On Translation of Cultural Elements in Lin Yutang’s Moment in Peking

喻惠芳 唐举

【Abstract】Moment in Peking， written by Lin Yutang during his stay in Paris， was translated first by Zhang Zhenyu and later by Yu Fei in succession. This study discusses the translation of cultural elements from the perspective of functional equivalence by comparing the two Chinese versions， thus providing theoretical and practical reference to back-translation of cultural elements and promoting successful cultural exchange between the Chinese and western culture.

【Key words】culture translation； Moment in Peking； Functional Equivalence

Moment in Peking is one of Lin Yutangs masterpieces， in which it has a panorama view of Chinese contemporary society. The reason why Lin Yutang wrote this novel is that he wanted to introduce the profound Chinese culture， thus eliminating misunderstandings of the western world towards China. The thesis explores the translation strategies related to Chinese culture in the existing two Chinese versions of Moment in Peking from the perspective of functional equivalence in order to cast light on improving the back-translation of cultural elements in this kind of special literary works， and build a more systematic model of assessing the translation of cultural elements of literary works in general.

1. Introduction to Moment in Peking and its two Chinese versions

Moment in Peking depicts the profound change of Chinese society from Boxer Uprising to the beginning of Sino-Japanese war through the description the three big families in Peking （Beijing today）， the Yao family， the Tseng family and the New family， mainly about their rises and falls and the vicissitudes of their three generations. The whole novel is divided into three volumes： “The daughter of Taoist”， “Tragedy in the Garden” and “The Song of Autumn”. The sisters Mulan and Mochow are the heroines of the book， and their marriages and the family of Tseng constitute of the whole story， besides various kinds of characters that are put into the story to fulfill the content to the fullest. Whats more， Dr. Lin has added the famous incidents during that time in the troublous period of history， such as Boxer Uprising， 1911 Revolution， May 30th Massacre and so on.

The two Chinese versions of Moment in Peking are Zhang Zhengyus Jing Hua Yan Yun（《京华烟云》）and Yu Feis Shun Xi Jing Hua（《瞬息京华》）. Both versions are good and have their own features. Zhang Zhengyu is a famous translator as well as a great scholar in Taiwan. He has translated many Lin Yutangs works. In 1977， the second year after the death of Lin， Zhangs Chinese versions of Moment in Peking was punished in Taiwan， and he named it Jing Hua Yan Yun， which became a best-seller in China. His version pursues the trait of elegance and beauty. The second Chinese version came out in 1991 by the name of Shun Xi Jing Hua translated by Yu Fei who is the son of Yu Dafu， the Chinese master of novels. His version emphasizes the faithfulness to the original. And the expression is vivid and precise. It meets the taste of Beijing dialect and restores Lins original idea to the largest extent.

2. Introduction to Nidas Functional Equivalence

In 1969 the famous American translation theorist Eugene A. Nida put forward functional equivalence theory. Unlike the traditional translation theories that mainly stress the correspondence between the source language and target language， Nidas functional equivalence theory emphasizes readers response. Nida's functional equivalence theory provides a new perspective to translation studies. In Nidas view， when translating， the translators should not just consider the equivalence of words meaning， but also think about semantics， style and deep cultural information. Nidas focus on receptors response in his new concept of translating is actually the theory of dynamic equivalence， which is “directed primarily toward equivalence of response rather than equivalence of form” （Nida， 1969）.

Functional equivalence emphasizes the functional equivalence of information instead of the direct formal equivalence in translation so as to keep the meaning and style of the source language functionally equivalent to that of the target language as much as possible. The functional feature of the translation depends on the balance of two relationships， that is， the relationship between the target language receptor and the target text should generally be equivalent to the relationship between the source language receptor and the source text， and it is the two relationships that provide the basis for functional equivalence.

3. Application of the Functional Equivalence Theory to the Translation of Cultural Elements in Two Versions

The thesis will make a detailed comparison about the cultural elements in the novel， including traditional Chinese medicine and customs.

