Han Suyin’s translation philosophies in the context of Mainland China since the 1950s

Abstract

As a significant member of the Chinese translation community, Han Suyin's views on translation evolved through the years in tandem with the changes in Mainland China. Covering the historical and cultural contexts of Mainland China between the 1950s and the early 21st century, this article examines the development of her translation philosophies through three distinct phases. The first (1950s-1970s) sees her translation philosophy influenced by Chinese national politics and the Cold War; the second (1980s-1990s) reflects her beliefs in translation as an art as well as a creative process; the third phase (1990s-2000s) is characterized by Han's influential nurturing of other translators, and her patronage of translation scholarship as a means of spreading Chinese literary culture. Her views and works not only contributed to the development of the field of translation studies but were dynamic and progressive. Most of her views are still of practical relevance today.

Editorial: Translation and interpreting as communication: necessity and significance of studies about translated and interpreted communication

“…As part of this trend of more interdisciplinary and outwardlooking research, scholars have examined the role of translators and interpreters in communicating information bilingually and multilingually, disseminating knowledge, (re)constructing discourses and narratives, and indexing sociopolitical identities and enacting realities in various historical (Lung, 2006;Guo, 2015;Wang and Xu, 2016;Wolf, 2016;Cui, 2021;Rodríguez-Espinosa, 2022), institutional (Schäffner, 2012;Wang, 2012;Beaton-Thome, 2013;Li, 2018;Wang and Feng, 2018;Fu and Chen, 2019;Gu, 2019Gu, , 2022aGu and Tipton, 2020;Gu and Wang, 2021;Li and Hu, 2021;Hu and Li, 2022), cultural (Conway, 2015); sociopolitical (Baker, 2006;Harding, 2011;Munday, 2012), diplomatic (Gao, 2021;Gao and Munday, 2022), media and journalistic (Orengo, 2005;Bielsa and Bassnett, 2009;van Doorslaer, 2009;Kang, 2014;Pan, 2014;Liu, 2017;Gu, 2018;Qin and Zhang, 2018;Filmer, 2019;Riggs, 2019;Valdeón, 2021;Zanettin, 2021;Zeng and Li, 2021;Kamyanets, 2022;Ping, 2022), public services (Wadensjö, 1...…”