An exploration on the Cultural Loss in the Translation of Camel Xiangzi from the Post-colonial Perspective

Abstract

Chinese literature Camel Xiangzi, written by Lao She, has exerted a vast influence among overseas readers. Through the study, we found that despite Evan Kin’s excessive domestication and rewriting in his translation, his version still achieved great success in the United States at that time, which violated the literary and cultural value of the original work and constituted cultural hegemony to some extent. It is a pity that a classic work has become a tool for pleasing natives and that the cultural elements in it have been lost to varying degrees, partly to the point of exhaustion. Based on cultural dimensions such as language, religion, and society, as well as the characterization of the protagonist Xiangzi, this paper explores the phenomenon of cultural loss in Kin’s translation in terms of post-colonial theory. Moreover, we also recommend that translators attach great importance to having a responsible translation ethic, protecting cultural diversity, and advocating to restore the regional, linguistic, and cultural traits of the source language as originally as possible.