Other scholars, for instance, Xu Huihui (徐慧慧, 2011), Ye Yunjia (叶云佳, 2009) and Li Jun (李钧, 2012) attempt to study Hulanhe Zhuan from the perspective of aesthetics. Lu Zhining (卢志宁, 2010), Zhang Liwen (张丽文, 2011) and Wang Ke (王科, 2004) examine how Xiao Hong presents a sense of solitude and misery in her Hulanhe Zhuan.

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　　1.2 Previous Studies on the English Version of Hulanhe Zhuan

　　Compared with the researches devoted to Xiao Hong’s Hulanhe Zhuan, the number of research papers on its English translation by a famous sinologist, Howard Goldblatt, is comparatively small. Some foreign scholars make some comments on Howard Goldblatt’s translation of this novel since its publication. In his translation, Goldblatt tries his best to transfer the charm of the original text. However, some target readers can’t fully appreciate the style of this novel. It is composed of trivial events and short, slow-pace and prose-like sentences and therefore, it’s quite different from the traditional Chinese novels. Theodore Huters’s (1981) comments on the translation of Hulanhe Zhuan are like this, “It must be admitted that the constant reiteration of trivial acts in Tales of Hulan River requires just such virtuoso technique to keep from sliding into outright tedium.

　　Though Goldblatt is an excellent translator, he cannot always replicate the intricate prose rhythms of the original.” However, some scholars appreciate Goldblatt’s selection of Xiao Hong’s novel and his translation. D. E. Pollard (1981) speaks highly of Goldblatt’s translation of Hulanhe Zhuan. He deems it as an excellent selection of works for translation, and a brave and generally successful try at execution. He said, “It is not only accurate, but positively pleases at times as an example of good writing in English.” (Pollard, 1981) As for the language in the English version of Hulanhe Zhuan, Joe C. Huang (1980) points out in his review in The China Quarterly that the translator has been both sensitive and faithful in his grappling with Xiao Hong’s extraordinary writing style punctuated with north-eastern dialect.

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　　Chapter 3 Analysis of the English Version of Hulanhe Zhuan........ 20

　　3.1 Xiao Hong and Her Hulanhe Zhuan .... 20

　　3.2 Howard Goldblatt and Tales of Hulan River ..... 20

　　3.3 Power Differentials Manifested in Tales of Hulan River ........ 21

　　3.4 Hybridity Manifested in Tales of Hulan River ......... 33

　　3.5 Comments on Goldblatt’s Tales of Hulan River ....... 46

　　Chapter 3 Analysis of the English Version of Hulanhe Zhuan from the Perspective of Postcolonial Translation Theory

　　3.1 Xiao Hong and Her Hulanhe Zhuan

　　Xiao Hong, an influential women writer in Chinese literary world in the 20th century, is praised as one of “the four most talented women in the Republic of China” and “the Goddess of Chinese literary circles in 1930s”. Her works hold an important position in the development of Chinese modern literature. Her seemingly common writing techniques have symbolic significance and artistic value in many aspects. Hulanhe Zhuan, written by Xiao Hong in Hong Kong in 1942, the hardest phase of Anti-Japanese War, is a long novel with distinct features.

　　Writing in the mist of on war time, Xiao Hong focuses on an innocent child’s memory rather than war or rebellious spirit. Goldblatt commented it, “Xiao Hong has her own ideas and her own style to transmit them; her choices make her a writer instead of a propagandist, therefore, her work became the most remarkable one at that time.” (Goldblatt, 1985) Hulanhe Zhuan, the masterpiece of Xiao Hong, is ranked in the top 100 of Chinese novels in the 20th century by Asia Week.

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　　Conclusion

　　Under the guidance of postcolonial translation theory, this thesis conducts a detailed study on the translation strategy in the translation of the English version of Hulanhe Zhuan. On the basis of the previous discussion of translation strategy on linguistic aspect and cultural aspect of the English version of Hulanhe Zhuan, a conclusion about its features, as well as its significance could be made as follows. The thesis, conducted from two dimensions, power differentials and hybridity, finds that the translation strategy of domestication and foreignization are not opposite to each other, but in a dialectical unity, or we may say that they form moderate hybridity. As a translator from strong culture, Goldblatt is more or less affected by the ideology of power differentials.

　　In the translation of words and expressions with Chinese characteristics, the translator has to consider the problem of functional equivalence. Generally, western readers who are not provided with sufficient information about the Chinese language and culture are not able to fully understand the translation. When a domesticating strategy is employed, the TL readers are inclined to believe that they are reading a book written by an English writer.