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再转一篇专业论文，解释了武侠小说在欧美难以风行的缘故。 Translational Migration of Martial Arts Fiction East and West: A Case Study from a Polysystemic Perspective 從多元系統論的角度探討武俠小說譯本的東移西徙現象 Olivia Mok 莫慧嫻 Abstract This paper proposes to address the translational migration of martial arts fiction, first to other Asian countries in the 1920's, but to the West only in the 1990's. Adopting a Polysystem approach, this paper explores the translational phenomenon of why so little of martial arts fiction has been translated into Western languages, compared to the copious amount into other Asian languages. Investigation into the translational migration of martial arts fiction demonstrates the validity of a hypothesis of Polysystem theory that the "normal" position assumed by translated literature tends to be a peripheral one. However, different patterns of behavior can be observed, depending on the hegemonic relations between source and target cultures. The long-standing traditionally dominant position of Anglo-American literature within a macro-polysystem made up of world literatures had led to martial arts fiction in English translation being relegated to an extremely peripheral position. Unlike the situation in the West, martial arts fiction is able to make inroads into Asian countries, to the extent of stimulating a new literary genre or (re)writing martial arts fiction in indigenous languages in Indonesia, Vietnam and Korea. 摘 要 武俠小說於二十年代透過翻譯傳入鄰近亞洲國家,到了九十年代才傳至西方。本文從多元系統論的角度探討武俠小說譯入歐美文字數量頗少,但譯入亞洲文字則極多的文化現象。調查顯示,翻譯文學趨向處於邊緣位置,証實了多元系統論所假設的正常位置。可觀察到的是,譯本於東西文化系統內所處的不同位置,視乎源語文化跟譯語文化的支配關係而定。在西方,由世界文學組成的大多元系統,長久以來,被歐美文學佔了主導地位,武俠小說譯本只得被移至極之邊緣的位置。但在亞洲,情況則不一樣,武俠小說能順利進入鄰近國家,在印尼、越南、韓國等地,甚至創造了新文體,或以本土文字重寫的武俠小說。 This paper proposes to address how the translational migration of martial arts fiction took place, first to other Asian countries in the 1920s, but to the West only after a lapse of a few decades beginning in the 1990s. Adopting a descriptive approach as described by Gideon Toury, the paper is intended to add further to the claim made in the Leuven seminar of 1976 that the polysystem theory propounded by Itamar Even-Zohar should be constantly tested against case studies. Polysystem theory was first formulated by Itamar Even-Zohar in articles written during the early 1970s and later taken up and developed by Gideon Toury. It was based on the premise that a (translated) text is not an isolated entity but functions within a literary system which, in turn, interrelates with a set of other systems which may be literary or extraliterary, such as political or historical, and which together make up a hierarchical cultural system, forming what Edwin Gentzler describes as a 'network of correlated systems -- literary and extraliterary -- within society.' Even-Zohar's hypothesis recognizes both the "primary", i.e. creating new items and models, and "secondary", i.e. reinforcing existing items and models, function of translation within the polysystem. Test cases for his hypothesis, so far, have centered only around the European translated literary polysystem, with Israeli Hebrew literature serving as a case study for the "primary" importance of translated literature while translated literature in France and Dutch novels translated into English as case studies for the "secondary". Susan Bassnett observes that the 'polysystem theory opened so many avenues to researchers in translation studies [...].' She also points out that 'all kinds of questions could now be asked that had previously not seemed to be of significance, such as: Why do some cultures translate more and some less? What kind of texts get translated? What is the status of those texts in the target system and how does it compare to the status of the texts in the source system? What do we know about translation conventions and norms at given moments, and how do we assess translation as innovatory force? Exploring these questions may not only shed light on the translational phenomenon of martial arts fiction in the West, but also on the concurrent phenomenon as to why so little of martial arts fiction has been translated into Western languages, compared to the copious amount into other Asian languages, to the extent of stimulating a new literary genre or (re)writing martial arts fiction in indigenous languages in Indonesia, Vietnam and Korea, or countries boasting large overseas Chinese communities. The impact of martial arts fiction can be seen in the various channels by which this genre penetrated neighbouring countries in Asia. Possible channels included reading the original texts in Chinese in the Sinicised countries where the local elite was trained in classical Chinese and was able to read the fiction in colloquial Chinese; or translating the genre into local languages in countries where Chinese was a foreign tongue known only to Chinese migrants and their descendants. Translation of prototypes of the genre into Mongolian, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Cambodian, Indonesian, Makassarese, and Korean goes back at least to the seventeenth century, while the translation of martial arts fiction proper has been active since the 1920s. It would appear that martial arts fiction in Japanese translation lagged far behind