Exploring cultural transmission and

­translation strategies in the perspective

of functionalist approaches
A case study of the two English versions
of Hongloumeng

Wang Yuefang
Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China

1. Introduction

Hongloumeng, one of the four great classical novels of Chinese Literature written
in the mid-eighteenth century during the Qing Dynasty, is considered as the ency-
clopedia of feudal Chinese culture. Since the first publication of this novel, a num-
ber of admirable translators or scholars both in China and overseas have attempt-
ed to translate it into other languages. The two completely translated versions are
The Story of the Stone by David Hawkes and John Minford, and The Dream of Red
Mansions by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. The difficulties of the translation work
lie primarily in the culture-specific items in the novel, including Chinese allusions,
rituals and customs, dressing, architecture, food, medicine, naming system, reli-
gion, poems, plays, games, geographic elements, and so on. Translating cultural
items can be a demanding and challenging task due to the fact that such items
have specific meanings in the source culture and language but not necessarily in
other cultures and languages. During the process of cultural de-coding, re-­coding
and en-coding translators are not only dealing with words written in a certain
time, space and socio-political situation, but they should also take into account
the “cultural” aspect of the text by employing different translation strategies. Since
Functionalist approaches allow the possibility of the same source text (ST) being
translated in different ways according to the purposes of the target text (TT) and
the commissions given to the translation, it is a major concern in this study how
translators handle the cultural factors in the translation of Hongloumeng and how
translation purposes and translation brief influence the translators’ choice of strat-
egies and approaches to turn the Chinese cultural items into English.
Research questions: The extent to which translation purposes and translation
brief influence the translators’ choice of strategies is the foremost concern of the
Babel 58 : 4 (2012), 471–487. © Fédération des Traducteurs (fit) Revue Babel
doi 10.1075/babel.58.4.07wan issn 0521–9744 e-issn 1569–9668
472 Wang Yuefang

researcher. Based on the comparison of the two versions translated by the Yangs
and by David Hawkes and the frequency of strategies adopted by the two trans-
lators, the following questions are formulated: (1)To what extent do translation
skopos and brief influence the translators’ choice of strategies in rendering the
culture-specific items of Hongloumeng? (2) What are the dominant translation
strategies employed by the Yangs and David Hawkes in translating the culture-
specific items of Hongloumeng? The corpus for the research is taken from the first
eighty chapters of Hongloumeng. 190 samples covering five cultural categories are
collected randomly from the first 80 chapters and the frequency of the translation
strategies adopted by Yang and Hawkes are calculated and compared to answer the
above questions.

2. Theoretical framework

2.1. Functionalist approaches to translation

“Functionalist approach” is a term which covers a number of theoretical reflec-
tions that were developed in Germany and Finland during the 1970s and 1980s
with Katharina Reiss, Hans Vermeer, Justa Holz-Mänttäri, and Christiane Nord as
its main representatives. They hold the view that texts are translated and received
with a specific purpose or function in mind and thus the most important point for
any translation is the purpose of the target text rather than the linguistic surface
structure of the source text. This view of translation marks a move away from the
static linguistic typologies and provides new perspectives for translation s­ tudies.
Functionalist approaches were initiated by Vermeer in the 1970s who believed
that translation is not merely a process of linguistic transfer but also a type of
purposeful human action. This theory, known as skopos theory, was further de-
veloped and combined with Reiss’s specific translation theory (Reiss & Vermeer
1984). The basic assumptions held by them are that translation is a specific kind
of communicative action and must be oriented by certain purpose. Therefore, in
translation practice, the most important criterion for the choice of strategies is not
determined by the structure of ST itself or the translator himself/herself, but ra-
ther by the intended purpose of the translation. Based on this theory, Justa Holz-
Mänttäri (1984) went a step further and presented the translatorial action model
which views translation not only as a purpose-driven, communicative action but
also an intercultural human interaction. According to Holz-Mänttäri, in translato-
rial action, a text is required by a client to be professionally produced for a specific
purpose in a specific situation. Therefore, all specifications for the text production
have to be negotiated between client and text producer, i.e., the translator. These
 Cultural transmission and ­translation strategies473