Example 1：

It combined a variety of illness， with …The three yang systems are regarded as the alimentary or nourishing systems…and the entrances to stomach and bladder and the pylorus. The lungs， the heart…and the kidney， and the liver， form yin group， responsible for respiration， the circulation and elimination. （Lin： 2011， 112）

The example shows both Zhang and Yu have their own strong points and drawbacks. In Zhangs version， “It combined a variety of illness” is translated into “这种病里头包括好多种其他的病在内”， while in Yus version， this kind of redundancy has been converted into“这是多种病症的并发症”，which is more brief and professional in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Also， “the entrances to stomach” has been translated into“胃的入口” in Zhangs version， while in Yus version， this phrase is an exact technical term in Chinese， which is“贲门”. So in terms of functional equivalence， Yus version is a more original refection of Lins ideas. But， Zhangs version has its own strong points. “responsible for respiration， the circulation and elimination” has been translated into “司呼吸循环，排废物之用”， the word “司” of Zhangs version is more appropriate than“管”in Yus version. Because in traditional Chinese medicine， the function of lung has been clearly classified as“司呼吸循环”；therefore， Zhangs version， in this point， is better than Yus version.

Chinese customs and etiquette cover a large number of aspects， including the dining etiquette， greeting etiquette， marital and funeral etiquette and so on. There are so many Chinese folklore elements in a wedding ceremony， from the preparation to the end. In Moment in Peking， several marriage ceremonies are described， with the most representative ones being Mannias and Mulans wedding.

Example 2：

Mulan was married at nineteen （or twenty by Chinese reckoning）. In the summer of 1909， the ceremony of “requesting the date” of the wedding was formally gone through by the Tseng family sending the “dragon –and –phoenix card，” …According to the ancient classical tradition， which included the ceremony of the bridegrooms personally going to welcome the bride at her home， the advantage seemed to be entirely on the brides side， since her family appeared to be conveying a favor on the grooms family by giving the person of their daughter. （Lin， 2011：373）

木兰出嫁时是二十岁，是宣统元年。曾家正式向姚家送上龙凤帖…其实，女家把自己的女儿嫁与男家，就是对男家的一大恩惠。（Zhang， 2013：237）

木兰是十九足岁，亦即虚岁二十时出阁的。宣统元年的夏天，为婚礼择吉一事由曾家正式送来龙凤帖提出来…因为女家送出了小姐好像就是对男家的一大恩惠。（Yu， 1991：296）

Zhang has adopted the translating skill of omission while Yu just translated it word by word. Zhang deletes the necessary information， which may cause misunderstanding for the careful readers. The second sentence has been translated differently in voice by Zhang and Yu； in this sense Zhang uses the positive voice while Yu uses the passive voice， though the original version is written in passive voice. Personally， the author holds that Zhangs positive voice， in pragmatic sense， conform to Chinese readers. As for functional equivalence， the target language should correspond to customs of users and the translators should change the order and voice of the source language if necessary. The conjunction “since” in the last sentence of the example has been translated respectively as “其实”and“因为” respectively by Zhang and Yu. According to the logic of the last sentence， there is no “cause and effect” relationship， thus Yus version of “since”（因为） was not exactly right， although “since” has the meaning of “因为”.

4. Conclusion

This thesis has made a comparative study between the two different Chinese versions of Moment in Peking and found that each of them has its own characteristics： Yus is faithful and accurate while in contrast Zhangs is graceful and full of creativity. The aim is， however， to draw peoples attention to the importance of functional equivalence， which plays a significant role in guiding translation.

The author applied functional equivalence theory to investigate the cultural translation in the two Chinese versions. During the comparative process， the author found that different translating skills have to be adopted， mostly amplification and omission. As translation is a kind of cross-cultural communication， each culture has its own characteristics， habits， norms and conventions. Sometimes it is difficult to choose the accurate words in target language， thus we should both take SL and TLs characteristics into account.

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[5]林语堂.张振玉译.京华烟云[M].江苏：江苏文艺出版社，2011.

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作者简介：

喻惠芳（1981-），女，汉族，湖北武汉人，湖北中医药大学外国语学院讲师，研究方向：翻译理论与实践。

唐举，男，湖北中医药大学外国语学院2010级本科生。