A Study of Translation Strategy of Folklore in Biancheng

Abstract

The folklore, featuring its national temperament, specialization, localization, etc., is a vehicle carrying rich connotations of a national culture which does not exist in foreign cultures. The translation of folklore culture is apparently of great importance to the translation of lliterary works imbued with various folklore customs, because, in a certain degree, it determines whether a translated text could have a successful landing in the target culture. Two English versions of Biancheng, the masterpiece of a famous Chinese novelist Shen Congwen, are chosen to analyze the translation strategies used by their translators when they deal with the translation of folklore on material, on customs and on spoken language. In doing so, this paper intends to explore effective ways of translating folklore so as to facilitate future cross-cultural communication and shed light on the translation of Chinese local literature into the outside world.