negotiations include deadlines, fees and so on. The translator is an expert for the
production of transcultural message.
Christiane Nord (2001) develops and pushes forward functionalist approach-
es to translation by putting forward function plus loyalty principle and transla-
tion-oriented text analysis. Her loyalty principle commits the translator bilater-
ally to the source and the target sides. According to Nord, “loyalty” here refers to
the responsibility the translator has toward the source text producer, the target re-
ceiver and other agents involved in a translational interaction, i.e., loyalty to the
author and loyalty to the reader. Nord’s translation-oriented text analysis model is
based on a functional concept in which three aspects of functionalist approaches
are highlighted, namely, the importance of the translation brief, the role of ST ana­
lysis and the functional hierarchy of translational problems. Nord observes that
“every translation task should be accompanied by a brief that defines the condi-
tions under which the target text should carry out its particular function” (Nord
2001: 59). The translation brief enables the translator to prioritize what informa-
tion to include in the target text. Nord explains that ST analysis plays the following
roles: it guides the translation process and provides the basis for decisions about
(a) the feasibility of the translation assignment, (b) which source-text unit are rele-
vant to a functional translation and (c) which translation strategy will lead to a
target text meeting the requirements of the translation brief (Nord 2001: 62). As
to the functional hierarchy of translational problems, Nord argues that translation
problems should be dealt with in a top-down way. A functional process should
start on the pragmatic level by deciding on the intended function of the trans-
lation. After analysis of the translation brief, those functional elements that will
need to be adapted to the target text addressees’ situation have to be determined.
The translation type decides the translation style (source-culture or target-culture
oriented (Nord 2001: 68).
Functionalist approaches to translation have far-reaching significance to
translation criticism, and provide a new perspective to analyze different versions
of the same source text.

2.2. Culture-specific items

Culture-specific items refer to those which have no equivalents or different posi­
tions in target reader’s cultural system, and thus cause difficulties in translating
their meanings and functions in the source text into target text. According to
Mona Baker (2000: 21), the source-language word may express a concept which is
totally unknown in the target culture. The concept in the source-language may be
either general or specific; it may be related to a religious belief, a social custom, or
a type of food. Hatim and Mason (1990: 223–4) hold the view that in recent years
474 Wang Yuefang

the translator has increasingly come to be seen not as a mere linguistic broker but
as a cultural mediator and that in any form of translation, translators tend to em-
ploy a general strategy that will favor either an SL-oriented approach, or a TL-ori-
ented approach.
There are many ways for different scholars to categorize culture. Newmark
(1988) sums up five areas that cultural items may come from: (1) ecology (flora,
fauna, winds, etc), (2) material culture (artifacts, food clothes, houses and towns,
transport), (3) social culture (work and leisure), (4) organizations, customs, ide-
as (political, social, legal, religion or artistic), and (5) gestures and habits. Eugene
Nida (1964: 91) lists the cultural categories under which problem of translation
may occur: (1) ecology which includes seasons, deserts, mountains, rivers, etc.;
(2) material culture which consists of tools and objects, etc.; (3) social culture that
covers social organizations, social control, social practices and social implications
of actions; (4) religious culture that includes titles and names of deities and the re-
ligious routine and beliefs; (5) linguistic culture which refers to the specific char-
acteristics of the respective language and may be best treated under phonological,
morphological, syntactical and lexical factors.
In order to analyze the extracted data from the two English versions of Hong­
loumeng, the researcher has adopted the cultural categories classified by Nida.
Therefore, the cultural analysis is conducted in the following five subcultures: ecol-
ogy, material, social, religious and linguistic cultures.

2.3. Cultural strategies of domestication and foreignization

The two terms “domesticating translation” and “foreignizing translation” are
coined by Lawrence Venuti who believes that the domesticating method is “an
ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to target language cultural values, bring-
ing the author back home” (Venuti 1995: 20). It refers to the translation strategy in
which a transparent and fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strange-
ness of the foreign text to facilitate the understanding of target language readers.
Domestication is the target-culture-oriented translation while Foreignization is a
source-culture-oriented translation which strives to preserve the foreign flavor as
much as possible in order to transfer the source language and culture into the tar-
get one. Foreignizing translation designates the type of translation in which a TT
“deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness
of the original” (Shuttleworth, M. and M. Cowie 1997). It is obvious that domesti-
cation and foreignization strategies take into account the influence of cultural and
ideological factors on translation and take into account the influence of transla-
tions on the target readers and cultures as well.
 Cultural transmission and ­translation strategies475

