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The Scarlet Letter in China
| Article
# : |
16011 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1989 |
7,713 Words |
| Author
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Xiaohuang Yin
Xiaohuang Yin is an affiliate of Harvard-Yenching Institute. A
shorter version of this article was published in American
Quarterly, 39, no.4 (Winter 1987) |
The Scarlet Letter has long been considered an American classic and its reputation and influence have spread far beyond the United States. Shortly after it came out in 1850, this great novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne was translated into German (1851), French (1853), and other major languages, and is widely read and admired around the world. China--both the "old" and the "new"--is no exception. With the first Chinese translation, published in 1934, it became a consistent favorite with both scholars interested in Western literature and the average reader who knows little about American society. The fact that within less than half a century three different translations have been published is testament to the novel's popularity among Chinese readers. Enthusiasm for this American work is also evidenced by the numerous articles that have been written on both the author and the book.
Unlike in other countries, in China The Scarlet Letter has been translated and evaluated in three different ways during the past fifty years. The prefaces of the three translations published in 1934, 1954 and 1981, and serving as critical introductions of the work to the Chinese reading public, reveal the different approaches to literary criticism that China has undergone: Western-style criticism before 1949; the Soviet Russian criticism dominant in China in the 1950s and '60s; and finally the more sophisticated and independent Chinese criticism growing up during the post-Mao era. In this sense, it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that in China no other American or Western literacy work has been subject to such tumultuous critical tests. If we examine the three different translations more closely, we realize what an arduous journey Chinese critics have borne and what tremendous progress they have made in studying this masterpiece of Hawthorne and Western literature as a whole.
Historical Background: Introducing Western Literature in China
The Scarlet Letter was first translated into Chinese by Zhang Menlin, one of the early Chinese scholars of Western literature, and was published in Shanghai in 1934 by China Press, the most reputable publishing house in China before the revolution. It is curious that, when compared with the many other American literary works that were translated into Chinese early on, this great novel was translated at such a relatively late date. To understand why this was so, a brief review of the historical background of translating American literature in China might be helpful.
The first work of American literature translated into
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