女性主义翻译理论视角下的残雪作品翻译研究金梦

分类号：单位代码： 10300
密级：学号： 20191245004
硕士学位论文
论文题目：女性主义翻译理论视角下的残雪作品翻
译研究——以《五香街》为例
申请人姓名：金梦
指导教师：陈志杰
学科名称：外国语言文学
研究方向：翻译学
培养学院：文学院
提交时间： 2022.6.10
二○二二年 6 月
Classification Number： University Code： 10300
Secret Level： Student Number： 20191245004
Master’s Degree Thesis
Thesis Title： A Study on Translation of Can Xue’s

Works from the Perspective of Feminist
Translation Theory—Taking Five Spice
Street as an Example
Applicant： Jin Meng
Supervisor： Chen Zhijie
Major： Foreign Languages and Literatures
Research Direction： Translation
School Affiliated College of Liberal Arts
Submission Time： June 10, 2022
June 10, 2022

A Study on Translation of Can Xue’s Works from the
Perspective of Feminist Translation Theory—Taking Five
Spice Street as an Example
Jin Meng
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
For the degree of Master of Arts
In Foreign Languages and Literatures
Supervised by Chen Zhijie
College of Liberal Arts
Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
June 10, 2022
I
独创性声明
本人声明所呈交的论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。
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或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同工作同志对本研究所做的贡献均已在论文中作了声明
并表示谢意。
本人学位论文及涉及相关资料若有不实，愿意承担一切相关的法律责任。
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学位论文作者签名：签字日期：2022.6.10
指导教师签名：签字日期：2022.6.10
II
摘要
传统的翻译观认为，译本须忠实于源文本。源文本是第一位的，而译本处于从属地
位。然而，女性主义翻译理论则对忠实论展开了批判，并试图颠覆这种二元对立关系。
在女性主义翻译理论家看来，语言文本与父权制社会之间存在一种同构关系，因为它既
是父权制社会关系投射的结果，又反过来强化父权制社会关系。因此，女性主义翻译家
主张通过增补、劫持、加前言和脚注等翻译策略改造源文本，从而颠覆父权制文化，最
终达到颠覆父权制社会关系的目的。
女性作家残雪的长篇小说《五香街》刻画了形形色色的女性形象，以反讽的语气表
达了五香街的女性对言论自由和行动自由的追求，凸显了作者的女性主义意识。小说中
显而易见的女性主义意识必然会提醒译者，在译文中再现作者的女性主义立场，传达源
文本对父权制社会的批判。事实上，在《五香街》英译本中，译者有意识地使用女性主
义翻译策略，再造了一个女性主义的文本。因此，本文从女性主义翻译理论视角出发，
分析陈泽平和葛凯伦的《五香街》英译本，探讨其在翻译残雪的小说《五香街》时所使
用的女性主义翻译策略，以及译者如何通过这些翻译策略凸显源文本中的女性主义思想。
本论文共分为六章。第一章介绍了论文的研究背景、研究目的和意义。第二章是文
献综述，阐述了残雪及其作品、女性主义翻译理论的国内外研究现状。第三章为本文的
理论框架，其中论述了女性主义翻译理论的主要观点，分析了其所主张的译者主体性的
主要表现方式。除此，第三章还阐释了女性主义翻译理论家 Luise Von Flotow 所提倡的
三种翻译策略——增补、劫持、加前言和脚注。第四章梳理了《五香街》的作者以及两
位译者的基本信息。第五章探讨了增补和劫持这两种女性主义翻译策略在《五香街》译
本中的应用。其一，在《五香街》英译本中，译者使用增补策略构建女性主体形象：通
过增补赞美女性角色的语言来表现女性主义；二是通过增补批判男性角色的语言来侧面
烘托女性主义；其二，译者运用劫持策略批判和颠覆父权主义：采用删减的方法，减少
或去除对女性不友好的描写；改写对女性和男性的相关的描写，维护《五香街》中女性
的良好形象，贬低和批判男性；通过阐释或改写原文中的文化负载词，凸显了一种有别
于传统父权文化的女性主义文化立场。第六章归纳了本研究的主要发现和不足，以及对
未来研究的展望。
关键词: 女性主义翻译理论；译者主体性；《五香街》；增补；劫持
III
Abstract
The traditional view of translation holds that the target text must be faithful to the source
text. The source text is primary, and the target text is subordinate to the source text. Feminist
translation theory, however, criticizes this view and attempts to subvert this binary opposition.
According to feminist translation theorists, there is an isomorphic relationship between
linguistic texts and patriarchal society, because linguistic texts are the result of the projection
of patriarchal social relations, which in turn reinforce patriarchal social relations. Therefore,
feminist translators advocate transforming the source text through such translation strategies
as supplementing, hijacking, prefacing and footnoting, so as to subvert patriarchal culture and
ultimately achieve the purpose of subverting patriarchal social relations.
The novel Five Spice Street by female writer Can Xue depicts various female images,
expresses the women’s pursuit of freedom of speech and of action in an ironic tone, and
highlights the author’s feminist consciousness. The obvious sense of feminism in the novel
will inevitably remind the translators that the source text must be reproduced from a feminist
perspective to convey the author’s criticism of the patriarchal society. Therefore, the
translators Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping adopted feminist translation strategies to present
the feminist thoughts in the target text when translating Can Xue’s novel Five Spice Street.
This thesis includes six chapters. The first chapter introduces the research background,
research purpose and significance of this thesis. The second chapter is a literature review,
expounding the research status of Can Xue, her works, and feminist translation theory at
home and abroad. The third chapter explicates the theoretical framework, in which the main
viewpoints of feminist translation theory are narrated, and the main manifestations of the
translator’s subjectivity are analyzed. In addition, the third chapter explains in detail three
translation strategies advocated by Luise Von Flotow: supplementing, hijacking, and prefacing
and footnoting. The fourth chapter gives a brief introduction to Can Xue and her Five Spice
Street, and the basic information of the two English translators which explains in fact why
feminist translation strategies are adopted. The fifth chapter discusses, with the help of several
examples, the application of the two feminist translation strategies of supplementing and
hijacking in the target text of Five Spice Street. In the target text, the supplementing strategy
IV
is adopted to construct the female subjectivity of the female figures, by adding words to
compliment on the female characters and to criticize male characters. The hijacking strategy
is adopted to criticize and subvert patriarchal social relations and culture, which is mainly
manifested in three aspects. Firstly, the translators delete or eliminate the descriptions that are
unfriendly to women; secondly, the translators rewrite the relevant descriptions of women and
men so as to maintain the good image of women and to belittle men; thirdly, the translators
interpret and adapt some of the culturally loaded words in the source text to construct a
feminist culture that are completely different from tradition of patriarchal culture. The sixth
chapter summarizes the main findings and shortcomings of this thesis, and reveals the
prospect of future research.
Key words: feminist translation theory; the translator’s subjectivity; Five Spice Street;
supplementing; hijacking
V
Acknowledgements
Upon the completion of my thesis, I would first like to thank my supervisor, Professor
Chen Zhijie, who is a conscientious and meticulous teacher, and from whom I have learnt a
lot, such as the rigorous and serious quality. Professor Chen Zhijie gave me very serious
guidance on my thesis and put forward many valuable opinions, which is the key to my
successful completion of the graduation thesis and will benefit me for a lifetime.
I would also like to thank all the other teachers who have taught me classes. During my
three years of postgraduate study, these teachers have taught me a lot of knowledge and I have
learnt from them how to be a good person, which will benefit me for the rest of my life.
I would like to express my special thanks to the teachers who reviewed my thesis and
participated in the thesis defense, for taking the time out of their busy schedules to attend my
thesis defense, and for their valuable comments and suggestions of my thesis.
Thanks to my roommates and other classmates for their three years of company. In the
last days of my third year as a graduate student, their encouragement and help became the
inexhaustible motivation for me to complete the thesis.
Finally, I would like to thank my family, whose love and supports have always been my
motivation to move forward. At all times, they have given me the greatest understanding,
encouragements and supports.
In the process of study and life in the future, I will repay the teachers, family and friends
who have helped me with redoubled efforts, do my best to contribute to the society, and
hereby send my most sincere wishes to the my university!
VI
Contents
独创性声明 ............................................................................................................................... II
摘要 ....................................................................................................................................... III
Abstract ................................................................................................................................... IV
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. VI
Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Background of the Study .................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study ............................................................................. 2
Chapter 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Previous Studies of Feminist Translation Theory ............................................................. 4
2.1.1 Overseas Studies of Feminist Translation Theory...................................................... 4
2.1.2 Domestic Studies of Feminist Translation Theory ..................................................... 7
2.1.2.1 Theoretical Researches ........................................................................................ 7
2.1.2.2 Practical Researches ............................................................................................ 9
2.2 Previous Studies of Can Xue and Her Works ................................................................. 11
2.2.1 Domestic Studies of Can Xue and Her Works ......................................................... 11
2.2.1.1 Can Xue’s Writing Style and Contents of Her Novels ...................................... 11
2.2.1.2 Translation and Dissemination of Can Xue’s Novels ........................................ 12
2.2.2 Overseas Studies of Can Xue and Her Works .......................................................... 14
2.2.2.1 Translation and Introduction of Can Xue’s Literary Works............................... 14
2.2.2.2 Literary Criticism of Can Xue ........................................................................... 16
Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................... 19
3.1 Introduction to Feminist Translation Theory .................................................................. 19
3.2 Subjectivity of Translators .............................................................................................. 21
3.3 Common Strategies of Feminist Translation .................................................................. 23
3.3.1 Supplementing .......................................................................................................... 23
3.3.2 Hijacking .................................................................................................................. 24
3.3.3 Prefacing and Footnoting ......................................................................................... 25
Chapter 4 Introduction to Can Xue and Translators of Five Spice Street ........................ 27
VII
4.1 Can Xue and Her Feminism in Five Spice Street ........................................................... 27
4.2 Translators of Five Spice Street ...................................................................................... 29
Chapter 5 Embodiment of Feminist Translation Strategies in the Translation of Five
Spice Street .............................................................................................................................. 32
5.1 Supplementing ................................................................................................................ 32
5.1.1 Supplement to Appreciate Women ........................................................................... 32
5.1.2 Supplement to Criticize Men.................................................................................... 36
5.2 Hijacking......................................................................................................................... 38
5.2.1 Lessening or Deleting Bad Depictions of Women ................................................... 38
5.2.2 Rewriting Depictions of Women .............................................................................. 42
5.2.2.1 Rewriting the Affirmation of Women ................................................................ 42
5.2.2.2 Rewriting the Descriptions Unfriendly to Women ............................................ 45
5.2.3 Rewriting Depictions of Men ................................................................................... 50
5.2.4 Explaining or Rewriting Culture-loaded Words to Show Feminist Standpoints ...... 54
Chapter 6 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 59
6.1 Main Findings ................................................................................................................. 59
6.2 Limitations and Further Studies...................................................................................... 60
References ............................................................................................................................... 63
作者简介 .................................................................................................................................. 71
VIII
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study

The traditional confinement of sex has made sex almost synonymous with
immorality, and people, especially women, are often not allowed to talk about “sex”
openly. The novel Five Spice Street which talks about sex is a typical feminist work
by Can Xue, who revealed the sexual psychology of the Chinese people, and liberated
the society’s long-standing constraints on women’s physical instincts through the
women’s “outspoken” sexual remarks. The narrative of Five Spice Street reflects the
idea of anti-patriarchy, and the absurd storyline embodies the writer’s criticism on the
traditional Chinese cultural norm of male superiority and female inferiority. In Five
Spice Street，Can Xue attempts to create some images far from Chinese traditional
female individuals. Their behaviors of rebelling against traditional ethics in the novel
are undoubtedly a major refutation and subversion of traditional Chinese culture. It is
precisely because Can Xue has a clear female consciousness in her heart that she pays
special attention to the living conditions of women. In Five Spice Street, Can Xue
creates new female images so as to overthrow the patriarchal society.
Since 1999, Chen Zeping has collaborated with Karen Gernant to translate
contemporary Chinese novels into English. Together, they have published translations
of more than thirty short stories and novellas in American literary journals. In 2009,
Yale University Press published a translation of Can Xue’s novel Five Spice Street
which they co-translated. The obvious female consciousness in Five Spice Street, was
reproduced and enhanced by Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant, which makes the
feminism of the target text more obvious to a certain extent.
Traditionally, patriarchal society stifles women’s right to speak, and women lose
their independence of self-existence. If women want to break out of the social
shackles, they have to strive first for an independent identity and have their own
words voiced. Feminist translation theory reflects women’s unique aesthetic value and
pursuit of equality between men and women. It is not only an important way to
overthrow patriarchal culture and establish the equal social status of men and women,
1
NUIST thesis for the degree of MA
but also a way to discard the unequal relationship between the translator and the
original author, which in essence denies the faithfulness of the target text to the source
text. Feminist translation theory has important social significance, since it has brought
brand-new enlightenment to translation studies, which is beneficial to bringing into
play the translator’s subjectivity.
Domestically, there are researches based on the comparison of a few target texts
and source texts, and the case analysis of a few female translators and women’s voices
can be heard in different target texts. However, as to the feminist viewpoints about
Can Xue, there are few studies about the reproduction of feminism in the translated
texts. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyze the target text of Can Xue’s
works with the help of feminist translation theory, which will probably make domestic
feminist translation researches more comprehensive to a certain extent, and can also
make the study of Can Xue more comprehensive.
1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study

Can Xue has shown her feminist consciousness in such works as Dialogues in
Paradise, Old Floating Cloud: Two Novellas, Five Spice Street. However, domestic
scholars’ researches on Can Xue mostly focus on her writing style. Although some
scholars also pay attention to the feminism in Can Xue’s works, most of them
interpret her Chinese source texts and do not analyze the translation of her works and
her acceptance overseas. This thesis attempts to compare the Chinese source text with
English target text of Five Spice Street so as to explore the translation strategies
adopted by Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant to reproduce the feminist thought
embodied in Five Spice Street. It also analyzes these strategies one by one, and
explores the effect of these feminist translation strategies used by the translators on
conveying the feminist thoughts in the target text.
In terms of literary creation, Can Xue, as a popular candidate for the Nobel Prize
in Literature, has the same social and cultural background as Mo Yan does. Chinese
scholars’ researches on Mo Yan have set off a wave of enthusiasm about Chinese
literature, which also inspires the researches about Can Xue. But either because Can
2
Xue’s works are obscure and difficult to understand, or because Can Xue is not as
famous as Mo Yan in China, the domestic researches on Can Xue are much fewer, let
alone the researches on the translation of her works. This thesis about the feminist
translation of Can Xue is expected to enrich domestic researches on Can Xue. Can
Xue’s literary works are not well known and accepted in China, but are very popular
in western countries due to their translators. Their successful translation greatly
promotes the spread of Can Xue’s works in the West. On the other hand, the feminist
ideas embodied in these works helps to attract the western readers since Chinese
culture adds a sense of exotic feminism to Can Xue’s works. Therefore, the feminist
consciousness in Can Xue’s works, when appropriately reproduced, helps a lot the
English target text of Can Xue’s works to be accepted in Western countries. This
thesis focuses on the feminist translation strategies used by Chen Zeping and Karen
Gernant in their translation of Five Spice Street, and analyzes how they make the
feminism shown obviously in target text, which will be in a way to improve the
translation quality and help Chinese literature to go abroad.
3
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Previous Studies of Feminist Translation Theory

