Yumiao Bao (University of Edinburgh)
Wed 09 Nov 2016, 16:30 - 18:00
Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square

If you have a question about this talk, please contact: Sebnem Susam-Saraeva (sssaraje)

The history of translation during the May Fourth period (mid 1910s-1920s) in China, as has been constructed by the majority of existing scholarship, is a ‘new’ and ‘modern’ era. It is commonly characterized by ‘changes’ or even ‘transformations’ in translation norms, practice, and discourse as compared to the late-Qing period. However, in this talk, I will present a more complex and nuanced picture of the translation scene in the May Fourth era, where there were also cultural continuities within these changes. I will focus on the case of Wu Mi, a core member of the Xueheng School that openly opposed the literary, cultural ideologies of the New Culture Movement in this historical period. In particular, I will examine both Wu’s discussions on the conceptual relationships between translation, imitation, and literary creation and his translation practice, especially his use of the traditional pingdian commentary practice when translating Western fictions. I will show how Wu Mi’s case complicates and challenges the simple dichotomies between modern and tradition, and between progressive and conservative in existing scholarship on Chinese translation history.

 

Bao Yumiao is currently a third-year PhD student in Translation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She obtained a MA in Foreign and Applied Linguistics and a BA in English Language and Literature from Tsinghua University, China. Her research interests include Chinese translation history, literary translation, and critical theory. She is also a certificated English-Chinese translator and interpreter. Her published works include a Chinese rendition of Peter Ackroyd’s Charles Dickens and a Chinese rendition (co-translation) of Ackroyd’s Shakespeare: The Biography.