1st Edition

Translating Feminism in China Gender, Sexuality and Censorship

By Zhongli Yu Copyright 2015
    212 Pages
    by Routledge

    212 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book explores translation of feminism in China through examining several Chinese translations of two typical feminist works: The Second Sex (TSS, Beauvoir 1949/1952) and The Vagina Monologues (TVM, Ensler 1998). TSS exposes the cultural construction of woman while TVM reveals the pervasiveness of sexual oppression toward women. The female body and female sexuality (including lesbian sexuality) constitute a challenge to the Chinese translators due to cultural differences and sexuality still being a sensitive topic in China. This book investigates from gender and feminist perspectives, how TSS and TVM have been translated and received in China, with special attention to how the translators meet the challenges. Since translation is the gateway to the reception of feminism, an examination of the translations should reveal the response to feminism of the translator as the first reader and gatekeeper, and how feminism is translated both ideologically and technically in China. The translators’ decisions are discussed within the social, historical, and political contexts. Translating Feminism in China discusses, among other issues:

    • Feminist Translation: Practice, Theory, and Studies
    • Translating the Female Body and Sexuality
    • Translating Lesbianism
    • Censorship, Sexuality, and Translation

    This book will be relevant to postgraduate students and researchers of translation studies. It will also interest academics interested in feminism, gender studies and Chinese literature and culture.

    Zhongli Yu is Assistant Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC).

    1.Introduction  2.Feminist Translation: Practice, Theory and Studies  3.Contextualising the Chinese Translations of The Second Sex and The Vagina Monologues  4.Translating the Female Body and Female Sexuality in The Second Sex  5.Translating the Female Body and Female Sexuality in The Vagina Monologues  6.Translating Lesbianism in The Second Sex and The Vagina Monologues  7.Censorship, Sexuality and Translation  8.Conclusion: Gender, Feminism and Translation Studies

    Biography

    Zhongli Yu is Assistant Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC).

    Altogether, Translating Feminism in China: Gender, sexuality and censorship offers a vast panorama of the position of translation, sexuality and feminism in China today, thus opening up a much-needed debate on these topics. And, more importantly perhaps, it places Chinese growing research alongside the research carried out in other places of the world, thus filling a rather large gap in translation (and sexuality) studies. Translating sexuality (women’s body, homosexuality, lesbianism) is a clearly political act, with important rhetorical and ideological implications, which always poses social, historical and ethical dilemmas to translators and readers alike.  -- José Santaemilia, Associate Professor of English Language and Linguistics, University of Valencia