2.1.1 Overseas Studies of Feminist Translation Theory
Feminism emerged in England and France in the 16th century. Robinson Douglas
(2001) once pointed out that as early as the 16th century, women played the roles as
translators to speak for themselves and to fight for their places in the field of writing.
In the late 1960s, feminine literature began to emerge in Europe and North America,
and the issue of language gender in literary works provided a new perspective for
translation studies.
Deconstruction in the 1960s also contributed to the formation of feminist
translation theory. Deconstructionists believe that translation is a kind of rewriting.
Translators can use their own cultural deconstruction to interpret and rewrite the
source text in the translation process. After the 1970s, the feminist movement was in
full swing. Feminists attach great importance to language as a powerful weapon, and
believe that language is the representative of cultural identity and can actively
intervene in meaning, thereby enhancing women’s social and political discourse
power. With the rise of the “cultural turn” trend, many feminist scholars criticized that
women were ignored in literary works, hoping to reconstruct women’s right to speak
in literary works, in order to get rid of inherent prejudice against women.
In 1981, Canadian feminists held a large conference called “Dialogue” at York
University in Toronto. Two years later, another large conference entitled “Women and
Words” was held in Vancouver. At the two conferences, there was a strong demand for
the publication of English translations of Quebec women’s works. So Daphne Marlatt
and Kathy Mezei from Vancouver, Barbara Godard from Toronto and Gail Scott from
Montreal decided to translate and introduce feminist works in Quebec to other
English-speaking Canadians who wanted to learn about feminist works. So, in 1984, a
yearly publication called “Tessera” appeared as a special issue of an existing journal.
This special issue of Canadian feminist writings has consistently emphasized that
translation is a topic of high concern and a practical process. The publication of the
4
journal is also the beginning of more attention for Canadian feminist translation
studies. In the process of translating feminist works, translators began to notice many
subtle relations between translation and women, thus opening up a new field of
translation studies in Canada (Liu, 2005).
In 1988, Lori Chamberlain (1988) mentioned in Gender and the Metaphorics of
Translation that the traditional view of translation regards the target text as a woman
in a subordinate position, while the source text is a man who occupies a central
position in society. She also analyzes gender metaphors in translation and argues that
gender identities in translation should be reconstructed.
In 1989, Barbara Godard (1989) criticized the traditional view of translation that
the target text should be subordinate to the source text, and the translator should be
faithful to the original author’s point of view. She believes that traditional translation
is nothing but a mechanical conversion between languages, and translation should be
a rewriting behavior that reflects the translator’s creativity and subjectivity. She
believes that the translator has the same status as the original author.
In 1991, the professor of Canada Montreal Concordia University Susanne de
Lothinière-Harwood (1991) published The Body Bilingual: Translation as a Rewriting
in the Feminine, in which she mentioned the relationship between translation and
women. She believes that translation is a political act, in which language is a tool to
achieve political ends. Therefore, translators can choose to use different translation
methods to speak for women and highlight their status in the translation, such as
creating new words or using feminine words, especially when translating works by
female writers. Barratt (1992) mentioned in Women’s Writing in Middle English that
feminist translators tend to use the new term “translatress” to indicate the identity and
creativity of female translators.
In 1996, Professor Simon Sherry published Gender in Translation: Cultural
Identity and the Politics of Translation, in which Simon (1996) pointed out translation
is not a simple process of converting one language into another, but a process of
continuous interaction between different texts. She frees translation from the
traditional theory of fidelity, viewing translation as an act of rewriting in a specific
5
historical, social or cultural context, which in fact emphasizes the translator’s

subjectivity. Simon believes that by means of rewriting, the feminist concept of
translation challenges men’s control of discourse sovereignty, and reverses women’s
hidden and subordinate status. Feminist translators try to express their voices and
shape their own identities, so as to realize the symbiosis of the source text and the
target text.
In 1997, the professor of University of Ottawa, Luise Van Flotow, published
Translation and Gender: Translating in the “Ear of Feminism”. This book is of
epoch-making significance in feminist translation studies, laying a necessary
theoretical foundation for the popularization of feminist translation thought. Luise
Van Flotow (1997) advocated that translation not only belongs to literary category, but
also intertwines with politics and ideology. In the era of feminism, feminist translators
highlighted the political identity of feminists, and placed translators on an equal
footing with the original authors. She studied feminist translation theory in the context
of post-colonialism, so as to understand translation activities from the aspect of
ideology. Flotow reinterpreted the fidelity of translation. She believed that a translator
could rewrite the source text according to her own understanding. The translator
should neither deliberately be faithful to the original author nor blindly cater to the
target language readers. She explained the relationship between translation and gender,
and proposed three feminist translation strategies: supplementing, hijacking, prefacing
and footnoting.
In the 21st century, Luise Von Flotow (2006) also examined the concerns of
gender and translation in Canadian literary genres, and their contribution to the
emergence and development of feminist translation theory. Eshelman (2007)
discussed related skills in feminist translation practice, such as adding explanations to
the translation, based on her own translation experience. Devika (2008) examined the
development of feminist translation theory in a post-colonial context, such as Indian
context. Flotow (2011) further elaborated her views on feminist translation in the
book Translating Women, which made a great contribution to the development of
feminist translation theory. Later, influenced by post-structural feminism, Luise Von
6
Flotow (2012) advocated that female translators should break away from the shackles
of the word “gender” and redefine the word “female”. Paleczek (2015) explored the
feminist factors considered by translators when translating from Polish to English
during the translation of the literary works House of Day, House of Night. In 2017,
Flowtow (2017) proposed in Translating Women: Different Voices and New Horizons
that in different cultural contexts, female translators could take different approaches to
the construction of the target texts.
2.1.2 Domestic Studies of Feminist Translation Theory
Compared with the West, the researches on feminist translation theory in China
started relatively late. In the 1980s, Professor Zhu Hong from the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences was the first scholar to introduce Western feminist literature and its
theories into China, and was also the first generation of female literary critics in my
country. In 2000, Liao Qiyi (2000: 302) first talked about the guiding significance of
feminist thought to translation and theoretical research in his book Exploration of
Contemporary Western Translation Theory. Since then, articles and comments on
western feminist translation theory and practice have been published in China.
Domestic researches on feminist translation theory can be generally divided into
theoretical researches and practical researches.
2.1.2.1 Theoretical Researches
Domestic researches on feminist translation theory initially focused on
theoretical researches. From the beginning of the 21st century, many well-known
domestic scholars have expounded on the origin, causes, development process,
functions and limitations of feminist translation theory.
Liao Qiyi (2002: 106) believes that the feminist critical paradigm to study
translation can help us know more about the symbiotic relationship between the
source text and the target text, and the richness of textual meanings. In the next year,
Ge Xiaoqin (2003: 35) expounds the origin of feminist translation thought from the
perspective of cultural criticism, and discusses the epistemology, practice and
methodology of feminist translation. She points out the nature of feminist translation
and its contribution to translation studies and cultural criticism.
7
In 2004, the domestic researches on feminist translation theory increased greatly.

Many scholars published related articles. Jiang Xiaohua (2004: 12) believes that
feminism has been influenced by modern theories such as deconstructionism and
post-colonialism, and the influence has been reflected on translation theory since the
1980s. Geng Qiang (2004: 8) believes that the combination of western feminism and
translation studies has had a strong impact on traditional translation theory and
practice since the 1970s. However, the introduction of feminist translation theory in
China is obviously late. He gives a comprehensive introduction to feminist translation
studies, aiming to attract the attention of domestic translation scholars and to promote
researches on feminist translation theory in China. Liu Junping (2004: 5) discusses the
origin of feminism and its influence on translation. He analyzes and reveals the
relationship between translation and women from the aspects of translation and
translator’s identity determination. Xu Lai (2004: 18) believes that feminist
translation theory has opened up a new perspective in the study of translator’s
subjectivity. Translation is seen as an act of “rewriting” to give voice to women.
Zhang Jinghua (2004: 22) discusses the changes brought by feminism to traditional
translation theories and the limitations of feminist translation theories. He believes
that feminist translation theory provides new ideas for reflecting on the relationship
between the target text and the source text. Although feminist translation theory
corrects many shortcomings of traditional translation theories, it overemphasizes the
“manipulation” of language and the “intervention” of translators, which has caused a
lot of criticism.
Since 2004, domestic researches on feminist translation theory have increased on
a large scale. The research perspectives have also become more comprehensive. Many
scholars have begun to carry out critical researches on feminist translation theory, not
only analyzing the limitations of feminist translation theory, but also exploring
whether it can be accepted by more people in the future. In addition, many scholars
focus on the translator’s subjectivity and the influence of the translator’s identity on
translation. Liu Jinyu (2008: 104) analyzed the limitations of feminist translation
theory from the perspective of epistemology and methodology of translation studies,
8
such as the weak foundation of translation philosophy. Chen Bin (2010: 150) believes
that feminist translation theory draws people’s attention to the influence of translator’s
identity, gender, and political stance on translation, which has multiple implications
for translation research. Whether the feminist translation theory can be accepted by
more people still needs time to verify. Chen Weihong (2014: 54) believes that the role
of the translator in translation practice is one of the fundamental issues in translation
studies. The translator’s subjectivity is not only reflected in the understanding and
interpretation of the source text, but also in the selection of the source text and the
application of translation strategies. Sun Ziyao (2019: 28) analyzed the cultural
meaning and academic dilemma behind feminist translation theory. She believes that
translation studies from a multi-gender perspective have formed a subversive political
force against Western centralism, essentialism and neocolonialism.
2.1.2.2 Practical Researches
After several years of researches on the theoretical level of feminist translation
theory in China, since 2005, there have been domestic studies on practical level. As
the cultural exchanges between China and West become more frequent, domestic
researches on feminist translation practices are on the rise. In recent years, the
relevant researches of feminist translation are mainly based on case studies. So far,
these case studies are mainly divided into critical researches on a single target text and
comparative researches on different target texts of the same literary work.
Chinese scholars’ feminist translation researches on a single target text of literary
works include not only the researches on Chinese translations of foreign literature, but
also the researches on foreign language translations of Chinese literature, in which
most of the scholars focus on the influence of female consciousness or male-centrism
on the translator, and how the translator reshapes the female image in the translation
and show feminism. Cao Xiying (2006: 27) analyzes the translation of The Scarlet
Letter from a feminist perspective. She found that the translator was under the
long-term influence of patriarchal society, and many female images in the target text
were distorted intentionally or unintentionally. Jian Lili (2012) emphasized the
importance of feminist translation theory for translators to translate the Bible. Sui
9
Xiaobing and Song Xinpei (2019: 42) analyzed the English translation of the Chinese
writer Yan Geling’s literary work Little Aunt Crane and explored how translators
applied feminist translation principles and restored many unique female images to
readers.
From the perspective of feminist translation theory, the domestic comparative
researches on different target texts of the same literary work focuses on the
comparison of translation methods used in different target texts, and the differences
shown in target texts translated by male and female translators, etc. Geng Qiang (2005:
88) compared seven Chinese target texts of Jane Eyre and explored the impact of the
translator’s female consciousness on the target text. Chen Yu and Chen Lin (2005)
compared two Chinese target texts of Jane Eyre, explored the translation strategies
and methods to highlight female discourse and emphasized the importance of
women’s right to speak. Zeng Lixin (2008: 109) believes that the differences in target
texts caused by gender factors are an obvious indicator of feminist translation practice.
She found there are obvious differences between the target texts of The Color Purple
translated by male and female translators. Wang Xu (2010), by comparing the two
target texts of A Dream of Red Mansions, discussed the feminist thoughts embodied in
the two target texts, and called for more attention and research on feminist translation.
Shi Zhan (2014) compared two Chinese target texts of Virginia Woolf’s work To the
Lighthouse from a feminist perspective, and analyzed the fidelity of translation from a
feminist perspective. Xiao Junge (2019) conducted a comprehensive comparative
analysis of the two Chinese target texts of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and found that
female translators were more aware of the female consciousness in the source text due
to their own gender. Yang Jingwen (2021) compared the two Chinese target texts of
Tess of the d’Urbervilles and found that the female translators highlighted the female
language characteristics in word selection and emotional expression, making the
heroine in the target text closer to the source text.
In addition, other scholars have analyzed the influence of feminist translation
theory on translation practice from other perspectives. Chen Weihong and Zeng
Lingqin (2016: 49) believed that traditional Chinese translation teaching focuses on
10
the training of translation skills, while ignoring other factors. They thought gender
factor is of great significance to translation teaching, and feminist translation theory is
a challenge to traditional translation teaching, which can help students improve their
awareness of subjectivity, translation ability and humanistic quality.
In summary, although domestic researches on feminist translation started
relatively late compared to the West, they are also being improved step by step.
Feminist translation theory concerns about the situation of the females in literary
works from the perspective of gender, which opens up a new perspective of
translation and admits the cultural intervention. However, there are few studies on the
translation of Can Xue’s works from the perspective of feminist translation. This
thesis will study the English translation of Can Xue’s work Five Spice Street from the
perspective of feminist translation theory, so that domestic researches on feminist
translation and Can Xue will be probably more comprehensive to a certain extent.
2.2 Previous Studies of Can Xue and Her Works