3. The extent to which translation skopos and brief influence

the translators’ choice of strategies

In functionalist approaches, German translation scholars like Reiss and Vermeer

elevated the purpose or intended function of the target text to the top-ranking
principle governing the process of translation. Vermeer argues that the end justi-
fies the means and thus the translation. In the skopos theory formulated by Reiss
& Vermeer (1984), translation is defined as a process of cultural transfer according
to a set of hierarchical principles. The purpose of translation is largely constrained
by the target-culture recipients. The theory holds that the target text must above all
conform to the standard of intratextual coherence, i.e. it must be understood with-
in its communicative situation and culture. Only in the second comes intertextual
coherence, i.e. some relation of fidelity or loyalty (Nord 1991a) to the source text.
In this functionalist conception the criteria by which professional translation is to
be judged is not the degree of equivalence with the original but rather the extent to
which the target text functions as intended within its socio-cultural context.
Holz-Mänttäri (1984) in his comprehensive theory of translation and inter-
preting as a professional course of action insists that actual social context plays an
important role in determining the translation skopos. Generally speaking, profes-
sional translation is done “on assignment”. There is a specific assign or translation
belief for each translation. Some individual or institution needs a text in order to
communicate across barriers of language and culture and commissions an expert
to do the job. The skopos stems from the assignment, from the circumstances, re-
quirements and ulterior motives of the client. The details of the case such as audi-
ence, medium, time, place, occasion, etc must be made explicit, either by the client
him/herself or, more typically, by the translator who negotiates for specific infor-
mation about the target text (Nord1991b).
Within the framework of the functionalist theories, the commissioner or the
initiator should offer the translator much detailed information concerning the ac-
tion such as the intended functions and the addressees of the target text at the be-
ginning of translation. Such information is known as purpose or skopos which
determines the choice of strategies adopted by the translator. If a translation is
intended to broaden the target addressees’ horizons and to transmit the source
culture, the translator may choose foreignization. In this way, the source culture
can be transferred into the target culture as much as possible and further enrich
the target culture as well as language. If the intention of translation is to provide a
smoother text or readability, domesticating method should be employed to enable
the readers to overcome the culture barriers and the strangeness of the source cul-
ture in order to achieve a successful communication.
476 Wang Yuefang

In the case of the two versions of Hongloumeng by the Yangs and by David
Hawkes, the two translators have different commissioner, different intended TT
receiver and different social and cultural background which greatly influence their
choice of translation strategies.

3.1. Different commissioner or initiator

As mentioned above, the commissioner or initiator makes a great difference in de-
termining translation skopos and brief and thus the strategies employed by the
translator. As we know, Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Yang were initiated and
entrusted by Beijing Foreign Language Press which had a systematic plan to trans-
late as many Chinese literary works into English as possible, aiming to promote
the influence of Chinese culture. According to Yang, both he and his wife were
just humble translators hired to work. It was the editors who decided what kind
of works that deserve translation and the chosen works must meet the political
demand and the prevailing taste. Therefore, it is not difficult to find that their
translation brief is largely constrained by the publishing house whose nature de-
termines that the translator must reproduce Chinese culture and cannot make
much amendment to the original. In contrast, David Hawkes enjoy much liberty
in translating Hongloumeng. He decided to translate it out of his ardent love and
great admiration for the masterpiece. In order to complete the huge task, he gave
up his position as a lecture professor in Oxford University and then started his
project by signing a contract with Penguin Books in 1970s. In this case Hawkes
and the publishing house of course pay great attention to readers’ acceptability
and the sales of the book. Therefore we can say that Hawkes and the publishing
house are both initiators of the translatorial action and play a vital role in the for-
mation of translation brief.

3.2. Different TT receiver

In the framework of Vermeer’s theory, one of the most important factors deter-
mining the purpose of a translation is the addressees because they are the intended
receivers or audience of the TT. Translators must consider carefully for whom they
are producing the target text, i.e., their addressees’ profile. They must take into ac-
count their culture-specific world-knowledge, their expectations and their com-
municative needs. Therefore, the intended TT receiver is of utmost importance
in determining the choice of the most appropriate strategy for translators. Every
translation is aimed at an intended audience. According to Zhu Yuliang (1994),
there are only two types of readers who appreciate translated works: one type is
those who may not have access to the ST, demanding the translated language be
 Cultural transmission and ­translation strategies477

