Translating and Imaging China: Anthologies of Modern Chinese Drama in English Translation

Abstract

This article is an investigation of English-language anthologies of modern Chinese drama that emerged during the later twentieth century. Since 1970, approximately ten such anthologies have been published in the anglophone world. These anthologies played a critical role in constructing modern Chinese drama as a literary genre and in projecting the image of China as a successful socialist nation. By analysing these ten anthologies in terms of the criteria that influenced the selection of plays, this article aims to shed light on how such translation anthologies contributed to the (re)construction of the image of modern Chinese drama in the English-speaking world. This process of play selection is shaped by two primary factors: the first is the predominant national ideology in the source culture, which affects the thematics of the translation anthologies; the second is the individual aesthetics of the anthologists, which significantly influence their selection of specific plays. The article concludes with a consideration of the varied canon of modern Chinese drama across different moments in the later twentieth century as it has been established by anthologies in English-speaking countries.