2.2.1 Domestic Studies of Can Xue and Her Works
2.2.1.1 Can Xue’s Writing Style and Contents of Her Novels
Some scholars have studied Can Xue’s writing style and content. Cheng Depei
(1987) and Wang Fei (1987) took the lead in analyzing Can Xue’s writing style from
the perspective of “dream”. Some of them believe that Can Xue’s novels have opened
up a nightmarish and absurd world (Wu, 1988; Dai, 2000); some scholars have
studied concrete images and their symbolic meanings in Can Xue’s novels. After
analyzing the people or things in Can Xue’s works, they conclude that Can Xue’s
novels exposed the ugly and morbid personalities in the world, and created a strange
novel world (Yang, 2012; Zhou & Yang, 2020); some scholars have compared Can
Xue with other contemporary Chinese writers. By comparing Can Xue with Yu Hua,
Lu Xun, Yi Lei and other writers, they expose that people’s fear and mental confusion
are embodied in Can Xue’s works (Wang, 1988; Jiang, 1998); some scholars have
exposed feminist consciousness in Can Xue’s novels. They believe that Can Xue’s
novels are highly feminist, revealing the predicament of women’s existence, which
11
has far-reaching significance for the construction of women’s novels (Ji, 2001); some
scholars have analyzed the influence of local culture on Can Xue’s novel creation.
Scholars believe that Can Xue’s literary creation is deeply influenced by her cultural
tradition. The overseas dissemination of Can Xue’s works has given Huxiang culture
a lot of inspiration on how to “go out” (Xie, 2001; Chen, 2018); some scholars have
compared Can Xue with Kafka. They believe that Can Xue’s thought and writing style
were greatly influenced by Kafka, and to some extent accepted and surpassed Kafka,
and constructed his own literary system. (Hu, 2002; Luo, 2006); some scholars have
compared Borges with Can Xue. They believe that Borges’ thought had a significant
impact on Can Xue’s writing, since both of them show postmodernist characteristics,
and there are many similarities in their literary creation methods (Wan, 2002; Wang &
Zhuang, 2009); some scholars have studied Can Xue’s literary creation from the
perspective of avant-garde novels. They have thought Can Xue’s works inherited and
challenged traditional literature (Jiang, 2016; Zhang, 2020); some scholars have
interpreted Can Xue’s novels from the perspective of psychoanalysis. They believe
that Can Xue’s novels focused on the spiritual anxiety and soul redemption of modern
people (Zhao &Wang, 1999; Liu, 2009); some scholars have revealed the changes in
the content and style of Can Xue’s literary creation after the comparison between the
works created in early and late periods. They believe that Can Xue is constantly
surpassing herself in her creation (Tan, 1989; Zhao & Huang, 2007).
2.2.1.2 Translation and Dissemination of Can Xue’s Novels
Some scholars have studied the translations of Can Xue’s novels in Japan. They
believe, after the research into the translation and acceptance of novels by Can Xue
and other Chinese writers in Japan, that Can Xue was the first to enter the Japanese
readers’ vision as a Chinese realist writer (Lu, 2019); The current situation of the
translation and research of Can Xue’s novels in Japan is also exposed, which can
really contribute to China’s “going out” strategy (Huo, 2020); The relationship
between “the other” and “me” in Can Xue’s novels are analyzed, and it is pointed out
that Japanese researchers paid close attention to the theme of malice from “the others”
in Can Xue’s novels (Liu & Liu, 2016); Bi Wenjun (2015) discussed in her article
12
Japanese translator Naoko Kondo’s translation and evaluation of Can Xue’s novels;
Some Japanese comments on Can Xue focused on phenomena and problems that
many domestic commentators did not notice (Liu & Xu, 2018).
Some scholars have studied the English translation and dissemination of Can
Xue’s novels. They describe Can Xue in the eyes of the West and believe that the
wide recognition of Can Xue’s novels in the western literary circle was due to some
factors that her novels fit the western vision; they meet the desire of the West to know
the reality of Chinese society; the translators are familiar with Chinese and western
cultures and languages and the author emphasizes the need for international
communication (Liu, 2017); Some scholars have discussed the reasons why Can
Xue’s novels are not popular in China but popular abroad, starting from the fact that
Can Xue’s novel The Last Lover won the “Best Translated Book Award of 2015 in the
United States” and held that the differences of Can Xue’s literary origin and
foundation, spiritual core, aesthetic conception, plot and many other aspects lead to
the different acceptance of readers at home and abroad (Ye & Xiang, 2017); Cen
Qunxia (2018) has described Can Xue’s active involvement in the English translation
of The Last Lover as the original author, and she holds that Can Xue’s practice
achieved good results, providing an example of authors’ intervention for the
translation of contemporary Chinese literature; Wu Yun and Jiang Mengying(2015)
have thought that Can Xue’s recognition in the English literary circle depends on the
good translation of her works, and after having analyzed the different requirements,
objectives and operations involved in the process for Can Xue’s novels to enter the
English world, they conclude their translation model that can be used for reference
and promotion; some scholars have taken Can Xue’s novels as examples, analyzing
the translation, introduction and acceptance of Chinese women’s novels in the English
world from the aspects of text selection, translation process and translation
publication, so as to provide reference and inspiration for the external dissemination
of Chinese literature and culture (Wu, 2015).
To sum up, Can Xue has attracted the attention of domestic scholars to a certain
extent. Since 1987, due to the influx of Western modernist works and related theories,
13
some valuable papers evaluating Can Xue’s works began to appear in China, which
classified Can Xue’s works as avant-garde novels. After the mid-1990s, as Can Xue’s
novel creation became more mature and steady, some more mature comments
appeared, and the evaluation of Can Xue became diversified. At the beginning of the
21st century, the style of Can Xue’s novels attracted more scholars’ attention to Can
Xue, and the research on Can Xue became more diversified. All in all, domestic
researchers mainly interpret Can Xue and his works from such perspectives as the
irrational color, feminine consciousness, creative methods of Can Xue’s novels, and
the comparison of Can Xue with Western modernist masters such as Kafka and
Borges. Although these researches have already touched the feminist consciousness in
Can Xue’s works, the domestic scholars have not paid much attention to it. Few
scholars have shown their interests in the reproduction of her feminist consciousness
in the translations of Can Xue’s works. There are almost no scholars in China to
analyze the English translations of Can Xue’s works from the perspective of feminist
translation theory.
2.2.2 Overseas Studies of Can Xue and Her Works
2.2.2.1 Translation and Introduction of Can Xue’s Literary Works
The translation of Can Xue’s literary works in European and American countries
began in the late 1980s. Because of the unique creative style, Can Xue’s works have
received high attention from Western readers. The western translation and
introduction of Can Xue’s works have continued to this day and reached recently a
climax. Up to now, Can Xue’s works have been translated into English, Japanese,
French, Italian, German, Swedish, Korean and other languages. Among them, the
number of works translated into English and Japanese is the largest, and the number
of English translations is greater than that of Japanese.
As soon as Can Xue’s novel was published in 1985, it attracted keen attention
from overseas scholars. The translator Zhong Ming was the first to translate and
introduce Can Xue’s works to the United States. In 1987, the American literary
journal Form published the translations of Can Xue’s short stories Bull and House on
the Hill. So far, the translations of Can Xue’s works in the United States mainly
14
include nine English singletons, two collections of stories, eleven short stories
included in the Anthology of Works of Chinese Writers in the New Era published in
the United States, and more than forty short stories published in American literary
magazines. Some of Can Xue’s works have been selected into the literature teaching
materials of Harvard University, Columbia University, Georgetown University,
Cornell University and other top universities in the world, adapted into a drama staged
at the Metropolitan Theater in New York, and adapted into radio plays broadcast in
the United States. Can Xue is the only Chinese female novelist who owns a research
institute named after a writer -- “Can Xue Research Institute” and an academic
magazine entitled Can Xue Research in a Japanese university, and has a personal
literature website in MIT. Overseas academic institutions have held many
international academic seminars on “Can Xue Literature”. Can Xue’s novels have
been extensively reported by New York Times, Asahi Shimbun, The Times, Le Monde
and other world-class media. Can Xue’s novel has won the Best Translated Book
Award in the United States, and nominated for the Newstar International Literary
Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Award in Britain. All of these show how
popular Can Xue is in the West.
The English translations of Can Xue’s works have been widely disseminated in
Western and European countries through three main routes. The first is in the form of
an English pamphlet, published and distributed by foreign publishing houses and
translated by overseas Sinologists. These mostly influential novels are Dialogues in
Paradise and Old Floating Cloud: Two Novellas published by Northwestern
University Press in 1989 and 1991 respectively. Henry Holt published The
Embroidered Shoes in 1997, and in 2006, New Directions published Blue Light in the
Sky and Other Stories. In 2009, Yale University Press published Five spice Street.
Open Letter Books published Vertical Motion in 2011. Yale University Press
published The Last Lover in 2014. In 2016, Open Letter Publishing House published
Frontier. The second way is that some foreign literary journals and magazines
published some of Can Xue’s short stories. The third way is that some English
versions of Can Xue’s short stories are selected by overseas Sinologists to be included
15
in an anthology of contemporary Chinese works and published by overseas publishing

houses. For example, Can Xue’s works are included in The Columbia Anthology of
Modern Chinese Literature，Worlds of Modern Chinese Fiction, China’s Avantgarde
Fiction: An Anthology, The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of
Contemporary Short Stories, New World Writing and many other anthologies.
The translation, introduction and dissemination of Can Xue’s works in the West
show the following characteristics: first, there are a large number of works translated.
Can Xue’s works have been comprehensively translated and accepted in the West.
Second, it took a long time to translate the works into Western languages. Not only
are new works translated into different languages in a timely manner, but older works
are also constantly entering the sights of foreign publishers. Third, the overseas
publishing houses and literary journals that published Can Xue’s works are highly
authoritative and academic (Liu, 2017).
2.2.2.2 Literary Criticism of Can Xue
Can Xue’s works have had a great impact overseas and have been highly praised
by overseas readers and scholars. In a sense, Can Xue is the only Chinese writer in the
history of contemporary Chinese literature who has been sincerely accepted by the
European and American world almost without reservation (Dai, 2010). The exotic
literary color that Can Xue’s novels bring to American readers not only attracts the
reading interest of American readers, but also attracts the academic attention of
American researchers.
In Western literary criticism, the name Can Xue is often associated with Franz
Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges and Virginia Woolf. The New York Times described Can
Xue’s novel as reminiscent of Eliot’s fables, Kafka’s delusions and Matisse’s
nightmarish paintings (Innes, 1989). Booklist believes that Can Xue’s novels remind
Western readers of the paranoia and mystery in Kafka’s works and Woolf’s stream of
consciousness (Mesic, 1989). According to The Harvard Crimson, the magical
realism in Can Xue’s novels is unique, and her style is reminiscent of Garcia Marquez
(Cheng, 2011). According to The Baltimore Sun Times, her mysterious and quirky
fantasies are so original that they bring both Borges and MacDonald to readers’ minds
16
(Oppenheimer, 2011). Writing in a style reminiscent of Kafka, Can Xue, as John

Domini (1991: 12) pointed out in The New York Times, is adept at using imaginative
language to portray a world that was morbidly ill. It is a miracle that her carefully
crafted literary works of art have emerged from the harshest of circumstances. Alex
McElroy (2015：13) believes that although the style of Kafka can be seen in Can
Xue’s works, the fusion of Middle Eastern and Western cultures and the interweaving
of nightmare world and real life in Can Xue’s works show the grotesque, mysterious
and weird fantasy world, which is the unique feature of Can Xue.
Russian scholar Sergei Toloptsev said that when reading Can Xue’s novels, one
cannot see the real world and Can Xue’s novels achieve complete freedom (Can,
2016). The American scholar Jean Su (1989) believed that Can Xue created a
daydream with whimsical and ugly images and illogical techniques, thus creating an
irrational world. Susan Sontag, a famous American writer, regards Can Xue as the
best writer in China, and this judgment is based on the attention to the absurd world
reflected in Can Xue’s novels (Can, 2016).
Brad Marlowe, a famous writer, believes that Can Xue’s novels create an
absolutely unforeseeable and unique world with indescribable impact (Alex, 2015).
Duke (1989) believes that Can Xue has become the most anti-traditional and modern
Chinese female writer with her unique, absurd and innovative non-realistic style.
What Can Xue writes is not Chinese literature at all, but universal literature. In a
review in World Literature Today, Frances Lafleur (1993: 231) observed that Can Xue
seemed determined to discover, through all sorts of eccentric intentions, what was
worth cherishing and seeking. It is the vagaries of Can Xue’s work that attract readers
to find logic in nightmares and illogical things. The Times commented on Can Xue’s
work: Can Xue has written one of the most innovative novels in China in recent years.
Her novels cannot be put into any single category (Can, 1998). British scholar Tonkin
Boyd (2015: 16) regards Can Xue as an experimental novelist with a strong
philosophical temperament, because Can Xue’s novels can extend readers’ thinking
and lead them to fascinating places.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the world in Can Xue’s novels seems to be
17
terminally ill, providing American readers with a nightmare picture of life (Bauer,
1991:12-14). Duke (1989) points out in Modern Chinese Women Writers that Can Xue
is the most unconventional modernist Chinese female writer. Charlotte Innes (1991),
an American literary critic, once said that Can Xue was a revolution in Chinese
literature. She is one of the most interesting and creative Chinese writers to appear
before Western readers in years. Reading Can Xue’s work is like falling asleep in a
history book, dreaming of fearful, distorted descriptions of what you have just read.
Readers who come into contact with Can Xue’s works are challenged, attracted and
inspired without exception (Zhuo, 2012). English critics point out that “Can Xue is
one of the most innovative writers in China in recent years” (Can, 2009). Harold
Bloom praised Can Xue as one of the greatest writers in the world today (Zhuo,
2012).
In summary, the attention and evaluation of Can Xue by foreign scholars mostly
focus on Can Xue’s writing style. Foreign scholars believe that Can Xue’s writing
language is both mysterious and obscure, and his works show a nightmarish and
absurd world. On the whole, foreign scholars have paid less attention to the feminist
consciousness in Can Xue’s works, and have not yet analyzed the reproduction of
feminism in Can Xue’s translations.
18
Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework
3.1 Introduction to Feminist Translation Theory

In the process of gender construction, language is not only a tool of
communication, but also a way of exerting power. Throughout human history, men
have long been symbols of power and manipulators of language. Since language has
taken over real life, women have been isolated from language and the female
experience that they cannot express (Cameron, 1985: 93).
Feminists are dissatisfied with the unequal treatment of them. Simone de
Beauvoir (1956: 687) called out the classic slogan of feminism in The Second Sex:
“one is not born, but rather becomes a woman”, in order to emphasize that gender
inequality is not inherent but the result of patriarchy. Feminists try to gain the
recognition of the patriarchal society through various means. They demand equality,
try to eliminate the stereotyped image of women in society, and reflect women’s
creativity from all aspects. Language is a powerful weapon for embodying feminism
and women’s dignity. Language constitutes the basis of human activity and serves as
the basis for human relationships in cultures, social groups and social organizations
(Gee, 2000:1). Language not only reflects the world, it also affects the way we
perceive the world (Mills, 1995: 84). If women want to be liberated, they must first
rewrite the language. Sherry Simon (1996) pointed out that in the 1970s, a familiar
voice was: women must be liberated from language, and women’s liberation must
start with language.
The position of translation has many similarities with the position of women.
From the perspective of traditional translation history, under the premise of
emphasizing faithfulness to the source text, the target texts are seen as “mistresses” or
“unfaithful lovers”, and the act of translation is compared to rape (Chamberlain, 1998:
93). The feminist movement, embodied in language, has produced feminist translation,
creating a world of literature and translation that speaks for women. Feminist
translators also believed that women must improve their status through language
(Lakoff, 2004:198).
19
In the 1980s, the “cultural turn” emerged in the Western translation field, and
traditional translation thinking has been questioned, such as whether “equivalence”
should be the premise and goal of translation (Bassnett, 2002). This “cultural turn”
became the most exciting development in the field of translation in the 1980s, which
provided new methods and perspectives for translation studies (Godard, 1984: 16).
Under the influence of “cultural turn”, Feminist Translation Theory came into being,
providing new ideas for translation studies.
Feminist Translation Theory reveals the fact that social ideology affects
translation. It emphasizes the translator’s cultural identity, and proposed that
translation should incorporate many social ideology and cultural factors. The
translator should reflect his own specific cultural value orientation in the target
language text. At the same time, female translators take translation as a way to
participate in cultural activities, and highlight women’s identity in their translations.
The purpose of women’s translation works is to emphasize feminist ideas and make
the language of the target texts a medium for gender to play a social role (Spivak,
1993: 180). Feminist translators pursue equality between men and women in literature
and translation, eliminate discrimination against women in translation studies, and
advocate the subjectivity of translators. They demand to redefine the relationship
between the source text and the target text as well as the relationship between the
author and the translator, claiming that the translator and the target text enjoy the
same status as the author and the source text. Feminist Translation Theory encourages
the translator to deconstruct the source text with feminist thinking and reshape the
image of women. For example, feminist translators can modify and rewrite content
that is misogynistic in the source text. Feminist translation theory proposes the
symbiotic relationship between the source text and the target text, emphasizes the
richness and difference of meaning, and puts forward many unique views of the
standards of translation and the creativity of the translator (Wang, 2019).
Representatives of Feminist Translation Theory include Barbara Godard, Sherry
Simon, Luise von Flotow and Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood, etc. Sherry Simon
(1996) repositions the translator and the translation, and reinterprets the basic
20
problems of traditional translation theory. The translation proposed by Simon is an

active “rewriting behavior” influenced by the translator’s identity, ideology and
multiculturalism, which challenges the traditional translation principle of “fidelity”.
Feminist translation theory was not initially concerned with the use of specific
translation techniques, but rather a kind of cultural appeal and political strategy. The
ultimate purpose of translation is not to establish a translation standard, but to give
women a rich identity connotation. Translation is a conscious and purposeful cultural
activity, the purpose of which is to strengthen and maintain a certain cultural value
identified by women, and to get rid of the shackles and suppression of other types of
cultural values.
Canadian translation theorist Luise Von Flotow (1997) states “identity politics”
and “translation criticism” in translation is closely related to the translator’s personal
cultural literacy and political demands. In addition to influencing the translator’s
choice and understanding of the source text, personal cultural literacy and political
inclination also reflect the translator’s views and propositions in the target text.
Flotow believes that the feminist translation is also a reshaping of previous female
protagonists, a rewriting of those gender characteristics that have been given to
women in the past, and thus explores three strategies commonly used in feminist
translation, namely “supplementing”, “hijacking” and “prefacing and footnoting”.
3.2 Subjectivity of Translators