other Asian languages. Mongolian translation of novels of swordsmen and trial cases, particularly the cycle of adventure novels of the wise Judge Bao and other stories of the gongan 公案 (public cases) genre, which Ma Yau-woon considered to be the forerunner of martial arts fiction, began when the first translation of The Water Margin appeared in the first half of the nineteenth century, followed by a Mongolian translation of San xia wu yi《三俠五義》in 1907, which, in turn, was followed by more than twenty sequels and imitations, and later, with a new four-volume edition of The Water Margin in Mongolian brought out in Inner Mongolia in 1978. Sinicized Vietnam has a long history of importing Chinese Romanesque literature, first in Chinese, then translated into the nô m writing, which was later replaced by the quoc ngu, a romanized script in the mid-nineteenth century. The introduction of the easy-to-understand quoc ngu, plus the fact that there were few books written in the new Vietnamese language, had created a desperate need for more translations to be undertaken. Translations of martial arts fiction proper began around 1925, when the urban population multiplied and local printing boomed in the country. The Vietnamese infatuation with martial arts fiction occurred at the same time as that among the population in big cities in China. When martial arts fiction was banned in China in 1949, Vietnamese translations of martial arts fiction, along with historical novels, yet continued well after the Second World War. Vietnamese current interest in martial arts fiction may also be gauged from browsing a Vietnamese homepage on Jin Yong, plus a survey on library collections in U.S.A. which shows that martial arts fiction is still being translated into or reprinted in Vietnamese in U.S.A. It would appear that among the Vietnamese, particularly those residing in U.S.A., some may continue to find an extension of their treasured cultural heritage in martial arts fiction. In Thailand, translations of martial arts fiction, published both in book form and in newspapers, first appeared in 1957. The popularity of martial arts fiction in Thai translations, with Jin Yong and Gu Long being translated most, continued at least up till the late 1980s. The great demand for martial arts fiction, coupled by limited time allowed for translation yielded a translational style that is "hybrid", as Prapin Manomaivibool observes: The style and diction of Thai translation of wuxia type stories have their own characteristics: the sentence structures are similar to those of the Chinese language and some words and expressions in Chinese are translated into Thai in "word-by-word" fashion with no consideration for their deeper or interpretive meaning. However, such expressions are understood among wuxia type story fans. In Cambodia, the government had adopted a hard-line policy to combat the Chinese cultural influence within the country. In the early sixties, China and Cambodia agreed to resolve the problem of the Chinese in Cambodia. When the resistance against Chinese culture softened, Kungfu films from Hong Kong began to flood the Cambodian market, lending support to Chinese influence. Although no direct translations of martial arts fiction were made into Cambodian, the influence of swordsmen stories could still be found in Chinese serials in the newspapers and the ever-increasing adaptations of Chinese works into Cambodian. Towards the end of the 1960s, when traditional values and recognized institutions collapsed inside Cambodia, martial arts fiction was appropriated unconsciously, along with the puritanical and moralizing ultra "Left" trend of thought current during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, to combat the situation. The Cambodians perhaps found values in the 'rough justice of the cloak-and-dagger literature in which people on the fringe of society succeed in redressing the evils perpetuated by the establishment.' In Indonesia, translations of Chinese fiction were brought out in Javanese, Makassarese, Madurese, Malay, or more appropriate, Indonesian. Translations of Chinese fiction in Makassarese could not be traced before the late 1920s. In Makassar, the Peranakan's marked taste for historical novels was followed by martial arts fiction and public cases, then followed by fantastic novels and novels of manners, as it appears from the stories which can be identified. Malay translations of Chinese fiction in Indonesia in the last quarter of the nineteenth century was aided by the spread of Malay newspapers in all the big cities in Java. Besides historical novels, martial arts fiction is another genre that has been translated into Malay in Indonesia. The translation of historical novels goes back at least to the nineteenth century, while the translation of martial arts fiction began only in the twentieth century, attaining overwhelming success in the decades after 1924. During this period, historical novels, greatly popular in earlier periods, gradually gave way to martial arts fiction as a bourgeoning genre. Martial arts fiction appeared in newspapers, in magazines, and was also brought out in book form, running in several sequels. Works by Huanzhulouzhu 還珠樓主, Pingjiang Buxiaosheng 平江不肖生, and Bai Yu 白羽 were either read in their original by Totok Chinese or translated into Malay for Peranankan during this period. 