fluent and clear as if they are exposed to an original, thus paying little attention to
how faithful the TT is; the other type is those who have access to the ST and can
understand the original and who inevitably show much care for the faithfulness
of the TT to the ST.
In translating Hongloumeng, the Yangs and David Hawkes obviously have dif-
ferent TT receiver in their respective mind. In the preface to the second volume of
The Story of the Stone Hawkes (1978) reveals his concern about potential readers
when he explains the reasons why sometimes he deviated from or made emenda-
tions to the ST, “If making emendations of this kind is felt to be outside the prop-
er scope of a mere translator, I can only plead my concern to the western readers,
who is surely sufficiently burdened already with the task of trying to remember the
novel’s hundreds of impossible-sounding names without being subjected to these
vagaries of an unfinished and imperfectly edited text.” From this it can be seen that
Hawkes intended readers are common educated westerners who probably have
no profound knowledge about Chinese culture but want to enjoy themselves in
the process of reading Chinese classics. Therefore, the desire to arouse the inter-
ests of these potential readers and to facilitate their understanding greatly influ-
ences Hawkes’ choice of translation strategies. By contrast, Yang Xianyi once said,
“we are not just translating for Americans or Australians, but for all those people
in Asia and Africa who read English.” These words indicate that besides the Eng-
lish-speaking foreigners who have a little knowledge of Chinese culture and still
need to learn more, the Yangs’ intended addressees also include those researchers
of Hongloumeng and those Chinese who want to learn English, both types having
access to the original text. In this case, the ST-oriented tendency is obviously pre-
ferred.

3.3. Different social and cultural background

According to the German Functionalism, besides addressee, information such
as time, place, occasion etc. also determine the translation purpose. As we know,
Yang Xianyi undertook the translation of Hongloumeng in an unusual period of
time in China, the Cultural Revolution, during which all published books and
articles must undergo a strict examination and be assessed by “Left” standards.
This allowed him little chance to deviate from the original as it is regarded a pol-
itical novel. In addition, before the 1970s translation in China had scarcely been
influenced by new translation theories from the west. As a native born Chinese,
Yang Xianyi were mostly influenced by Yan Fu’s translation principle (fidelity, flu-
ency and elegance), with fidelity regarded as the central criterium. Therefore the
strategy he chooses is mostly ST-oriented. On the other hand, in the 1970s when
Hawkes undertook the project of translating Hongloumeng, due to great e­ conomic
478 Wang Yuefang

gap and cold war policy, westerners generally knew little about Chinese culture.
Moreover, in the western world, English culture is held superior to other cultures
and English is regarded as a dominant language. When translating literary works
of other cultures into English western scholars tended to deviate from the source
text and drew close to the target culture. As a British translator, Hawkes is una-
voidably influenced by western culture and translation theories and thus his pre-
ferred strategies are to a large extent target-culture oriented.
From the above analysis, it is not difficult to see that the Yangs and Hawkes
are different from each other in commissioner, TT receiver and social and cultural
background which to a large extent influence their choice of translation strategies.
The Yangs’ version is more source-culture oriented and Hawkes’ version is more
target-culture oriented. A close examination at the translation strategies employed
to render the culture-specific items in Hongloumeng by the Yangs and Hawkes will
verify this in the following section.

4. Qualitative analysis of translation strategies of culture-specific items in

Hongloumeng

Eugene Nida (1964: 91) has classified culture into five subcategories, namely, ecol-
ogy, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture. The
analysis of translation strategies of culture-specific items in Hongloumeng will be
conducted in these five aspects.
Ecological culture: Translation problems may occur because of different eco-
logical features and their denotative meanings. To cope with these problems the
Yangs (shortened for Y) and Hawkes (shortened for H) employ different strategies
and methods to achieve their respective skopos in the following examples.
(1) 一声杜宇春归尽 (in the 67th chapter) (Yi sheng du yu chun gui jin. The
cry of cuckoo means the end of spring.)
Y: A cuckoo-call and spring is left behind.
H: A nightingale is singing a dirge for the death of spring.
The animals have different connotations or associations in different cultures. In
Chinese, 杜宇 or 杜鹃 (‘cuckoo’) has long been a favorite image for writers and
poets because its crying symbolizes heart-breaking sorrow. However, it is not the
case in English. In order to transmit the artistic conception of the imagery, Yang
tries his best to preserve the original form by rendering 杜宇 as ‘cuckoo’ faithfully
while Hawkes renders it as ‘nightingale’ — a bird familiar to westerners that sing
beautifully day and night. Besides, by adding ‘singing a dirge’, Hawkes achieves
 Cultural transmission and ­translation strategies479