The core of feminist translation theory is the translator’s subjectivity. Feminist
translation theory holds that in the process of translation, as a translator with social,
cultural and gender characteristics, he or she will inevitably leave a special imprint on
the target text. The translator’s subjectivity is the subjective initiative shown by the
translator in the translation activities in order to achieve the translation purpose on the
premise of respecting the source text. Its basic characteristics are the conscious
cultural awareness, humanistic character and cultural and aesthetic creativity of the
translator (Cha, 2003).
Feminist translation theory attaches great importance to the identity of the
21
translator, respects the translator’s intervention in target texts, and endows “fidelity”
with a new connotation. For feminist translators, “fidelity” does not serve the author
of the source text, nor does it cater to the readers of the target text, but is faithful to
the translator’s own reading. In this way, the authoritative status of the author and the
source text is challenged, and the relationship between the translator and the author is
improved, so the subjectivity of the translator is highlighted. The primary goal of
feminist translation theory is different from that of the general translator subjectivity
research. Feminist translators have a clear understanding of their own subjectivity in
the translation process. They regard translation as an opportunity to exert their
subjective initiative, to speak for the female group, and to strive for social equality
(Xu, 2004).
The translator’s subjectivity is not only reflected in the translator’s understanding
and interpretation of the source text, but also in the translator’s choice of the source
text. The choice of source texts by feminist translators is crucial, which reflects their
attitudes towards these source texts. Feminist translators tend to select literary works
written by female authors, especially those that have not caused public concern since
their publication. They believe that women’s literary works cannot be ignored, and
each translator has own social, cultural and gender characteristics, which will be
reflected in the translation. At the same time, feminist translators will select works
that are consistent with their own values, so that the essence and charm of the source
text can be truly reproduced through translation.
The translator’s subjectivity advocated by feminist translation theory is also
reflected in the creation of new vocabulary and the application of translation strategies.
In the cultural environment of male-dominated society, female translators have to
adopt special translation strategies to highlight their subjectivity and their feminist
qualities. Feminist translators try to change male-dominated discourse by creating
new words in translation, in order to justify their existence. Because men have long
been at the center of social economy, politics, and culture, most masculine words in
English can be used to refer to women, but not vice versa. In the process of translation,
feminist translators try to coin new words that take into account both genders to resist
22
patriarchy, and highlight the subjectivity of women, such as creating hystory (alluding
to the history of women) to replace history (his+story); replacing father with parent,
replacing brother with brother or sister, etc. (Chen, 2014: 55)
In summary, feminist translation theory expands the research of translator’s
subjectivity. On the one hand, feminist translation theory incorporates the translator’s
subjectivity research into the scope of gender research, and reveals the role and
influence of gender in translation. On the other hand, it defies sexism in the
translation, and promotes the status of women by emphasizing the subjectivity of the
translator.
3.3 Common Strategies of Feminist Translation

3.3.1 Supplementing
Supplementing means that feminist translators take the initiative to intervene in
the target text, integrate their own understanding of the source text, and compensate
the target text readers for the lack of reference in the language caused by differences
in culture and register (Sui, 2019: 43). To a certain extent, supplementing is the
rewriting of the source text, which is the creative behavior of the translator. Although
supplementing is often used in translation, feminist strategies tend to subtly
supplement the feminist consciousness and gender meaning relayed in the source text.
On the premise of respecting the source text, the translator rationally adds his own
views and understanding in the target text, and creatively supplements discourses that
help shape a positive image of women, to reflect feminism. The translator is speaking
for women, saying what the author did not say, or what the translator wants to say. In
a certain sense, feminist translators break the traditional limitation that the target text
needs to be faithful to the source text, so that the target text can show gender equality
under the premise of fluency and naturalness.
Supplementing is seen as a compensatory feminist translation method. Feminist
translators bridge the cultural gap between the two languages by complementing the
lack of information caused by the conversion of the two languages. In other words,
translators need to be proficient in both Chinese and English, and have a sufficient
23
understanding of Eastern and Western social cultures in order to give full play to their
subjectivity. While respecting differences, translators should reflect the creativity of
the target text, and strive to show feminist characteristics for the target readers, so that
the target text becomes an independent feminist creative product.
3.3.2 Hijacking
Hijacking refers to the rewriting of a source text by a feminist translator, giving a
non-feminist text a strong sense of feminism (Xie, 2017). In the target text, feminist
translators replace the words, phrases and sentences of the source text with what
conform to the feminist proposition. On the basis of retaining the original style of the
source text, the translator’s creative rewriting of the target text has played a positive
role in the establishment of female images.
In the traditional patriarchal society, women were regarded as objects of
appreciation. The male-centered consciousness revealed in the patriarchal language
pays too much attention to the description of women’s appearance, body, gender
stereotype, etc., which reflects the prejudice against women, ignores women’s inner
character, and stifles women’s identity. Therefore, feminist translators actively exert
subjectivity, consciously hijacking the source text, and try to deconstruct the male
discourse center. On the premise of respecting the original author, the translator
revises or even deletes the words that imply female discrimination or prejudice in the
source text, in order to strive for an equal right to speak for women and maintain good
images of women. Feminist translators use this “novel and unfamiliar” way to inspire
target readers’ desire to read, urging them to explore urgently the situation of female
characters in the target text (Fang, 2015).
Hijacking is the translation method that can best reflect the subjectivity of
feminist translators. At the same time, it is also the most aggressive strategy, so it is
quite controversial. By using hijacking strategies, translators can adapt the source text
in different ways to convey his/her feminist positions. For literary works that do not
belong to feminist texts, the translator can rewrite on purpose the text to fully
demonstrate the presence of women and achieve political goals to overthrow the
unequal relationships between females and males. Some critics believe that the
24
feminist translator rewrites under different contextual constraints, making it go

beyond the meaning of the source text even if it does not deviate from the source text,
which greatly destroys the “faithfulness” of translation. Although the evaluation of the
translation strategy of hijacking has two sides, it is undeniable that hijacking has
played a great positive role in reshaping the character and image of women and
re-establishing a positive image of women.
3.3.3 Prefacing and Footnoting
Prefacing refers to the description of the translation process by feminist
translators to highlight the differences in translation by feminist translators (Xie, 2017)
and footnoting refers to “punctuating the body of the text with translator’s notes”
(Flotow, 1997: 40). The reason why prefacing and footnoting are widely used by
feminist translators is that feminist translators can explain in detail their views on the
source text, their translation methods, translation standards and language choices in
the preface of the target texts. Besides, translators can present feminist ideas to target
readers through preface and the preface may also explain the translator’s writing style.
So the preface can convey a stronger signal of translator’s subjectivity. Footnoting can
supplement the information so that the target readers can better understand the
original author’s intention. At the same time, it also reflects the translator’s
subjectivity, redefines the relationship between the target text and the source text, and
highlights the feminism. The translator uses footnotes to emphasize the translator’s
sense of existence, and uses the compensation effect of footnotes to speak for women,
deepening the appeal and affinity of female characters in the works.
Prefacing and footnoting are important ways for translators to supplement the
source text. Preface and footnotes can cover a wide range of information. Footnoting
is not frequently used in target text, but it has played a significant role in promoting
the development of the novel’s plot. In the case of lack of information, in order not to
destroy the source language rhythm and style of writing, the translator supplements
the lack of information caused by cultural differences in the translation process with
footnotes. This strategy gives translators more creative space and highlights the new
concept of equality between translators and authors in feminist translation. The
25
preface and footnotes of the target text express the translator’s voice and views on
translation to a certain extent, and also reflect the translator’s attitude towards
characters and themes of the novel. The preface and footnotes are of great help to the
target readers’ further understanding of the work, and provide useful help for us to
understand the translator’s thought of feminism.
26
Chapter 4 Introduction to Can Xue and Translators of Five Spice Street
Chapter 4 Introduction to Can Xue and Translators of Five
Spice Street
4.1 Can Xue and Her Feminism in Five Spice Street

Can Xue, formerly known as Deng Xiaohua, is a female writer born in Changsha,
Hunan province, on May 30, 1953. In 1957, her father, an editorial director of the
New Hunan Daily News, was condemned as an Ultra-Rightist and was sent to be
reformed through labor. Her mother, who worked at the same newspaper, was sent to
the countryside for labor as well. Because of the family catastrophe during the
Cultural Revolution, Can Xue had no chance for further education after her
graduation from elementary school. Largely self-taught, she loved literature so much
that she read fictions and poetry whenever she could. In her childhood, she liked
classical western literature and Russian literature, which remain to be her favorites
today, and Can Xue has read extensively English texts of literature. She lived in
Changsha until 2001, and then she and her husband moved to Beijing.
Can Xue is her pen name, which has two meanings. First, it means the dirty snow
that refuses to melt, representing the secular side of the author’s life, indicating that
the author embraces life and reality and integrates with life. Second, it refers to the
purest snow on the top of mountains, cold and independent, representing the spirit of
freedom (Sun & Zheng, 2015: 73). Can Xue is a contemporary Chinese writer, known
as the representative of avant-garde literature, and her main works include Dialogues
in Paradise (1989) and Old Floating Cloud (1991), The Embroidered Shoes (1997),
Blue Light in The Sky and Other Stories (2006), Frontier (2008), Five Spice Street
(2009), and Love in the New Millennium (2013), etc. Regarded as one of the most
experimental writers in the world by some literary scholars and readers, Can Xue
describes her works as literature of soul or literature of life.
Can Xue is the Chinese female writer whose works have been translated and
published the most in foreign countries. She has great influence in the United States,
Japan and other countries, and is known as the “Kafka of China”. Her novels are
selected and included in the literature textbooks by Harvard, Cornell and Columbia
27
universities in the United States and Chuo University and Kukakuin University in
Tokyo, Japan, and her works have been selected in the World’s best fiction anthology
in the United States and Japan. Can Xue was on the Nobel Prize odds list twice in
2019 and 2020.
Can Xue is a unique writer in the contemporary women’s literature. As a female
writer, she shows great concern for the disadvantaged women in her works. Although
she believes that there is no feminist literature in China and Chinese women’s writing
is not feminist in the strict sense (Can, 2004), her creations also highlight a very
distinct and unique feminist feature. Can Xue’s works always focus on the
presentation of Chinese women’s real-life experiences and their emotional world from
the perspective a female observer with some unique narrative methods, and absurd
language to describe their detached thoughts and behaviors, or expose various defects
of women, to break the traditional culture’s aesthetic model for women. The female
images in Can Xue’s works completely subvert the concept of a good wife and a good
mother in traditional literature, thus subtly affirming and publicizing the independent
and unique female consciousness.
Five Spice Street is considered to be the work that best presents Can Xue’s
feminist creative consciousness. In this work, the writer uses parody and irony to tell
everything about “sex”. In Five Spice Street, the traditional images of women are
completely subverted. The women in Five Spice Street are not shy about the
discussion of “sex” and they express their views on men and women unabashedly.
Five Spice Street realizes a new way of shaping the female images, and depicting a
world dominated by women. In this novel, Can Xue deeply explores the various social
issues that arise from the sexual relationship between men and women, and poses a
bold challenge to the gender concept and the ethical and moral norms in China.
In Five Spice Street, such females as Ms. X, Ms. B, the widow, the golden old
lady, or the lame lady are all very confident in themselves, and they talk about
sexuality and express their opinions without reservation. Numerous women
eloquently express their views and completely dominate the world of Five Spice
Street, while men can only act as the counterparts that are affiliated to the females.
28
Chapter 4 Introduction to Can Xue and Translators of Five Spice Street
Both Ms. X and the widow have a detached attitude towards sex, and they both
enjoy the value of their own independent existence in their own world. Ms. X doesn’t
seem to care about other people’s comments. She has been busy with her own
business. Whether she’s running the roasted seeds and nuts business for a living, or
engaging in the secret profession of “relieving people’s worries”, Ms. X is completely
undisturbed by her suitors and slanders. The various full-length mirrors and
microscopes in Ms. X’s home are the tools she uses to observe and examine her own
existence. Ms. X’s ability to publicize sex education on the street is itself a blatant
challenge to women’s ethical standards imposed by traditions shaped by the males.
She broke through the barriers set by men and fought for equal rights for women. In
contrast, the widow’s behavior seems to be maintaining traditional chastity, but in fact
it is a way to counteract sexual taboos. She seems to be the opposite of Ms. X, but in
essence, she is baptizing spiritually for people’s self-awareness and marriage and love
ethics.
Can Xue’s never praised the beauty of women’s outlooking or their tenderness,
which are stipulated by patriarchal society, and frequently appears in the females
described in Chinese literary works. The women in Five Spice Street are not “good”
and “beautiful” in the traditional sense, but inconceivably carry the power of “evil”.
The very sloppy, ugly and unsound aspects are reflected in these women. Can Xue
depicted with the help of her unique words a group of alternative women, elevating
women to the position of leading the world, and then realizing women’s self-salvation.
Can Xue conceptualizes female writing as a reaction against Chinese tradition, and
she aimed at complete individuation, so that only those who are truly modern women
and would-be modern women appreciate Can Xue (Can, 2003: 188).
4.2 Translators of Five Spice Street

