Abstract

Soon after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, foreign translation of Chinese culture was put on the agenda. Lu Xun’s short stories were selected as representative works and translated into English by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang (hereinafter referred to as “the Yangs”) in the 1950s and 1960s under the special international and domestic environment, and they have played an important role in spreading Chinese culture to the world. Based on André Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory, especially its three elements, namely, poetics, ideology and patronage, this paper examines the translation methods adopted by the Yangs in their translation of Lu Xun’s short story “Master Gao”. Through example analysis, the article concludes that the Yangs mainly adopted literal translation under the influence of poetics, ideology and patronage in the then special social background. It is hoped that the research aims to provide a theoretical and practical reference for future translation and dissemination of Chinese literary works to the world.

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