functional equivalence to the original and at the same time makes his translation
more accessible to target readers.
(2) 莫向东风怨离别。(in the 20th chapter）(Mo xiang dong feng yuan li bie.
Don’t blame the east wind for the separation.)
Y: Blame not the east wind for this separation.
H: And on the wind I drift off broken-hearted.
(3) 对立东风里，主人应解怜。(in the 18th chapter）(Dui li dong feng li,
zhu ren ying jie ling. The flowers stand in the east wind and the Mistress
should know how to take care of them. )
Y: Facing each other in the soft wind,
They surely bring their mistress peace of mind!
H: Their Mistress, stand in the soft summer breeze,
Finds quiet content in everything she sees.
(4) 帐望西风抱闷思，蓼红苇白断肠时。(in the 38th chapter) (Zhang wang xi
feng bao meng si，liao hong wei bai duan chang shi. Gazing around in the
west wind at the red smartweed and white reeds, I’m sick and sad.)
Y: I gaze around in the west wind, sick at heart;
A sad season this of red smartweed and white reeds;
H: The autumn wind that through the knotgrass blows
Blurs the sad gazer’s eye with unshed tears;
From the above examples, it can be seen that the Yangs put 东风 (east wind) and
西风 (west wind) literally into “the east wind” and “the west wind”, while Hawkes
into “the soft summer breeze” and “the autumn wind”, trying to avoid the words
“east” and “west” by using the strategy of interpretation . This difference in trans-
lation strategies can be attributed to the different connotations of “east wind” and
“west wind” in Chinese and English cultures. China is situated in East Asia, fac-
ing the Pacific Ocean that brings warm, humid wind in spring. Thus, “east wind”
in Chinese has such connotative meanings as warmth, comfort and symbolizes
spring, hope or aspiration, while “west wind” is related to cold and desolate winter.
However, there is a sharp contrast in England. The piercing east wind from north-
ern continental Europe brings coldness while the west wind is warm and is usually
seen as the messenger of vigorous spring. With these differences in mind, Hawkes
employs domestication strategy to avoid confusing the English readers.
Material culture: Chinese and English material cultures vary considerably,
which gives rise to difficulties in translation. In the following examples, the strat-
egies adopted by the Yangs and Hawkes are analyzed to see whether their versions
are adequate according to their translation skoposi.
480 Wang Yuefang

(5) 巧媳妇做不出没米的粥来。(in the 24th chapter）(Qiao xi fu zuo bu chu

mei mi de zhou lai. The cleverest wife cannot make a meal without rice.)
Y: Even the cleverest housewife can’t cook a meal without rice.
H: Even the cleverest housewife can’t make bread without flour.
(6) 田舍之家,虽齑盐布帛,终能聚天伦之乐‌。(in the 18th chapter）(Tian she
zhi jia, sui ji yan bu bo, zhong neng ju tian lun zhi le. The family who lives
a simple life enjoys the family life together.)
Y: Simple farmers who live on pickles and dress in homespun at least
know the joys of family life together.
H: . . . denied the tenderness which even the poorest peasant who sea-
sons his bread with salt and pickles and dresses in hempen homespun
is free to enjoy!
These two examples indicate that the two translators adopt different strategies in
rendering the culture-specific words. China is the land where the cultivation of
rice flourishes, so 米 (‘rice’) is typical of Chinese culture. On the other hand, the
main food crop cultivated in England is wheat and bread is the main food for
English people. Given this cultural difference, the Yangs translate literally, retain-
ing the completeness of source culture specificity. This foreignization method pro-
vides TT readers access to the original at a distance, enabling them to appreciate
the exotic flavor. In contrast, in Hawkes version, 米 (‘rice’) and 粥 (‘porridge’) are
substituted by “flour” and “bread”. The linguistic faithfulness has been sacrificed
here to make his rendering more acceptable to the English readers.
(7) 独倚画栏如有意, 清砧怨笛送黄昏。(in the 37th chapter）(Du yi hua lan
ru you yi, qing zhen yuan di song huang hun. I lean by painted balustrade
alone, the sound of washing clothes with a hammering block and the
fluting sending the dusk away.)
Y: Leaning by painted balustrade it seems sensate
As pounding of clothes and fluting put dusk to flight.
H: Pensive and grave, her blossoms gently away,
While a sad flute laments the dying day.
In the above example, 砧 is a hammering block used for washing clothes in Chi-
na, especially in ancient times. 清砧 here refers to the sound for beating clothes
when washed. Yang translates this culture-specific item faithfully, unfolding be-
fore the readers a vivid picture of a woman washing clothes, thus arousing TT
readers’ curiosity and helping to disseminate the source culture. On the contrary,
Hawkes omits the image of clothes washing to facilitate the readers’ understand-
ing because this scene of washing clothes is unfamiliar to the English. His version
is smooth, rhythmic and sounds like an English original. TT reader can therefore
 Cultural transmission and ­translation strategies481

enjoy the beauty of language and pleasure of reading. In this sense, both versions
are adequate for their respective skoposi.

