Tanslation Variation and Dissemination of Chinese Folk Culture in Lin Yutang’s English Version of Six Chapters of a Floating Life

Abstract

Lin Yutang (1895-1976) is a great Chinese writer, translator and philosopher of New Taoism. He had studied and worked in foreign countries such as the United States, France and Germany, and got a doctorial degree in linguistics with his deep cross-understanding of Chinese and Western languages and cultures. His English version of the Chinese classic Six Chapters of a Floating Life which was written by Shen Fu in Qing Dynasty has got the highest number of reprints so far, indicating the charm and value of his translation and dissemination. Based on translation variation and dissemination proposed by Chinese scholar Huang Zhonglian, this paper makes a thorough case analysis of Chinese folk culture in Lin’s English version from lexical, syntactic and cultural ritual levels. At lexical level, many words are unique to China, and it is difficult to find complete equivalents in English, so amplification, deletion and adaptation are mainly adopted. At syntactic level, Chinese and English have significant differences in sentence structure and information arrangement, especially in Old Chinese, so amplification and edition are mainly employed. At cultural ritual level, many festivals and customs have unique and profound ritual activities. Amplification and adaptation are mainly used to reduce comprehension barriers and burdens. It’s hoped that this study can provide a new perspective for English translation and dissemination of Chinese culture of the similar text both in translation theory and practice.