A study on Ken Liu's translation with the application of rewriting theory

Abstract

The year of 2015 and 2016 saw the achievements made by The Three-Body Problem and Folding Beijing, marking the historic occasion of Chinese science fiction in the world stage and their success has brought Chinese science fiction from marginalisation to the center. Ken Liu, a Chinese American translator, is arguably the largest contributor of the Chinese science fiction's publicity in the overseas market. Whereas a previous focus on Ken Liu's successful translation fixated on translation strategies concerning linguistics, the non-textual factors have been ignored since few in-depth studies were carried out in this field. This study makes an analysis of Ken Liu's translation works in different periods on the basis of André Lefevere's rewriting theory, aiming to finding out to what extent patronage and ideology influence Ken Liu’s choices in re-writing (or not re-writing) as a translation strategy.The Three-Body Problem was not only known for its literary merit but also its background of Cultural Revolution; while Folding Beijing implies pungent conflicts among different social class. Besides two Hugo awarded books, the author selected another one, The Waste Tides, that included amounts of sensitive content concerning China and the US. The analysis is divided into two main parts, the manipulation of ideology and that of patronage on the rewritten and not rewritten parts in this three books. An in-depth analysis reveals that patronage, particularly Tor Books and Science Fiction World, comes first in supporting Ken Liu's decision to make his translation work public, resulting in his dominance over the decision to rewrite or not rewrite the original. The influence of Ken Liu's ideology, which is divided into two components in terms of politics and the world at large, can be traced back to his interviews in which his Americanism and view of history were mentioned. Such Americanism and an objective view of history have allowed him to make clarification and even addition to the original, and uphold a just attitude towards big events occurred in the world. The findings of the study show that as cultural communication speed up, the manipulation of ideology and patronage play a essential role in promoting a literary work in the international market.