Social culture: Social culture pertains to various forms of social organization. It

includes social class, kinship system, politics, law, custom and so on. The following
examples illustrate that English and Chinese differs greatly in social culture which
causes difficulties in translating. Examples:

(8) 鸳鸯笑道：“鲍二家的，老祖宗又扯上赵二家的。”（in the 47th chapter）

(Yuan yang xiao dao: bao er jia de, lao zhu zong you che shang zhao er jia
de. Yuanyang laughed, “ it is Bao Er’s wife, not Zhao Er’s wife, Laozhu-
zong.”)
Y: Amid general laughter Yuanyang put in, “Bao Er’s wife, not Zhao Er’s
wife, Old Ancestress..’
H: “It was Bao Er’s wife, my old love, Not Zhao Er’s,” said Faithful, laugh-
ing.

(9) 怡红院 (in the 18th chapter) (Yi hong yuan. Yi Hong Yuan)
Y: Happy Red Court
H: The House of Green Delight.

In example (8), the Yangs translate 老祖宗 literally into “Old Ancestress” while
Hawkes just puts it into “my old love”. In Chinese “red” symbolizes happiness,
youth, and fortune while in English “red” is the embodiment of violence, blood-
shed, danger, terror, indignation and crime. Because of the different associative
meanings with the color “red” in Chinese and English, Hawkes uses the English
word “green” as a substitution for the Chinese “red”, which is a manifest practice of
domestication that screens out the cultural difference. Whereas the Yangs trans-
late it literally into “red” to retain the Chinese culture.

Religious culture: Religion, as an important part of culture, exerts a great influ-

ence to language development. The main religion in China is Buddhism and Tao-
ism which are so influential to Chinese mode of thinking and everyday life. Hong­
loumeng contains a wide range of expressions branded with these religious beliefs.
However, Christianity is the dominant religion in western countries. Its holy Bible
has played an immeasurable part in the whole process of formation and develop-
ment of western civilization. These different religious cultures have their own dis-
tinctive features in the ways of thinking and language expressions.
482 Wang Yuefang

(10) 周瑞家的听了笑道：“阿弥陀佛，真巧死人的事儿!. . .” (in the 15th chap-

ter)
(Zhou rui jia de ting le xiao dao: “E mi tuo fo, zhen qiao si ren de shi er!”
Zhourui’s wife laughed after hearing this, “Ēmituofo, how coincident the
death is.)
Y: “Gracious Buddha!” Mrs. Zhou chuckled, “how terrible chancy!.’
H: “God bless my soul!” Zhou Rui’s wife exclaimed, “you would certainly
need some patience!.’
(11) “我佛立愿，原是一切众生无论鸡犬都要度他。” (in the 77th chapter)
(“Wo fo li yuan, yuan shi yi qie zhong sheng wu lun ji quan dou yao du ta.”
Our Buddha wishes to save all living creatures whether it is a chicken or
a dog.)
Y: “Our Buddha’s wish is to save all living creatures, yes, even chickens
and dogs..’
H: “And not only men, for when the Blessed Lord made his vow, it was
to work for the salvation of all sentient beings!.’
The Yangs translate 佛 (Fo) literally into “Buddha”, retaining the feature of ST and
providing a chance for English readers to know more about religious culture in
China. And with domestication, Hawkes renders 阿弥陀佛 (Ēmituofo) and 佛 (Fo)
into “God bless my soul” and “the Blessed Lord” which are so familiar to those
who believe in Christianity and thus more acceptable to English readers. Accord-
ing to statistics, there are altogether 40 阿弥陀佛 (Ēmituofo) in Hongloumeng. And
the Yangs employ foreignization in 39 cases with Hawkes only 4.