Five Spice Streets was co-translated by Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant, who
have worked together for many years and have translated many of Can Xue’s literary
works with a unique translation style.
Chen Zeping, who holds a master’s degree in Chinese linguistics from Beijing
29
University, is linguistic professor of Fujian Normal University. He teaches Chinese

language and also engages in research on dialects. Classes that Professor Chen has
taught include modern Chinese, linguistics, Chinese dialectology, fieldwork and
research in Chinese dialects, historical linguistics, and Chinese as a second language.
Karen Gernant is a professor emerita of Chinese history in Southern Oregon
University. She holds a B.A. in English and history from Western Michigan
University, a master’s degree in political science from Michigan State University, a
master’s degree in Asian Studies from the University of Oregon, and a Ph.D. in
Chinese history from the University of Oregon. She studied Chinese at the University
of Oregon, Indiana University, and the Stanford Center in Taipei. Since 1987,
Professor Gernant has visited China eighteen times, and worked as a language
consultant for Fujian TV. In China, she has also translated fiction, and taught English.
Since 1999, Chen Zeping has collaborated with Karen Gernant in translating
contemporary Chinese fiction into English. Together, they have published more than
thirty translations of short stories and novellas in U.S. literary journals. In 2006, New
Directions published Blue Light in the Sky and Other Stories. In 2009, Yale University
Press published their translation of Can Xue’s novel Five Spice Street. In 2016, Open
Letter Publishing House published Frontier.
It is a complicated process to bring Chinese literature to life in the
English-speaking world, since it not only requires the translator to understand Chinese
language and to be familiar with Chinese culture, but also requires him to have a deep
understanding of English and the talent to write in English (Balcom, 2006). Chen
Zeping’s mother tongue is Chinese, and Karen Gernant’s mother tongue is English.
Both of them are familiar with Chinese culture. This kind of translation cooperation
can be described as an ideal model for English translation of Chinese literature.
Through this model of sino-foreign translation cooperation, translators can give full
play to the advantages of both languages and cultures and make the best decisions in
the specific translation process. While ensuring the quality of translation, the
translator can ensure that the translation conforms to the reading habits of western
readers and that the translated works meet the expectations of English readers.
30
Can Xue’s bizarre language makes it difficult for her readers to understand, and
her unique narrative style, which reveals a distinctive feature of her novels, has also
become the biggest challenge for her translators. The language of Can Xue’s novels
deviates from the conventional language habits. Her unembellished, casual and
natural language style drive the author to express herself in illogical and irrational
language. Therefore, it is particularly important for translators to improve the
readability of the translated texts without damaging the overall characteristics of the
source texts.
The two translators tried to improve readability of the target texts and made
appropriate additions, deletions, and modifications to the content and style to make
the target language more fluency and ensure the attractiveness of the target text to
target readers. The translators regard the target reader’s reading experience as an
important basis for the choice of translation decision, and continuously recreates in
the translation process, which directly affects the shape of the final translated content.
This reflects the translator’s subjective consciousness and initiative.
A good translation can promote the classicization of a literary work in different
languages and cultures. On the contrary, a bad translation may make an excellent
work that has been included in the classic become eclipsed or even excluded from the
classic in another language and culture (Wang, 2009: 51). When translating Five Spice
Street, the translators paid attention to understanding the thoughts and feelings of the
author, as well as the expression of feminist consciousness. Influenced by the feminist
translation theory, the translators made appropriate additions, deletions and changes to
some of the source text, in order to better convey feminist ideas to the target readers
and achieve a good communication effect. This kind of translation not only
reproduces the feminist color of the source text, but also expresses the stronger
feminist consciousness of the target text, giving the target text a new life.
31
Chapter 5 Embodiment of Feminist Translation Strategies in the
Translation of Five Spice Street

In the selection process of translation, there is a problem of the translator’s
awareness. If the level of the translator’s consciousness is low, the translation activity
is regarded as a natural behavior in human bilingual communication, which requires
no learning and training, and can be performed almost entirely by instinct, even by a
child of a few years old (Nida, 1993: 1). If the translator has a high degree of
consciousness, translation activities are the process in which the translator makes a
special choice under the guidance of a certain theory. The translator knows very well
what motivates him to choose one over another, and he understands the purpose and
meaning of a certain choice. In some ways, the translators Karen Gernant and Chen
Zeping, when translating Five Spice Street, were guided by feminist translation theory
at a high level of awareness. They conveyed the feminist theme of the novel, and at
the same time give a new life to the target text via a series of feminist translation
strategies such as supplementing and hijacking, which make the feminism prominent
in the target text.
5.1 Supplementing
5.1.1 Supplement to Appreciate Women
Supplementing is one of the translation strategies commonly used by feminist
translators. When translating Five Spice Street, Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant
showed a strong sense of feminism by adding some words to compliment women.
Moreover, when translating, the translators used authentic English expressions in
which some words of commendation naturally are added to praise women and make
the target text extremely readable while it shows a strong sense of feminism. The only
standard to measure a literary translation is the readability of the target text, and the
extent to which the target text reads as if it were written in English (Balcom, 2006:
119). The translators took into account both readability and the expression of feminist
ideas, which made the target text of Five Spice Street impressive to the Western
readers. Here are some examples.
32
Chapter 5 Embodiment of Feminist Translation Strategies in the Translation of Five Spice Street
Example 1:
ST:“说她五十岁左右的是一位孀居多年、受人宠爱的寡妇，年约四十五岁，
身材丰满，脸蛋妩媚”(Can, 2011: 4)。
TT: “The one who says she’s about fifty is a much-admired forty-five-year-old
widow, plump and pretty” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 3).
At the beginning of the novel, the residents of Five Spice Street are guessing Ms.
X’s age. The widow, who lives on Five Spice Street, also weighed in, guessing Ms X’s
age was 45. The widow was an attractive woman, described in the source text as “受
人宠爱的”, creating a passive female subject to the males. The translators did not
simply translate “受人宠爱的” into “admired”, which means the female respectable
to the male, but added the word “much” to express the popularity of the widow and
shows the degree that the female is respected, showing the great charm of the widow.
In the novel, “受人宠爱的寡妇” means that the widow is loved by the men in Five
Spice Street. In traditional Chinese culture, women should be reserved and solemn
and a widow is usually inauspicious and looked down upon by the whole society.
However, Can Xue generally described the ladies in the source text as those who
could speak boldly about men and sex, portraying widows as being favored by men.
Therefore, the translators tried to show those females are quite different from those in
Chinese traditional culture and described a female not favored but respected by her
lover, by adding the word “much” to highlight the glamour of the widow and her
power over the males, which in fact reveals Can Xue’s strong support for breaking the
constraints of traditional culture on women, and shows on the other hand the
translators’ feminist consciousness.
Example 2:
ST:“女士们都很爽直，一个个心怀坦荡”(Can, 2011: 74)。
TT: “These women were forthright like ‘feminists’” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 77).
At noon one day, a dozen graceful women came to the lame lady’s house and
held a small party in Five Spice Street. Everyone went to the lame lady’s house in
unison for some common purpose. As soon as they came, they sat down, and began to
curse. Chinese traditional culture requires women to be generous, decent, and gentle.
33
These swearing women obviously do not meet the ethical requirements of traditional
Chinese culture for women, when Can Xue described these women as “很爽直，心怀
坦荡” in which “很爽直” and “心怀坦荡” almost described the same characteristics
of these females and the two phrase are different only in the fact that one is outward
manifestation and the other is inward one. However, it seems that the translators
weakened the tone of the source text and translated “很爽直，心怀坦荡” into
“forthright” in English, but they added the phrase “like feminist” in the target text to
directly define these dozen women as feminists. The label reveals in a straight way
that these women may not meet the standard of traditional women. They dare to love
and hate, have their own ideas, and express their own ideas frankly. All these show
that women are independent subjects. In this way, the target text reproduced the
implied feminism when constructing the subjectivity of the females.
Example 3:
ST:“据说从一开始他就‘看不出她有什么缺点’”(Can, 2011: 6)。
TT: “It’s said that from the very beginning he ‘couldn’t see a single blemish in
her’” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 5).
In the source text, when the residents of Five Spice Street guessed Ms. X’s age,
they did not come to a consensus, and everyone’s statement was different. And even
Ms. X’s husband, a handsome thirty-eight-year-old man, inexplicably, according to
the words of the young man in the coal factory, regarded his wife Ms. X’s age as
twenty-two, not thirty-five years old as his friend said. The husband loves his wife,
Ms. X, so much that he sees no fault in Ms. X. When translating this sentence,
translators added an adjective “single” to modify the word “blemish” to emphasize
that Ms. X’s she is a perfect one, surpassing the males and to explain why she was
admired by her husband, an average male. The addition of the modifier in the target
text explicates the standpoint of the translators and expresses the feminist tendency of
the target text by complimenting Ms. X warmly.
Example 4:
ST:“你们一定还记得在那些年头，老人们都肯定地说过，我起码会有一打
34
孩子，他们都形容我是‘一只会下蛋的母鸡’”(Can, 2011: 74)。

TT: “You must remember that in those years, the old folks said that I would have
at least a dozen children; they all described me as ‘a mother hen good at laying eggs’”
(Gernant & Chen, 2012: 78).
This sentence from Five Spice Street was said by the widow who explained to
other ladies that she had no offspring since she and her husband didn’t care about
whether having offspring or not, and she herself is very sexually capable and fully
capable of procreation. Fertility of the females is a capability that the males do not
possess, which makes the females physically superior to the males, but at the same
time childbearing becomes the duty prescribed by the patriarchal society. She said
those before the old people praised her as a hen that lays eggs, alluding to her ability
to give birth. However, the translators did not translate “会下蛋的母鸡” into “a hen
laying eggs” or “a hen that can lie eggs”, which only admit the fertility of the females.
Instead, the translators added the phrase “good at” to indicate that Ms. X’s fertility is
very strong, which means just the same as the widow mentions that she is like a fertile
soil. From the perspective of Chinese traditional culture, if woman boasts about her
sexual ability and fertility, she is very shameless. But when the translators added the
phrase “good at” in the target text to emphasize that she has the capability but it is up
to her whether she gives birth or not. This exposes obviously the translators’ supports
for women’s ideological emancipation and freedom of speech, as well as their
reproductive rights, breaking the constraints of traditional ideas.
Example 5:
ST:“这种大公无私的精神使她们终生魅力不衰，即使到了孤寡老妪的年龄
仍然容光焕发，像少女一般无邪、天真、优雅”(Can, 2011: 263)。
TT: “This selfless spirit made them fascinating and youthful all their lives, so
even when they reached the old widow’s age, they were still glowing with health and
were as good, innocent, and graceful as young girls” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 295).
In Five Spice Street, the women are all very creative, powerful and they did their
best to help men in the old days. The females are the supporters of the males instead
35
of the dependents on the males in the society. In the source text, the words “魅力不衰”
and “容光焕发” were used to describe these women, which are put together to reveal
their mental states. In the target text, the translators did not just translate “魅力不衰”
into “fascinating”, but added the word “youthful”. Similarly, when the translators
translated “容光焕发”, they did not just translate it as “glowing”, but added the
expression “with health”. The translation in this way not only shows the charm of
women in Five Spice Street, but also shows that they are very healthy and have the
vitality of young people, which is very commendable. The translators in fact
implicitly states that women can live out themselves without being attached to men.
5.1.2 Supplement to Criticize Men
When translating Five Spice Street, the translators not only added some words to
praise women, but also added some words to belittle men in order to form a sharp
contrast and show their feminist consciousness in the target text. Here are many
examples.
Example 1:
ST:“中青年男子们被骂得茅塞顿开，乐滋滋地向女子们探听她们‘就近观
察’到的详细内幕”(Can, 2011: 5)。
TT: “Enlightened, the men inquired with great delight into the particulars of the
women’s ‘close inspection’” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 4).
One evening after dinner, the residents of Five Spice Street sat on the street to
enjoy the cool. Ms. X walked in front of the crowd wearing a white dress, causing a
commotion. This once again sparked speculation among these residents about Ms. X’s
age. Men think Ms. X is around 28 years old, while women think Ms. X is older than
45 because they observed Ms. X up close. Afterwards, these ladies scold the men for
being shameless. In order to inquire about Ms. X’s information, these men did not
care about being scolded, and asked these ladies for more information. The word “乐
滋滋” in the source text shows the wretchedness of these men in Five Spice Street and
conveyed vividly Can Xue’s disdain to the males. In the target text, the translators
added the adjective “great” to modify “delight” which highlights the vulgarity of these
men, since they take pleasure in inquiring about Ms. X’s privacy. When evaluating the
36
English translations of Can Xue’s other work, The Literary Review stated that the
target readers were pleasantly surprised to find that the characters in the story
perfectly transitioned from curiosity about things to the initial human desire (Calvert,
2011: 204). The same goes for Five Spice Street. From the target text, it can be seen
that the men in Five Spice Street first were curious about Ms. X’s age, and later
inquired about Ms. X’s privacy with desire in an ugly manner. The translator further
vilified the images of these men in the target text. By adding words in the target text
to increase the criticism against men, the translators exposed the feminist awareness
of Can Xue.
Example 2:
ST:“我看一看周围这些美男子，这些凡夫俗子，我就恶心反胃，哪里还提
得起什么兴致”(Can, 2011: 49) ?
TT: “Just looking at these handsome men all around, these ordinary people,
makes me sick to my stomach, and I throw up. How could I possibly be interested in
any of them’’ (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 52)?
The widow began to scold other men after telling the crowd about her husband’s
merits and the harmonious life she and her husband had in the past. She thought that
in contrast to dead husband, the men around her was disgusting and made her
uncomfortable. The idealized man in Five Spice Street is a dead one and those
appeared in reality are evil men, which thus embodies the writer’s feminist position.
The phrase “恶心反胃” was used in the source text to give a comment of the female
on these men. When translating, the translators not only translated “恶心反胃” into
“makes me sick to my stomach”, but also added the phrase “throw up” which in fact
is a semantical repetition and plays as an emphatic intensifier in the target text to
show obviously the widow’s disgust for the men around her. By adopting the
translation strategy of supplementing, the translators conveyed the words of the
widow and expressed their great criticism on men, showing that men are not subjects
that women can depend on, which shows feminist emotions of the translators’ as well
as Can Xue’s.
Example 3:
37
ST:“忽然有一天，寡妇与 Q 男士在一堵围墙底下相逢，Q 男士向着寡妇‘咧

