On the Chinese Translation Strategies under Eco-translatology

-- A Case Analysis of Huang Yuanshen’s Translation of Randolph Stow’s To the Islands

Abstract

Building on the theoretical approach of Eco-translatology, the paper analyses the translation strategies used by Huang Yuanshen in his Chinese translation of 《归宿》 (To the Islands) through linguistic, cultural, and communicative dimensions. It can be found that, linguistically, Huang uses a multi-dimensional strategy that involves syntactic domestication together with imagistic foreignization via Chinese paratactic constructions for the poetic features of the source text. Culturally, Huang applies a combination strategy of “domestication in the title and foreignization in the main text” in dealing with the Indigenous Australian cultural references and Christian discourses, while Taoism views about nature are indirectly incorporated into the Chinese translation. Communicatively, ritual-like sentences with repetitive rhythms are utilized for bridging the writer’s intention with the audience. The study demonstrates that Huang achieves dynamic adaptation between the source-language and target-language ecologies, enabling the original work to successfully “survive” and “grow” within the Chinese literary ecosystem.