Linguistic culture: linguistic culture here refers to the specific characteristics of

the respective language and may be best treated under phonological, morpho-
logical, syntactical and lexical factors. “Translation problems can also arise from
structural differences in the vocabulary, syntax and suprasegmental features of the
two languages” (Nord 2001: 61). The following examples may illustrate this. Ex-
amples:
(12) 更有一种风月笔墨. . .（in the 1st chapter）(Geng you yi zhong feng yue bi
mo. There is another kind of writers)
Y: Even worse are those writers of the breeze-and-moonlight school. . .
H: Still worse is the “erotic novel”. . .
(13) 至若才子佳人等书，. . .（in the 2nd chapter）(Zhi ruo cai zi jia ren deng
shu. There are other books of talented scholars.)
Y: As for books of the beauty-and-talented-scholar type. . .
H: And the “boudoir romances.’
 Cultural transmission and ­translation strategies483

(14) 却是自己担风袖月，游览天下胜迹。（in the 2nd chapter）(Que shi zi ji

dan feng xiu yue, you lan tian xia sheng ji. He toured the world famous
historical site, the wind on his back and moonlight in his sleeves.)
Y: Having settled them there he set off, the wind on his back, moonlight
in his sleeves, to see the famous sights of the empire.
H: . . . set off, free as the air, on an extended tour of some of the more
celebrated places of scenic interest in our mighty empire.
(15) 痴男怨女，可怜风月债难偿。（in the 5th chapter）(Chi nan yuan nv, ke
lian feng yue zhai nan chang . It is a hard for the crazy men and maids to
pay off their debts of love affairs.)
Y: Pity silly lads and plaintive maids hard put to it to requite debts of
breeze and moonlight.
H: Groan that love’s debts should be hard to pay.
Some meanings expressed in a particular way under the ST cause linguistic lim-
itations for translation. In the above examples, the Yangs translate these four-­
character expressions like 风月笔墨 (Feng Yue Bi Mo), 才子佳人 (Cai Zi Jia Ren),
担风袖月 (Dan Feng Xiu Yue), 痴男怨女 (Chi Nan Yuan Nv) in the ST literally to
show the structural particularities of the ST and to preserve the Chinese linguis-
tic peculiarity and beauty. Hawkes removes the Chinese cultural and linguistic pe-
culiarities by adopting the strategy of interpretation or paraphrasing to ensure a
smooth reading. Indeed, Hawkes text reads very natural, just as if the original sto-
ry was written or told by a native speaker of English.

5. Frequency of the employed strategies by the two translators

So far, some of the examples of culture-bound elements have been mentioned and
translation strategies have been analyzed. From the above analysis it is not difficult
to get the impression that Yangs’ translation is basically ST-oriented while Hawkes
TT-oriented. The Yangs mainly use literal translation and Hawkes mostly adopts
substitution, interpretation and omission. These examples are just a few out of
many culture-specific items in Hongloumeng. In order to more objectively reflect
the general tendency of strategy use by the two translators, a quantitative analysis
will be conducted to offer a frequency of strategy use in the first 80 chapters.
The culture-specific items in Hongloumeng are so large in number that it is
difficult to provide a statistics for all of them. Therefore, 190 samples covering
five cultural categories are collected randomly from the first 80 chapters and are
then used for the corpus to conduct the quantitative analysis. The two orienta-
tion strategies of cultural translation included in the statistics are foreignization
484 Wang Yuefang

180
160
140
120
Yangs
100 Hawkes
80
60
40
20
0
Literal Transliteration Total Substitution Interpretation Omission Total
translation

Figure 1. Frequencies of strategies adopted by the Yangs and by Hawkes

90
80
70
60 Yangs
50 percentage

40 Hawkes’
percentage
30
20
10
0
Literal Transliteration Total Substitution Interpretation Omission Total
translation

Figure 2. Percentages of strategies adopted by the Yangs and by Hawkes

and ­domestication which are further divided into literal translation, transliter-
ation, substitution, interpretation and omission as have been mentioned in the
qualitative analysis of the translation of culture-specific items. The frequency and
percentage of each strategy is tabulated in order to compare the general tendency
of the strategies employed by the two translators.
As can be seen from Figures 1 and 2, foreignization includes literal transla-
tion (plus annotation) and transliteration (plus annotation) while domestication
involves substitution, interpretation and omission. The number of literal transla-
tion for the Yangs is 125 while it is only 25 for Hawkes. Hawkes adopts substitu-
tion and interpretation more frequently than Yang, with 93 and 50 compared to 24
and 18 for the Yangs. Altogether the Yangs use the strategy of foreignization 146
times with a percentage as high as 76.84 while they only employ domestication for
44 times with a percentage as low as 23.16. In contrast, Hawkes’ most favored strat-
egy is substitution and he uses domestication strategies mostly with a percentage
of 82.11. Therefore it is easy to find that the general tendency of the strategy use
for the Yangs in rendering the culture-specific items in Hongloumeng is foreigni-
 Cultural transmission and ­translation strategies485

zation while the dominant strategy use for Hawkes is domestication although in
some cases the Yangs also adopt domestication and Hawkes uses foreignization.