开他那肉感的嘴猥亵地一笑’，用‘色眯眯的眼睛’紧盯她，其形状似要‘图谋
不轨’”(Can, 2011: 181)。
TT: ‘‘Mr. Q ‘leered at her with a dirty smile hanging from his fleshy lips’ and
stared at her urgently with ‘erotic eyes’. He was evidently scheming ‘something evil’”
(Gernant & Chen, 2012: 208).
This sentence from Five Spice Street describes the scene when the widow meets
the Q man. The Q man in the source text is very vulgar, which was vividly described
in his actions. In order to reveal the vulgarity of the male, the translators translated
“猥亵地一笑” into “leer at her”, which means to look or smile at the widow in an
unpleasant way that shows an evil or sexual interest, and faithful conveys the original
meaning. However, the translators added the word “dirty smile” which does not bring
about additional information in the target text to describe the Q man. The repetition of
meaning highlights the wretchedness and ugliness of the Q man more bluntly. This
kind of translation strongly shows the translators’ disgust and criticism on the Q man.
This also echoes the widow’s dislike of the Q man in the following paragraphs. The
widow is the moral benchmark in Five Spice Street, and men who are hated by the
widow must be morally corrupt. This also shows us that men are not worthy of
women's trust, and they are not objects that women can rely on.
5.2 Hijacking
Hijacking is the translation strategy that can best show the translators’ feminism.
In the target text of Five Spice Street, translators Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant
used a number of hijacking tactics.
5.2.1 Lessening or Deleting Bad Depictions of Women
Feminine text theories represent a key element of differences in cognitive
processes, while contemporary translation theories also emphasize the presence of
multiple voices in target texts (Bassnett & Lefevere, 1990: 93). For example, Feminist
translation theory emphasizes the subjectivity of translators, allowing translators to
speak and make their own choices in the target text according to their own
38
understanding. In the process of translating Five Spice Street, the translators Karen
Gernant and Chen Zeping lessened or deleted some bad feminine depictions to
maintain good images of women and show their feminist attitudes.
Example 1:
ST:“这是一些强壮的百姓，富于进取与创造。X 女士，出于内心的虚弱与
害怕，将他们一概称之为‘赝品’，其实是想借此来突出自己，没想到这么一搞
适得其反，弄得人家对于她本人的性别倒产生了怀疑”(Can, 2011: 249)。
TT: “The people here are healthy, creative, and ambitious. Madam X called them
‘counterfeit’, never imagining that in her quest to become prominent, people might
become suspicious about her own sexuality” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 270).
Most people in Five Spice Street are full of vigor and enthusiasm. Their
dynamism is especially pronounced when it comes to sexual function. Residents of
Five Spice Street, regardless of their age or sex, have strong sexual desires. However,
Ms. X disagreed, calling these highly sexual men, women and children in Five Spice
Street “counterfeit”. In the source text, the reason why Ms. X said this was that she
was weak and felt frightened in her inner world (“内心的虚弱与害怕”). When
translating, the translators deliberately omitted the phrase “由于内心的虚弱与害怕”.
This is because in order to maintain Ms. X’s good image in the target text, the
translators deleted this unfriendly description of Ms. X., since Ms. X is an
independent female who has her own opinions. And thus the translators denied her
inner weakness and fear, which is described in the source text. By deleting the
unfriendly depiction of Ms. X, the translators showed their affirmation of Ms. X, and
highlight their feminist consciousness.
Example 2:
ST:“日积月累，就形成了这么一套歪道理来对抗啦”(Can, 2011: 234)。
TT: “Over time, she perfected this rationalization” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 253).
This sentence from Five Spice Street is to describe Ms. X., who believes that
people are very fragile and that even geniuses can be disturbed by thoughts. She has
no interest in being a genius. She said that her body has grown and been covered by a
steel-like protective layer and is not as sensitive and irritable as geniuses, which keeps
39
her inner peace and makes her feel happy. She felt that there was no genius in the
world, but some people coined the word “genius” to coax people because of their
weakness and fear. In the source text, some of the truths spoken by Ms. X were
described as “歪道理”, which showed the disapproval and devaluation of Ms. X.
When translating this sentence, the translators only translated “道理” and omitted its
modifier, the derogatory adjective “歪”, which in Chinese language means something
is “inappropriate or unreasonable”. In the eyes of the translators, what X said is very
reasonable and they are logical and convincing, although her words seemed to be
wrong according to the standards of the patriarchal society. Ms. X is not trying to fool
others by saying this, but to convey her values to others. Therefore, the translators
gave full play to their subjectivity when translating, and made appropriate omissions
in the target text. When the derogatory adjective “歪” is omitted and “歪道理” is
translated into “rationalization”, the target text conveys the opposite meaning and the
criticism on Ms. X is replaced by a compliment. In this way, the good image of Ms. X
is maintained in the minds of target readers, which highlights a strong sense of
feminism of the translators.
Example 3:
ST:“他们恼羞成怒，心里嘀咕着：原来是骗人的啊，哪里会有这等事！有
这贼胆来脱衣服，倒不如在家多搞几个汉子”(Can, 2011: 87)。
TT: “Miffed, they would whisper to themselves: this was a hoax from the
beginning—how could this kind of thing go on? If the woman had the guts to strip in
a public place, wouldn’t it be better to screw some guys at home” ? (Gernant & Chen,
2012: 90)
One day at noon, Ms. X was lying alone on the beach by the river. She saw that
the sky was cloudless and the color of the sky was very beautiful. She felt the warmth
of the sun, and she had many hallucinations in her mind. Suddenly, she had an urge to
take off all her clothes, lay there naked for a long time, and then stood up and walked
around, very complacent. After the men in Five Spice Street learned about this, many
people ran to the river at every turn, pretending to be watching the scenery, but
actually wanting to see the naked body of Ms. X. Each of them acted alone, uneasy,
40
for fear that others would see through their intentions. If they accidentally met an
acquaintance, they would greet each other awkwardly, pretend to leave, and then
return to the same place. But even so, they never saw Ms. X. These men wasted their
efforts, turned into anger, and scolded Ms. X for lying. Their swear words are very
vulgar. The word “贼胆” was used in the source text to describe Ms. X. When
translating, the translators only translated “胆” and translated it into “gut”, which
means “courage”, and omitted the translation of the word “贼”, which is a derogatory
word and means something is “evil or wicked”, creating the bad image of Ms. X. The
translators made appropriate deletions in the target text, and only translated it into the
neutral word “gut”, without adding some derogatory modifiers to “gut”. This changes
the emotional color of the target text. The word “贼胆” in the source text is used to
criticize Ms. X, but the translators did not express this kind of criticism in the target
text. Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping translated in this way, showing that the
translators do not agree with these men’s slander of Ms. X, and expresses their
criticism of these men and the subversion of the male-dominated discourse. This also
shows the translators’ aim to maintain the good female image in the process of
translation.
Example 4:
ST:“说这话的是那位寡妇的好友、四十八岁的风韵犹存的女性”(Can, 2011:
5)。
TT: “The one who divulged this was the widow’s good friend, a graceful and
charming forty-eight-year-old woman” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 4).
The widow’s friend is described in Five Spice Street with the phrase “风韵犹存”,
which seems to be a tribute to the grace and charm of the widow’s best friend. In fact,
the word “犹存”, which reflects the stereotypes about the middle-aged women in a
patriarchal society, refers to the “residue” and shows that the middle-aged women are
of little worth. It seems in the eyes of the males that women will no longer be
beautiful and attractive when they get older. But the truth is that more and more
women in modern society refuse to be prescribed by age and refuse to be defined by
the standard of patriarchal society. Some of them think that no matter what age they
41
are, they have their own unique charm. The language of the feminist translation works
serves to change the concept of patriarchy and correct the stereotypes deeply
ingrained in the male mind (Spivak, 1993: 190). Therefore, the translators, from a
feminist point of view, translated “四十八岁的风韵犹存的女性” into “a graceful and
charming forty-eight-year-old woman”, not “a forty-eight-year-old woman who is still
graceful and charming”. The translators omitted on purpose the word “犹存” when
translating. In this way, they not only show the charm of the widow’s friend in the
target text, but also deny the traditional stereotype of the middle-aged women, which
shows the translators’ respect for women and overthrow the males’ prejudice against
females, reflecting the translators’ feminist consciousness.
5.2.2 Rewriting Depictions of Women
5.2.2.1 Rewriting the Affirmation of Women
For a long time, sociolinguists have noticed that people use language to reflect
who they are (Cameron & Kulick, 2003: 11). In the process of translating Five Spice
Street, the translators Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping used their own words and
expressions to express their feminist consciousness. Deliberately, they rewrote some
language expressions that were originally intended to praise women. By doing this, on
the one hand, they make the images of women in the target text better, and on the
other hand, they show feminism of the target text. Here are some examples.
Example 1:
ST:“笔者终身受其影响，一贯对她另眼相看”(Can, 2011: 4)。
TT: “She’s influenced the writer his whole life, and he, in turn, has always paid
her special respect” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 3).
In Five Spice Street, the author gave the widow a lot of compliments as soon as
she first appeared. For example, the author said that the widow was definitely a
woman of status, style, and excellence, and held a pivotal position in the story. In the
source text, the phrase “另眼相看” is used. The meaning of this phrase is actually
rather obscure, which may be translated literally into “look(ing) at sb. with quite
different eyes”. But in the context, it can be seen that the original author’s views and
attitudes towards the widow should be good and positive. When translating, the
42
translators translated “另眼相看” into “paid her special respect”. The phrase “special
respect” shows the translators’ affirmation and praise for the widow, which sets the
emotional tone of the whole text. By rewriting the obscure comment on the widow in
the source text into a compliment in the target text, the translators reveal to the target
readers their feminist consciousness from the very beginning.
Example 2:
ST:“X 女士当然绝不像她妹子这般简单、冲动，她是一个老谋深算的家伙”
(Can, 2011: 85)。
TT: “Madam X, of course, wasn’t as simple and impulsive as her younger sister.
She was experienced and astute” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 99).
When Ms. X bragged about her feelings for men to her younger sister, her
younger sister was very excited and wished that Ms. X could talk more about it.
Unlike her younger sister, Ms. X is described in the source text as a “老谋深算的家
伙” who is composed and calm. The phrase “老谋深算” in the source text is used to
praise Ms. X’s shrewdness, but in Chinese it usually means a person of rich
experience will be good at scheming and calculating. However, the translators
translated “老谋深算” into “experienced and astute” which eliminated the derogatory
sense implied in the original expression, which still shows Ms. X’s shrewdness and
the fact that Ms. X has rich experience. Through this kind of translation, the target
text highlights the affirmation and praise for Ms. X, and the feminism in the target
text is also magnified.
Example 3:
ST:“那姑娘终日待在阁楼上为他看家，已经养得‘面如桃花’、
‘肤如豆腐’
了呢”(Can, 2011: 250)！
TT: “All day long, that nursemaid stayed inside the loft and looked after the
house for him. Her ‘face was like peach blossoms’, and her skin was ‘creamy white’”
(Gernant & Chen, 2012: 271)!
This sentence from Five Spice Street is a detailed description of a
sixteen-year-old girl nanny of Old Meng. The phrases used to describe her appearance
43
in the source text is “面如桃花” and “肤如豆腐”, among which “面如桃花” means
that the little girl has a good complexion and “肤如豆腐” means that this girl’s skin is
white and delicate, like tofu. The translators did not translate “肤如豆腐” as “her skin
is like tofu”, but translated it as “her skin was ‘creamy white’”, since the readers of
the target text may not know tofu, the Chinese food due to cultural differences. For a
truly successful translation, familiarity with both cultures is even more important than
mastery of both languages, because words only make sense within the cultural context
in which they function (Nida, 2001). Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping realized the
potential readers of the target text don’t know much about tofu, nor do they use tofu to
describe human’s skin. Therefore, the phrase “ 肤如豆腐” is domesticated and
translated into “her skin was ‘creamy white’”. This kind of expression in the target
text seems to be more acceptable, and it can better show Western readers that the
girl’s skin is very good. Through this kind of rewriting, the translators can better show
the charm of the girl to the target readers, convey the admiration for the girl, and show
feminist thoughts.
Example 4:
ST:“人们不再提起寡妇往日的‘性感’，要提的话，也绝不与现在的寡妇沾
边，而是用一个新的绰号代替从前那位令人神魂颠倒的人物，例如称之为‘茶花
树下的俏娘们儿’之类的”(Can, 2011: 254)。
TT: “The people no longer referred to the widow’s past ‘sex appeal’. Or if they
did, it had nothing to do with her present state; rather, they spoke of the seductive
person she used to be, like the ‘pretty girls under the camellia trees’” (Gernant &
Chen, 2012: 285).
Here the widow of Five Spice Street is described. The widow, who is nearly fifty
years old, is now more attractive, and works as an instructor for the coal factory boy
in the shed. After staying at the factory for five days and five nights, the widow put on
a fat black robe to hide her good figure. When she walked solemnly on the road, she
was like a big cloud billowing forward, making people in Five Spice Street admire her.
People stopped using “sexy appeal” to describe the widow, but gave her a new
44
nickname: “茶花树下的俏娘们儿”, which seems to be frivolous in a way. The word