1930 marked the apogee of martial arts fiction in Malay translations. But this literary genre, popular among the local reading public, was brought to a halt in 1942 when the Dutch Indies was occupied by the Japanese. And in the fifties and sixties, works of Jin Yong 金庸 and Liang Yusheng 梁羽生 were considered most popular. But serializations of their works had fallen prey to political situations in Indonesia during that period. Before 1958, newspapers in Indonesia were either pro-Beijing or pro-Taipei. After 1958, all pro-Taipei newspapers were banned. Liang Yusheng, regarded as Pro-Beijing, continued to have his works serialized in the existing Pro-Beijing newspapers. Jin Yong, although regarded as "left-wing" by Taiwan then, was considered "right-wing" in Indonesia and was thus banned from the daily newspapers. But Jin Yong's works in book form continued to thrive. Martial arts novels continued to find popularity among both Peranakan and indigenous newspaper readers. Peranakan newspapers in Malay serialized Peranakan translators whose works were modelled after the writings of Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng while Indonesian newspapers published adaptations under the names of the translators. Leo Suryadinata reminds us that the popularity of martial arts fiction has innovated indigenous Indonesian cerita silat, remarking that 'more indigenous writers have written indigenous cerita silat for various popular magazines. These writers changed the Chinese kungfu novels into the Indonesian setting.' In the late fifties and early sixties, martial arts fiction was banned from the newspapers following the launching of the anti-Chinese campaign. But the genre continued to survive in book form. In 1965, both Peranakan and indigenous left-wing/Pro-Beijing newspapers were banned after the coup. And after 1965, the adaptations and imitations of martial arts fiction switched to mass production in printing and publishing presses set up by many of the translators themselves while the sales of martial arts fiction was boosted by kungfu movies made in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The seventies and eighties witnessed the popularity of Taiwan martial arts writer Gu Long. Suryadinata observes that while Tjan Ing Djiu 曾熒球, a successful Peranakan Chinese translator of Gu Long's works, appeals to the Peranakans who are familiar with some Chinese terms and culture, while indigenous readers prefer Asmaraman S. Kho Ping Hoo's 許平和 works as his writings are more "indigenized". Suryadinata sees the influence of Chinese martial arts novels in Kho's works, observing that: It might be true that he did not translate the works of other Chinese kungfu writers, but reading his novels, one gets the impression that he was very familiar with Chinese kungfu novels and was heavily influenced by them. The stories, book-titles and characters have strong Chinese kungfu novel flavour. Initially, most of his kungfu novels bore Chinese titles in Hokkien pronunciation.[...] But in recent years, he gradually dropped this practice and only used Indonesian titles.[...] His later works also include Chinese and non-Chinese characters. Suryadinata also observes that Kho appears to have introduced a new "tradition" in the kungfu novel writing in Indonesia when he preached intermarriage based on love in his nine-volume Kilat Pedang Membela Cinta, published in 1981, which is a love story between a Chinese and a Javanese in the Majapahit era. Chinese writing in Malaya before the 1950s was a tributary feeding into the mainstream of Chinese literature in China, with writers producing the subject matters and following the norms and conventions dictated by Mainland China. Although "cloak-and-dagger" novels were translated into Malay, along with fantastic stories, poems and historical novels when a renewal of interest in translations of Chinese novels surfaced in the Malay peninsula between 1930 and 1942, martial arts fiction as a literary genre could not be considered popular among the Peranakans. Martial arts novels translated during that period included Fei jian er shi si xia《飛劍二十四俠》, Qi jian shi san xia《七劍十三俠》, Yi zhi mei ping shan zei《一枝梅平山賊》, and stories that portray "righters of wrongs and attackers of injustice." According to Li Zhizhu 李致洙, Chinese martial arts fiction grew popular in Korea only in the early 1960s. Its popularity, stemmed initially from works translated into Korean in earlier years, stimulated the creation of Korean martial arts fiction around 1978 and Korean martial arts poetry and cartoon strips in the 1980s. Li attributes the wide popularity of Chinese martial arts fiction in Korea to four factors: firstly, Korea's long history of yizei xiaoshuo 義賊小說, stories of altruistic thieves, a literary genre closely resembling Chinese martial arts fiction; secondly, the novel impact of martial arts fiction still could make its presence felt even though Korea has been exposed to all literary forms in Chinese literature; thirdly, both the consideration of a modern commercial Korea that translation of martial arts fiction has not only benefitted newspapers in Taiwan, but also radio stations and the movie