6. Conclusion

Functionalist approaches insist that translation strategies are determined by trans-

lation purposes or the intended functions of the target text rather than by the
source text or ST producer. As in the case of rendering culture-specific item in
Hongloumeng, different commissioner, different TT receiver and different social
and cultural backgrounds greatly influence the two translators’ translation pur-
poses and their choice of strategies. A qualitative analysis of the examples of the
translation of culture-specific items in Hongloumeng reveals that in order to intro-
duce Chinese cultural heritage to westerners and retain as much as possible the pe-
culiarity of traditional Chinese culture, the Yangs tend to adopt foreignizing strat-
egies to handle the culture-specific elements. They make every effort to transmit
and preserve the cultural information in the target text. By contrast, Hawkes wants
his readers to share the pleasure that the source text has given him. In order to en-
tertain the common English reader and to facilitate their reading, Hawkes, more
often than not, resort to domesticating strategies, aiming at fluency or transparen-
cy of translation to make the source text more accessible to readers. According to
the obtained statistics, it is easy to find that although there were both domesticat-
ing and foreignizing strategies adopted by the two translators, the dominant strat-
egies for the Yangs and Hawkes are foreignization and domestication respectively.

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Abstract

This paper attempts to apply the functionalist approaches to a comparative study of the two Eng-
lish versions of Hongloumeng in terms of the translation of culture-specific items. The author
tries to explore the important role the translation skopos and translation brief play in the choice
of translation strategies and offers some comments on the legitimacy of these strategies em-
ployed.
The analysis of the translation of culture-specific items is conducted in the following five sub-
cultures: ecology, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture.
Through both a qualitative analysis and quantitative data in which 190 samples covering five
cultural categories are collected randomly from the first 80 chapters, the research reveals that
the two translators of Hongloumeng employ different strategies in most cases, namely, the Yangs
mostly adopt foreignization in order to introduce the Chinese cultural heritage, while Hawkes
employs domestication with a purpose of reaching out to the target reader.
Keywords: functionalist approaches, culture-specific items, foreignization, domestication, Hon-
gloumeng (eighteenth century)

Résumé

Cet article cherche à appliquer les approches fonctionnalistes à une étude comparative des deux
versions anglaises de Hongloumeng pour ce qui concerne la traduction d’éléments spécifiques à
la culture. L’ auteure cherche à explorer le rôle important que le skopos et le briefing de la traduc-
tion jouent dans le choix des stratégies traductionnelles et énonce certains commentaires sur la
légitimité de ces stratégies utilisées.
L’ analyse de la traduction d’éléments spécifiques à la culture est menée dans les cinq sous-
cultures suivantes : écologie, culture matérielle, culture sociale, culture religieuse et culture lin-
guistique.
 Cultural transmission and ­translation strategies487

Grâce à une analyse qualitative et à des données quantitatives dans lesquelles 190 échantil-
lons couvrant cinq catégories culturelles sont tirés au hasard des 80 premiers chapitres, la re-
cherche révèle que les deux traducteurs de Hongloumeng emploient des stratégies différentes
dans la plupart des cas : les Yang adoptent le plus souvent une étrangéisation pour présenter
l’ héritage culturel chinois alors que Hawkes a recours à une domestication pour établir un
contact avec le lecteur cible.
Mots clés : approche fonctionnaliste, éléments spécifiques à la culture, étrangéisation ou domes-
tication, Hongloumeng, un roman classique du XVIIIe siècle

About the author

Wang Yuefang was born in Jiangsu, China in 1964. She received her M. A. degree in Applied
Linguistics from Nanjing University, China in 2003. She is currently an academic visitor in the
School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, within the Faculty of Humanities at the Univer-
sity of Manchester in the UK, and an associate professor in the School of Foreign Languages, Ji-
angsu University, Zhenjiang, China. Her research interests include second language acquisition,
translation theories and practice and cross-cultural communication.
Address: Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
E-mail: rosewyf@126.com

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