“俏娘们儿” in the source text is to praise the widow’s beauty and charm. But it’s a
casual, colloquial, and even a bit vulgar term, so the translators translate it into “pretty
girl” in the target text. Such a translation is elegant and civilized and the sense of
frivolity is eliminated in the target text. The adjective “pretty” expresses the beauty of
the widow. The word “girl” shows that the widow looks very young in spite that she is
nearly fifty years old. The translators rewrote “ 俏娘们儿 ” into “pretty girl”,
expressing their respect to the widow and their denial of the indecent nicknames for
women. Compared with the source text, the target text in fact praises the widow in a
polite manner, which shows stronger feminism.
Example 5:
ST:“第二天黎明，妹子来到原地方，看见 X 女士满脸红晕，比任何时候都
更‘水灵’，浑身上下透着那种‘要命的随和’，使得妹子‘心中悬着的石头落了
地’，终于下决心不管姐姐的事”(Can, 2011: 196)。
TT: “The next day at dawn, her sister returned and saw that Madam X’s face had
grown rosy, and that she was more ‘radiant and beautiful’ than she’d ever been, and
was so ‘amiable’ that the sister felt ‘a great load had been lifted from her shoulders’’’
(Gernant & Chen, 2012: 223).
The day after Ms. X found herself standing on thin ice, she looked even better. In
the source text, the word “水灵” was used to describe Ms. X. The word “水灵”
actually means “fresh and juicy” and is usually used to describe the appearance of a
girl. However, the translators shift from the realistic description of Ms. X to the effect
of her beauty on the males, and translated “水灵” into “radiant and beautiful”, in
which the word “radiant” originally means to give a warm bright light and shows in
the target text that Ms. X looks good and healthy. The word “beautiful” more directly
expresses the translators’ admiration for Ms. X. Compared with the source text, the
target text shows Ms. X’s good image more comprehensively, which in a way shows
the feminist thought of the translators as well as the original writer.
5.2.2.2 Rewriting the Descriptions Unfriendly to Women
When Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping translated Five Spice Street, they made a
45
series of changes of the source text and gave the target text a new meaning, which are
traditionally unimaginable. But the meaning of translation is to create the
unimaginable (Ortegay & Gasset & Shirley, 2012: 22). When translating, the
translators rewrote some language expressions that were unfriendly to women or even
criticize women so as to maintain the beautiful images of women and express
explicitly their feminist awareness. Here are some examples.
Example 1:
ST:“但我恰好正是这样一种性情，这才使得像 X 这样的怪物长期得逞，装
神弄鬼，大搞迷信活动”(Can, 2011: 46)。
TT: “It’s only because of this that a misfit like X can prevail for so long—and
carry on with her occult activities” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 49).
The widow in Five Spice Street believes that the females should learn to attract
men, control men, and make men more steadfast and obedient. She thought that she
was no worse than Ms. X who attracted a lot of men, and any male related to Ms. X
could be attracted by her whenever she wanted. She felt that if she wasn’t a
conservative, she would be as handy as the heroine of Gone with the Wind. It is
precisely because she was a woman who obeyed faithfully the rules and her duty so
that she let Ms. X seize the opportunity to attract men. In the source text, words and
phrases such as “怪物”, “装神弄鬼” and “大搞迷信活动” are used by the widow to
describe Ms. X. However, the translators weaken the critical tone implied in the
source text. They translate “怪物” into “misfit”, instead of “monster”. In addition, in
the source text, “装神弄鬼” and “大搞迷信活动” obviously have strong derogatory
meanings. The translators did not translate these two phrases word for word, nor did
they reproduce the emotional color of the source text. Instead, the phrases “装神弄鬼”
and “大搞迷信活动” are translated into “occult activities”. There is no pejorative
connotation in the phrase “occult activities”, so the target text didn’t express criticism
on Ms. X. The translators rewrote the source text to avoid the direct conflict between
Ms. X and the widow, which reflect the feminist consciousness of the translators.
Although the widow and Ms. X have different views, they have lived out themselves
and are both praiseworthy female characters.
46
Example 2:
ST:“她与人民大众‘老死不相往来’，
‘格格不入’，躲在自己那小屋里窸窸
窣窣搞些巫术之类的名堂”(Can, 2011: 235)。
TT: “She ‘had nothing to do with people’. She just hid out in her little room,
engaging in magic” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 254).
In the source text, it is stated that if Ms. X wants to be a genius, she should be
down-to-earth and bear humiliation to gain the trust of the people. However, Ms. X’s
personality is quite different from what Chinese tradition expected. In the source text,
“她与人民大众 ‘老死不相往来’”, “格格不入”, and “窸窸窣窣搞些巫术之类的名
堂” are used to described Ms. X and show she is grotesque and bizarre. In other words,
these words are chosen to satirize and criticize Ms. X. When translating, the
translators tried to avoid the derogatory expression and adopted neutral expression.
Such a kind of translation makes the criticism on Ms. X much weaker. In addition, the
translators did not translate “巫术” into such derogatory words as “sorcery” or
“witchcraft”, but translated it into the neutral word “magic” in the target text. In the
source text, the phrase “窸窸窣窣” is used to describe Ms. X’s ugly state when she
engages in magic, which shows irony and contempt towards Ms. X. The translators
omit on purpose the phrase “窸窸窣窣”. Obviously, Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping
are not subject to the traditional standard and do not translate faithfully, but
appropriately rewrite the source text. The translators adapt the unfriendly expression
towards Ms. X in the source text, showing their respect for Ms. X and their feminist
standpoints.
Example 3:
ST:“我们 X 女士，可算是世界上最最变化多端又最最没有定性的人了，她
的一举一动、一言一语全是些不可解的谜语”(Can, 2011: 88)。
TT: “Our Madam X might be the world’s most volatile and unpredictable person,
whose every action and word was an inexplicable riddle” (Gernant & Chen, 2012:
102).
The source text states that because all experience and common sense are useless
for the males to know definitely Ms. X and thus she is treated as a riddle that is out of
47
the reach of the males’ wisdom. Can Xue deliberately reverse the traditional images of
males who have rich experience and become usually sophisticated and females who
are traditional confined in the house and thus become shallow and vulgar. In terms of
the description in the source text, when dealing with Ms. X, you have to rediscover a
set of counter-logical and anti-law methods. In patriarchal society, one must be
prudent when acting. In other words, you must not be impetuous and reckless, and
you must not be influenced by emotions. The source text describes Ms. X’ personality
as “变化多端” and “没有定性”, which opposes the demands of Chinese traditional
culture and thus scolds Ms. X. However, the translators translate it into
“unpredictable”, with neutral emotions, which adds the mystery of Ms. X, making her
more attractive.
Example 4:
ST:“如此看来，她的处境完全是她自己自作自受，心甘情愿”(Can, 2011: 194)。
TT: “It appeared that she had only herself to thank for the spot she was in. She’d
asked for this” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 221).
Sitting in her dimly lit room, Ms. X carefully analyzed her future directions and
possibilities, only to find herself standing on top of a huge piece of thin ice with a
widening crack. Ms. X is now in a dilemma, the reason of which is explained in the
phrase “自作自受”. “自作自受” is a derogatory term, which means that Ms. X
herself are to be blamed, and deserve to be punished due to her own mistakes. The
word “自作自受” expresses criticism on Ms. X. The translators did not translate the
critical meaning of the word, but euphemistically translated it into “she had only
herself to thank for the spot she was in”. Although such a translation shows that Ms.
X’s current situation is self-inflicted, it does not convey the meaning of belittling Ms.
X. The target text does not contain derogatory connotations, and shows instead
tolerance and support for women.
Example 5:
ST:“笔者倒的确有一次看见 Q 男士怯怯地向她提到他自己也许是属于精英
阶层，而她，一下子就‘脸红’起来，从鼻子里哼了一声，说‘幸亏自己连大字
48
也不识一个，这倒是件了不得的好事情。’而她这一脸红，一哼，Q 男士也跟着
脸红了。这个怪物是从哪里来的呢”(Can, 2011: 227)？
TT: “The writer had once seen Mr. Q suggest timidly that he perhaps belonged to
the elite stratum; all at once, she flushed. ‘Hunh,’ she said, ‘luckily, I can’t read. It is a
great advantage.’ Mr. Q’s face turned red. Where had this weirdo come from”
(Gernant & Chen, 2012: 245)?
In Five Spice Street, Ms. X thinks it’s a wonderful thing that she is illiterate,
which becomes an effective weapon against Mr. Q, instead of her disadvantage to be
looked down upon by the males. The description of Ms. X as a “怪物” in the source
text is an unfriendly expression. The translators translated “怪物” into “weirdo”,
instead of “monster”. The word “weirdo” means a person who behaves in a strange
way, while the word “monster” means an imaginary creature that is very large, ugly
and frightening. The word “monster” also refers to a person who behaves badly or is
very cruel or evil. Comparison between “weirdo” and “monster” can show that
“monster” has obvioursly a derogatory connotation. If in the target text the translators
had used “monster” to describe Ms. X, it would imply a criticism and devaluation of
Ms. X. The translators did not translate “怪物” into “monster”, and instead it was
translated into “weirdo”, showing that Ms. X’s thoughts are a bit strange and different
from ordinary people. By rewriting in this way, the translators denied negative
comments and prejudice against Ms. X from the male recorder in Five Spice Street,
which embodies the feminist perspective of the translators in a way.
Example 6:
ST:“一个人，既没有与神灵对过话，又无文化教养，整天干着那种庸俗的
小生意行当，一点儿也不高出于周围的众人”(Can, 2011: 228)。
TT: “A person who neither converses with the gods nor possesses education and
who practices that sort of common trade isn’t elevated above the crowds” (Gernant &
Chen, 2012: 246).
In the source text, Ms. X is described as a lonely person, but this kind of
loneliness is different from the loneliness of geniuses, because Ms. X is just an
ordinary person engaged in small business transactions. Ms. X’s job is described as
49
“那种庸俗的小生意行当” in the source text. “庸俗” is a derogatory term in Chinese,

and means that Ms. X’s work is meaningless and vulgar. The translators turned “庸俗
的小生意行当” into “that sort of common trade”, instead of “vulgar trade”, and used
the adjective “common” to describe Ms. X’s business. The word “common” means
ordinary and not unusual or special. The translators rewrote “庸俗”, showing that the
translators believe that although Ms. X’s roasted seeds and nuts business was small
and ordinary, it should not be belittled. In this way, the translators get rid of
derogatory sentiments contained in the original expression, and show respect for a
female and her profession.
5.2.3 Rewriting Depictions of Men
The tone of the target text is determined by the translator (Newmark, 2000: 150).
When translating Five Spice Street, the translators rewrote some expressions
describing men. Compliments on males were replaced by derogatory words, and some
neutral expressions that describe men were rewritten into derogatory expressions. This
sets the tone for the target text to criticize and belittle men. And in this way,
translators express their feminist ideas. Here are some examples.
Example 1:
ST:“细究起来，煤厂小伙子之所以偏偏说了个二十二岁，而不说二十一或
二十三岁；明明是街坊，又故弄玄虚搞什么‘邂逅’，必有其不可告人的私心。
所以他的话必须大打折扣，更何况还有‘雾蒙蒙’啦、‘性感’啦这类一目了然
的东西在作怪”(Can, 2011: 4)。
TT: “On closer examination, why did he say precisely twenty-two, and not
twenty-one or twenty-three? Neighbors see each other all the time, so why hide
behind this ‘chance meeting’? There must be something shameful. Not to mention
words that always mean trouble, like ‘foggy’ and ‘sexiness’. Clearly, we must
discount much of what he said” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 4).
When the residents of Five Spice Street were guessing Ms. X’s real age, the coal
yard guy guessed that Ms. X was twenty-two years old, and explained the reason. A
young man who met Ms. X by a well on a foggy morning judged that Ms. X would
never be more than twenty-two years old by her white teeth, beautiful smile, crisp
50
laughter and sexiness. This aroused the dissatisfaction of the neighbors, who thought
that the young man was playing tricks and had some secrets. The phrase “不可告人的
私心” means “selfishness that can never be exposed”, in which the criticism on the
males are implied, and is translated into “something shameful”. The word shameful is
a derogatory term, which explicates and aggravates the criticism of the neighbors on
the coal yard boy in the source text. At the same time, “一目了然的东西在作怪”, in
which “作怪” is a colloquial expression and means “to have effect on somebody or
something”, is translated into “words that always mean trouble” in which the negative
effect is obviously exposed. The word “trouble” shows in an enhanced way the Can
Xue’ denial of what the coal yard boy said. The translators express explicitly their
criticism on these men who make up stories to guess Ms. X’s age. By criticizing men,
the translator expresses their feminist attitudes in the target text.
Example 2:
ST:“人人都知道他是一个美男子（我们不想否认事实，颠倒黑白），但这又
能帮他什么忙呀？这不是俗话所说的‘金玉其外，败絮其中’吗”(Can, 2011:
271)？
TT: “Everyone knew he was a doll (we don’t want to deny the facts or swear that
black is white), but how could this help him? Was it any different from ‘rubbish
coated in gold and jade’” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 293)?
Ms. X’s husband in Five Spice Street is a typical representative of the males in
feminist literary works. Although Ms. X’s husband appears to be a handsome man, he
is arrogant in the face of the females, but in fact he is a miser and a snob. In addition,
as a man, he seems to have lost his sexuality and is completely reduced to Ms. X’s
babysitter. The women in Five Spice Street regard him as a jerk, a flatterer, and a
patient with impotence, and despise him very much. While the source text describes
Ms. X’s husband as a “美男子”, the translators turn the positive word “美男子” into
the derogatory and offensive word “doll”, showing sarcasm, ridicule, and criticism on
Ms. X’s husband, and echoing the disgust of women in Five Spice Street towards Ms.
X’s husband. In this way, the males in Five Spice Street, who were not masculine and
are despised by the women in Five Spice Street, are sneered at and degraded by the
51
translators. In addition, the word “rubbish” in the target text shows the translators’
disdain for Ms. X’s husband, and deny the supremacy of men in a traditional
patriarchal society.
Example 3:
ST:“这样一个天生的尤物，即使感觉迟钝如木头，也会意识到千千万万的
男性对她那种如饥似渴的欲望的（当然这千千万万的男性中并不包括那些半男半
女的货色）”(Can, 2011: 45)。
TT: “She was so innately stunning that even a dry stick would sense its male lust.
(Of course, those androgynous pieces of garbage aren’t included)” (Gernant & Chen,
2012: 48).
The widow’s figure is very sexy and very plump in the eyes of men. Any man
can be sexually aroused by a widow, and these men include dull nerds, but not men
who are half-masculine. In Five Spice Street, some of the men become half male and
not female, who in Can Xue’s view has become alienated in modern society and has
lost their sexual desire. These figures of impotence deny the masculinity of the males
which shows Can Xue’s feminist criticism on the patriarchal society. In the source text,
“货色” conveys a tone of dismissiveness and may be literally translated into “stuff”.
However, “garbage” is adopted by the two translators to show the translators’ distaste
for these men who are not masculine. In Five Spice Street, both men and women are
independent individuals with their own thoughts and characteristics. Only these
half-masculine men are disgusting. They don’t belong to the women’s group, nor can
they find women’s charm as other men do. The word “garbage” expresses the
translators’ criticism and sarcasm towards such men. By criticizing that these men
cannot see the merits and attractiveness of women, the translators show their feminist
thoughts in the target text.
Example 4:
ST:“以煤厂小伙为首的一帮中青年男性立即统一了意见，肯定 X 女士的年
龄在二十八岁左右”(Can, 2011: 5)。
TT: “The faction of young and middle-aged men led by the young coal worker
asserted that Madam X was about twenty-eight” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 4).
52
ST:“而以受人宠爱的寡妇为首的一伙中青年女性，则肯定 X 女士的年龄‘过
了四十五’”(Can, 2011: 5)。
TT: “But the crowd of young and middle-aged women led by the much-admired
widow asserted that Madam X was ‘more than forty-five’” (Gernant & Chen, 2012:
4).
The word “一帮” in the first sentence and the word “一伙” in the second
sentence have the same meaning, meaning a group of people. But one of these two
quantifiers is used to describe men and the other is used to describe women.
Translators make a distinction between them and turned the “一帮” into “the faction
of” and the “一伙” into “the crowd of”. Of these two words, “faction” has some
derogatory connotations, while “crowd” is a neutral word. The translators’ different
translations of these two words can bring out their criticism and devaluation of men,
while they adopt an inclusive attitude towards women. Even though all these men and
women are guessing Ms. X’s age, the translators treat men and women in a very
different attitude. In this way, the translators emphasize the differences between the
female images and the male images in Five Spice Street, which breaks the patriarchal
society’s convention of raising men and devaluing women, and reflects the translators’
feminist thought.
Example 5:
ST:“就连 X 女士的丈夫，一位三十八岁的美男子，也莫名其妙地按照煤厂
小伙子的眼光，将妻子的年龄看作二十二岁，而不是其好友强调的，以及户口簿
上登记的三十五岁了”(Can, 2011: 6)。
TT: “Madam X’s husband, a thirty-eight-year-old stud, also—without rhyme or
reason—simply accepted the young coal worker’s view that his wife was twenty-two
and not thirty-five, as his good friend had insisted on the basis of her ID card”
(Gernant & Chen, 2012: 5).
Ms. X’s husband in the source text is regarded as a “美男子”, in which “美” is
used to describe the appearance of a male and means “handsome” or “good looking”.
However, it is turned in the target text into “stud”, which is usually used to refer to a
man who is thought to be sexually attractive. The compliment on his looks is replaced
53
by a derogatory term. Although Ms. X’s husband seems to be handsome, he is

inclined to a herd mentality, and does not have his own judgement. The translators
used “stud” to describe Ms. X’s husband, which showed the translators’ sarcasm
towards Ms. X’s husband, and brought out the translators’ dissatisfaction with these
men who casually figured out Ms. X’s age. The translators deny the supremacy of
men in the patriarchal society, showing their feminist view in the target text.
Example 6:
ST:“她一想到她的‘孽子’，就禁不住号啕大哭起来，弄得满脸的鼻涕眼泪”
(Can, 2011: 75)。
TT: “Thinking of her ‘evil son’, she couldn’t keep from wailing until her face
was wet with tears and snot” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 78).
In Five Spice Street, a female colleague is complaining to the widow and other
women about their sons. In most cases, the word “孽子” in Chinese culture is usually
used by the parents to refer to their sons in a humble way, and does not necessarily
mean the son is a bad guy. In the source text, the female colleague was just
complaining that her son was disobedient, and often went to Ms. X to engage in some
naughty activities to make her worry. When translating, the translators directly
translated the “孽子” into “evil son” instead of “the son who is outside the control of
his parents”. Evil usually refers to those who enjoy harming others or morally bad or
cruel. Although the son of the female colleague makes the female colleague angry, he
is definitely not evil in morality. The translators use the word “evil son” here to
describe a male, which increases the degree of criticism on the son of the female
colleague. In the eyes of the translators, the men in Five Spice Street, whether they are
adults or youths, are morally corrupt, and they are all evil, inferior to the ladies. This
also directly shows the strong feminism of the translation.
5.2.4 Explaining or Rewriting Culture-loaded Words to Show Feminist
Standpoints
Translated Chinese novels should become a mirror (Goldblatt & Lin, 2019: 112).
That is, the translator should make the target readers feel the charm and excellence of
the target text. There are many Chinese idioms, sayings and other culture-loaded
54
words in Five Spice Street. How to translate these language expressions with Chinese
characteristics determines whether the target readers can understand the target text
and feel its charm. When translating these culture-loaded words, Karen Gernant and
Chen Zeping adopted the feminist translation strategy of hijacking and adapted
cross-culturally the source text, which not only helps the target readers understand the
target text better, but also shows the charm of the target text. At the same time, a
strong sense of feminism was expressed. Here are some examples.
Example 1:
ST:“好友从位子上跳起来大叫:‘到底是我当了王八还是你当了王八?’
”(Can,
2011: 86)。
TT: “‘Hey!’ he shouted. ‘‘Whose wife are we talking about? Are you a sadist’’
(Gernant & Chen, 2012: 99)?
On a sunny day, Ms. X stripped naked, lying naked on the beach and enjoying
herself, which express Ms. X’s enthusiasm to enjoy her life. This is a way for Can
Xue to expose the Ms. X’s desire for freedom. Later, this incident spread on Five
Spice Street. After hearing about the incident, Ms. X’s husband’s friend accused Ms.
X’s husband of coddling Ms. X so much that there would be a big problem one day,
and Ms. X’s husband would regret it later, but Ms. X’s husband did not agree with
him at all. The friend got even more angry, and shouted at him “到底是我当了王八
还是你当了王八?”. In Chinese language, “王八” can either mean an animal, or it can
be a swearing or insulting word, referring to the husband betrayed by the wife. In the
source text, the implied meaning of “王八” here is that Ms. X is unfaithful to her
husband in marriage. Western readers may find it difficult to understand this culturally
implicit meaning. The translators did not translate it according to the implied meaning
when translating. Instead, it was translated into “Whose wife are we talking about?”
The event that Ms. X’s lying naked on the beach is no longer an act of betrayal of her
husband in the target text. This kind of translation, which deconstructs the binary
opposition between domestication and foreignization, broke the prejudice against
women, challenged the harsh requirements of the patriarchal society, and criticized
the male chauvinism, showing the translator’s support for Ms. X’s behavior. In this
55
way, the feminist consciousness of the target text was expressed.