industry, as well as the psychological need to find diversion from the gloomy political and economic situations during the eighties; and finally, the showing of Hong Kong martial arts movies in Korea since 1967, the Bruce Lee 李小龍 fever in the 1970s, as well as the success of Jacky Chan 成龍 movies all helped to promote martial arts fiction in Korea. Li divides translational activities of martial arts fiction in Korea into three periods, each marked by different emphases on translating. The first period of Korean translation of martial arts fiction began with Yuchi Wen's 尉遲文 Jian hai gu hong《劍海孤鴻》, translated by Jin Guangzhou 金光洲, and serialized as Qing xia zhi《情俠誌》on the Jing Xiang News《京鄉新聞》in 1961. Jin Guangzhou carried out most of the translation during this period, but the works serialized in the newspapers were confined only to minor writers. The second period saw avid translation of works by Taiwan martial arts writers. Wolongsheng 臥龍生 almost came to represent Chinese martial arts fiction in 1968. Overseas Chinese were mostly responsible for translating the genre into Korean during this period as they could have access to materials serialized in the local Chinese newspapers. Korean martial arts fiction soon replaced the waning translational activities in 1978 when readers began to lose interest in the stereotyped contents of translated works in the mid-seventies. It was only in 1986 that translational activities saw a revival with the entry of Hong Kong top martial arts novelist Jin Yong into the market. All his works, excepting 'Yue nu jian 越女劍' , were completely translated within three years. Works by Liang Yusheng and Huanzhulouzhu were also in great demand. Hong Kong writers were translated most during this period, mainly by free-lancing graduate students or students who had studied in China. Li believes that only more serious translational efforts channelled into major works can help to revive the waning translational activities in Korea. Korean martial arts novels stimulated by Chinese martial arts fiction resemble the innovatory literary genre in every respect, except that the authors are Koreans. Contentwise, the stories also take place in China, the hero fighters are martial artists from the same major Schools, resorting to the same kind of martial feats commonly deployed in Chinese martial arts fiction. Translational activities of martial arts fiction in Asian countries testify to what Even-Zohar believes is a case of interference, 'defined as a relation(ship) between literatures, whereby a certain literature A (a source literature) may become a source of direct or indirect loans for another literature B (a target literature).' When interference takes place, as Even-Zohar writes, what may move, be borrowed, taken over from one "literature" to another is not just an item of repertoire, but also a host of other features/items. Often, it is not even repertoire which is the most decisive component participating in a specific interference relationship. The role and function of literature, the rules of the game of the literary institution, the nature of literary criticism and scholarship, the relations between religious, political, and other activities within culture and literary production -- all may be modelled in the given culture in relation to some other system. Viewed in the context of interference, translational activities of martial arts fiction in other Asian countries have not only acted as an innovatory force for creating new martial arts-themed novels, films, cartoons, and poetry in some places, but have also been appropriated by overseas Chinese in South-East Asia, such as introducing subversive readings, establishing cultural roots, keeping alive the cultural heritage, and enriching indigenous literature. Although the translation of traditional Chinese stories of knights-errant into European languages has been under way for quite some time, the translation of martial arts novels into English or other languages in the West has only been undertaken in the 1990s. Robin Wu's much condensed, albeit distorted and truncated, translation of Jin Yong's Xue shan fei hu《雪山飛狐》into Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain, serialized in four parts in Bridge magazine in New York in 1972, could hardly be considered a serious effort at translation. Besides Robin Wu's serialized translation, only three complete translations plus an incomplete one, consisting of the first two books of three, appear to have been published so far. The three complete translations are Christine Corniot's translation of Gu Long's 古龍 Huan le ying xiong《歡樂英雄》into Les quatre brigands du Huabei (1990), brought out in Paris; Robert Chard's translation of Huanzhulouzhu's 還珠樓主 Liu hu xia yin《柳湖俠隱》into Blades from the Willows (1991) and Seeds of Evil (1997), brought out in London; and Olivia Mok's full translation of Jin Yong's Xue shan fei hu《雪山飛狐》into Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain (1993), brought out in Hong Kong. The incomplete one is John Minford's translation of Jin Yong's Lu ding ji《鹿鼎記》into The Deer and the Cauldron: A Martial Arts Novel, The First Book (1997) and The Second Book (1999), brought out in New York. Viewed in the larger context of Chinese literature, this