社; 英译合集; 选材; 女作家; 中国女性形象

Abstract:

The Chinese Literature Press (CLP) was a government-sponsored project to translate texts by Chinese writers. This paper examines the selection criteria used by the CLP in translating texts by Chinese female writers after 1979. It highlights the project’s efforts in promoting a desired image of the contemporary Chinese woman and contributions of presenting a variety of images to the Anglophone world. It also discusses discrepancies between the ideal image that the project intended to promote and what was more likely conveyed. From an imagology perspective, this paper illustrates how the anthologies convey greater diversity in Chinese women than do Western stereotypes and from a gender perspective, how the representation of the ideal Chinese women diverges from that expected. Manifold and close-to-life images of Chinese women, in particular of working and of urban women, were illustrated as the CLP aimed to demonstrate the positive transition of women’s status following the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Paradoxically, some female figures in the anthologies still have a subordinating mentality in spite of their economic independence, reflecting the CLP’s ignorance within a male-centric ideology to the importance of women’s psychological freedom. This paper sheds light on literary Chinese to English translations and discusses ongoing concerns particular to the representations of females and the promotion of Chinese culture overseas.

Keywords: Chinese Literature Press; anthologized English translation; text selection; women writers; images of Chinese women