Example 2:
ST:“年近五十的寡妇现在是更有仙风道骨了”(Can, 2011: 254)。
TT: “Approaching fifty, the widow now had an even more transcendent
demeanor” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 285).
The source text is a description of the widow in Five Spice Street. “仙风道骨”
which means a person whose behaviors are like those of immortals is a positive word
and indicates that the widow’s appearance and manner are very outstanding. However,
this word has Chinese cultural connotations, since “仙” and “道” would generally
remind the Chinese readers the immortals with elegant behaviors, and if it is
translated literally, it may not arouse in the minds of the target readers the same
images. When translating, the translators replaced it with “transcendent demeanor”,
which shift from the description of the behaviors to the comments on the behaviors fo
the females, since the adjective “transcendent” means “extremely great”, and is easy
for Western readers to understand, and also shows the great charm of widows. This is
neither a translation strategy of domestication nor one of foreignization, but it
conveys the feminist viewpoint of Can Xue’s, since the translators convey the
compliments on the widow to the target readers, showing a stronger sense of
feminism.
Example 3:
ST:“她用这只藏在头发后面的鬼眼看见了外界的一切，对每一个人的动向
了若指掌”(Can, 2011: 233)。
TT: “With this mystical eye hidden in her hair, she saw everything in the world:
she had her finger on everyone’s pulse” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 252).
In the source text of Five Spice Street, it is described that Ms. X magically grows
a third eye, which can observe things better. Ms. X’s third eye is called as a “鬼眼”
which can be literally translated into “the eye of a ghost”. In Chinese culture, “鬼” is
usually something inauspicious and thus “鬼眼” conveys a sense of derogatory. The
word “鬼眼” in the source text shows discrimination against Ms. X. When translating,
56
the translators did not translate “鬼眼” into “the eye of ghost” or “evil eye” and other
expressions with the similar discriminatory meaning, but translated it into the word
“mystical eye”. The word “mystical” is a neutral sentimental term that does not
contain derogatory connotations and therefore does not show discrimination against
Ms. X. At the same time, the word “mystical” can express Ms. X’s peculiarity and
unique personality, attracting readers of the target text. The translators showed their
tolerance in the neutral phrase “mystical eye”, which reflected the feminist stance of
the target text.
Example 4:
ST:“通过对于年龄的种种议论，我们现在得出了这么一个不协调的模糊印
象：X 女士是一个中年妇女，牙齿白，身材瘦，脖子苗条或有皱多皮，皮肤光滑
或粗糙，声音清脆或放浪，外表性感或毫无半点性感。这个模糊的印象有时会出
其不意地在刹那间”露出庐山真面貌”，继而又一切如旧，还原为高深莫测、模糊
斑驳的一团”(Can, 2011: 7)。
TT: “The controversy about her age was part of a generally vague and
contradictory image of Madam X. She is a middle-aged woman, very thin, with white
teeth, a neck that’s either slender or flabby, skin that’s either smooth or rough, a voice
that’s either melodious or wild, and a body that’s either sexy or devoid of sex. When
this obscure image takes us by surprise and ‘discloses its true face’, everything
unfathomable becomes clear, but only for an instant” (Gernant & Chen, 2012: 6).
Can Xue’s writing reflects the essence of human nature (Wasmoen, 2014: 270).
The unrealistic speculations and rumors spread by the residents of Five Spice Street
about Ms. X partly reveal the ugly side of human nature. This paragraph describes the
general vague impression of Ms. X obtained by the residents of Five Spice Street after
various speculations about Ms. X’s age. The sentence “露出庐山真面貌” is derived
from an ancient Chinese poem. When translating, the translators omitted “庐山”,
which refers to the mountain of Lushan in China and directly translated it into
“‘discloses its true face’”, which is convenient for target readers to understand the
vague impression of Ms. X inferred by the residents of Five Spice Street is very
unreliable. This also implies the true face of a female can never be revealed by the
57
males, which deny a traditional viewpoint that females are simple-minded and much
shallower than the males. The translators show in their target text that the females can
be sophisticated and never be really known by the males, which reveals the author’s
irony at the residents of Five Spice Street who guess Ms. X’s age randomly. In this
way, the translators have maintained Ms. X’s good image and dignity, which proves
that the females are in fact superior to the males in Five Spice Street.
58
Chapter 6 Conclusion
6.1 Main Findings

Compared with the traditional translation theory, the feminist translation theory
gives the translator more creative space, and gives the translator the same status and
power as the original author, so that the translator has the right to “re-create” the
target text. This reverses the awkward passive and invisible position of translators in
the past. Feminist translation theory corrects the standard of fidelity that the target text
is subordinate to the source text, which is emphasized by traditional translation
theories, and affirms the translator’s different interpretations of the source text, due to
differences in gender and other factors.
Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant made full use of the two feminist translation
strategies of supplementing and hijacking when translating Five Spice Street, which
not only reproduced the feminism presented in the source text, but also made this
feminist consciousness obviously conveyed. The translators redefine the relationship
between the target text and the source text, so that the target text can reproduce the
basic content of the source text and at the same time show its own unique feminist
characteristics. The target text becomes a unique and independent text, and fully
demonstrates the translator’s subjectivity.
This thesis focuses on the specific performance of the feminist translation
strategies used by Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant in the translation of Five Spice
Street. Analysis of some excerpted parts from the novel written by Can Xue reveals
that Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant makes a lot of adaptions, and most of the use of
supplementing and hijacking was reflected in the addition, deletion and rewriting of
some expressions in the source text. When translating, the translators rewrote the
source text in a creative and rebellious way. On the basis of retaining most of the
content of the source text, the translators have carried out appropriate and beneficial
translations of the words and phrases that may influence the embodiment of feminism.
For example, the translators deleted some expressions that were unfavorable to
women, added some words that were critical of men, and rewrote the expressions
59
describing men and women accordingly. For the translation of some culture-loaded
words with Chinese cultural imprint, the translators have taken the practice of
explaining their extended meanings and eliminated the cross-cultural obstacles, but
the feminist criticism on the males and the compliments on the females are
highlighted in the target text. Through these specific feminist translation methods, the
translators reproduce the feminist consciousness of the target text, demonstrate the
translator’s subjectivity, and create a text that is not completely attached to the source
text.
When Can Xue wrote Five Spice Street, she used some kinds of non-traditional
writing techniques. Through the use of absurdity, deformation, exaggeration and other
techniques, she exaggerated and expanded the eccentricities of women, creating
anti-traditional and atypical images of women, to show feminism. The two translators
reproduce the absurdity of the males and make the feminist stance of Can Xue salient
in the target text when they exert their subjectivity in their adaptation of the source
text. The translators rewrite part of the source text, placed subjective consciousness
above the level of faithfulness of the source text, and repeatedly select expressions
that reflected female consciousness implied in the eccentricities of women. Through
this kind of translation, the beautiful images of women are reshaped, and the ugly
faces of men are exposed, so that a strong sense of feminism is shown.
6.2 Limitations and Further Studies

This study also has some limitations. Since the English translation of Five Spice
Street is not attached with the translators’ preface and footnotes, the research on
feminist translation strategies in this thesis may not be supported by more proof. This
thesis is only based on the comparison between the source text and the target on and
the analysis completely rely on theoretical foundation about how the translators Chen
Zeping and Karen Gernant make use of strategies of supplementing and hijacking
when translating Five Spice Street. In addition, due to time and space constraint, this
thesis only selects some typical examples for analysis. Although the selected
examples are the most representative, they are not particularly comprehensive. There
60
is still a lot of room for further research.

Can Xue is a typical contemporary Chinese writer whose grotesque plots and
absurd stories have turned off many domestic readers, because they find Can Xue’s
novels are difficult to understand. The evaluations of Can Xue by domestic scholars
are divided into two extremes: some people think that Can Xue’s works are full of
modernism, and greatly appreciate her, while others think Can Xue’s works are too
distorted to accept. Therefore, domestic scholars’ research on Can Xue focuses more
on Can Xue’s writing style, nightmare narrative techniques, and pioneering writing
techniques. This thesis will be likely to show that the study of Can Xue should not be
limited to these aspects. In the future, more attention should be shifted to the English
translations of Can Xue’s works and the feminist consciousness expressed in Can
Xue’s works and the target texts, since only appropriate translation can be helpful for
the spread of Chinese literature and get the target readers to know the feminist
thoughts embodied in the works by Can Xue. The differences between the source text
and the target text make the feminism in the target text strange and at the same time
familiar to the target readers, which provides a new perspective for our feminist
research of the literary works. This thesis reveals the feminist strategies adopted to
convey the feminist thoughts of Can xue, but there are still more further question that
are whether Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant’s translations of other works also
reflects Can Xue’s feminist consciousness, whether the translator’s subjectivity is
reflected in the target text by other translators of Can Xue’s works, and how they
made Can Xue’s works welcomed by target readers overseas, which also has certain
guiding significance for Chinese literature to go abroad.
With the rapid development of feminist translation theory, its innovative
translation methods and radical attitudes have been severly criticized. Critics believe
that feminist translation theory violates the “faithfulness” of traditional translation
theories, and the intervention of the translator makes the translation too subjective. At
the same time, feminist translation theories exaggerate the impact of gender
differences on translations. Therefore, female translation ideas are also being revised
and improved. The contemporary creative rebellion is not blindly “hijacking”, but
61
constructively builds a kind of speech logic that readers of the target text will
probably accept, and does not arbitrarily abandon readers’ interests on the basis of
emphasizing the translator’s subjectivity. Translators should properly grasp the images
of women in literary works (Sui, 2019: 47). The shortcomings of feminist translation
strategies adopted by Chen Zeping and Karen Gernant are also not included in this
thesis, which will make this research incomplete and less effective in guiding the
translation of female writers’ literary works, and leave space for further study in the
future.
62
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70
作者简介
作者简介
金梦，女，26 岁，籍贯山东日照。2019 年九月进入南京信息工程大学文学
院学习外国语言文学专业（二级学科为英语语言文学），研究方向为翻译学，学
制三年。在攻读硕士研究生学位期间，共学习了 28 门课程，其中学位课程 18
门。获得总学分 24 分，其中学位学分 15 分，选修学分 9 分。获得总分 2476，
平均分 88.4，总课程加权成绩 89，专业排名第四名。在读研期间，2022 年 2 月
以第一作者身份在《英语广场》发表 SCD 期刊论文一篇——《多模态视角下的
〈唐人街探案 2〉字幕翻译》，第二作者为陈志杰。
71

女性主义翻译理论视角下的残雪作品翻译研究 金梦

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分类号： 单位代码： 10300

Master’s Degree Thesis

Thesis Title： A Study on Translation of Can Xue’s

Supervisor： Chen Zhijie

Major： Foreign Languages and Literatures

Research Direction： Translation

School Affiliated College of Liberal Arts

Submission Time： June 10, 2022

June 10, 2022

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements

For the degree of Master of Arts

In Foreign Languages and Literatures

Supervised by Chen Zhijie

College of Liberal Arts

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

June 10, 2022

□公开 □保密（_____年 _____月） (保密的学位论文在解密后应遵守此协议)

1.1 Background of the Study

1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Previous Studies of Feminist Translation Theory

historical, social or cultural context, which in fact emphasizes the translator’s

In 2004, the domestic researches on feminist translation theory increased greatly.

2.2 Previous Studies of Can Xue and Her Works

in an anthology of contemporary Chinese works and published by overseas publishing

(Oppenheimer, 2011). Writing in a style reminiscent of Kafka, Can Xue, as John

Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework

3.1 Introduction to Feminist Translation Theory

problems of traditional translation theory. The translation proposed by Simon is an

3.2 Subjectivity of Translators

3.3 Common Strategies of Feminist Translation

feminist translator rewrites under different contextual constraints, making it go

Chapter 4 Introduction to Can Xue and Translators of Five

4.1 Can Xue and Her Feminism in Five Spice Street

4.2 Translators of Five Spice Street

University, is linguistic professor of Fujian Normal University. He teaches Chinese

Chapter 5 Embodiment of Feminist Translation Strategies in the

Translation of Five Spice Street

孩子，他们都形容我是‘一只会下蛋的母鸡’”(Can, 2011: 74)。

ST:“忽然有一天，寡妇与 Q 男士在一堵围墙底下相逢，Q 男士向着寡妇‘咧

nickname: “茶花树下的俏娘们儿”, which seems to be frivolous in a way. The word

“那种庸俗的小生意行当” in the source text. “庸俗” is a derogatory term in Chinese,

by a derogatory term. Although Ms. X’s husband seems to be handsome, he is

way, the feminist consciousness of the target text was expressed.

6.1 Main Findings

6.2 Limitations and Further Studies

is still a lot of room for further research.

内蒙古大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2008(01): 104-109.

[62] Yang, Jingwen. [杨敬文]. 从女性主义翻译理论视角对比《德伯家的苔丝》

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女性主义翻译理论视角下的残雪作品翻译研究金梦

女性主义翻译理论视角下的残雪作品翻译研究金梦

分类号：单位代码： 10300

□公开 □保密（_年 _月） (保密的学位论文在解密后应遵守此协议)