translational phenomenon serves only to re-affirm what Andrew Jones wrote earlier: Frustrating, however, in that in practice Chinese literature clearly remains relegated to a kind of "cultural ghetto" on the outskirts of the "global village," despite the best aspirations of its creators, critics, and translators toward "upward mobility" in the transnational literary economy. Jones also observes, 'This hegemony, of course, is directly figured by the differential value of "major" and "minor" languages in the translational literary market.' Linguistic issues aside, when the target language is contemporary English, this weak position of translated literature within the literary polysystem in the West has resulted also from what Lawrence Venuti believes to be 'the grossly unequal cultural exchanges between the hegemonic English-language nations, particularly the United States, and their others in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.' Investigation into the translational migrations of martial arts fiction perceived as a low or non-canonized form in an unrelated literature demonstrates the validity of the premise of polysystem theory that the "normal" position assumed by translated literature tends to be the peripheral one. However, different patterns of behaviour can be observed, depending on the hegemonic relations between source and target cultures. The long-standing traditionally dominant position of Anglo-American literature within a macro-polysystem made up of world literatures has led to martial arts fiction in English translation being relegated to an extremely peripheral position. Unlike the situation in the West, martial arts fiction is able to make inroads into Asian countries, particularly into sinicized countries with large overseas communities, either in the original Chinese language or in translated languages. These countries in Asia, already claiming a history of translating popular Chinese traditional novels, historical novels, and gongan for several centuries, differ from the West where, as Even-Zohar writes, 'items lacking in a target literature may remain untransferable if the state of the polysystem does not allow innovations.' It is also important to remember that Chinese literature, at least up to the beginning of the Qing dynasty, occupied a leading position in the interliterary community of the Far East. Only after China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War did Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Vietnam begin to withdraw gradually from this community. The translational phenomenon of martial arts fiction in Asia can be explained if the concept of a "commonwealth of Chinese literatures" is adopted. Mariá n Gá lik believes that this commonwealth can be called, quite adequately, 'a "community," intraliterary or national-literary, or interliterary sui generis, for it is created by Chinese men and women of letters on the China mainland, in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, and in foreign countries [...].' Gyö rgy Radó 's typology also sheds light on the translational migrations of martial arts fiction. Radó classifies English, along with French, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian as languages of unlimited diffusion (LUDs) or world languages; while Chinese, along with Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Swahili, Hungarian, etc. as languages of limited diffusion (LLDs). He postulates that the diffusion of world languages is 'extensive, centrifugal, and universal' while the diffusion of Chinese and such languages is 'intensive, centripetal, and limited'. One can also gain new insight into polysystem theory drawing on the nature and implications of the process of cultural transfer from an LLD, such as Chinese, into an LUD such as English, in the context of translation of theory. In Yo-In Song's terms, the translational migrations of martial arts fiction to the West can be considered an instance of transfer from an LLD into an LUD or "world language", meaning that: When it comes to cultural diffusion, Chinese culture is decidedly inferior to English simply because not enough of its impact is felt overseas to overtake English. This is true despite the fact Chinese culture is a more ancient one with a vastly more enriching storehouse of knowledge than English culture. This proves that mere number of speakers or greater historical tradition does not ensure a corresponding degree of diffusion throughout the world. However, a different pattern of behaviour can be observed pertaining to the translational phenomenon found in the East. This cultural transfer in the form of avid translational activities in neighbouring countries in Asia is analysed by Song: Historically, Chinese culture has had an impact in Asia as influential as the Greco-Roman culture has had in Western Europe. But, here again, when viewed on a global scale, Chinese culture is regarded as comparatively simple. The key word is "the global scale." Measured on the Asian, especially the Far Eastern Scale, Chinese is an LUD [language of unlimited diffusion] and the culture is a complex one. Even-Zohar's hypothesis recognizes both the "primary", i.e. creating new items and models, and "secondary", i.e. reinforcing existing items and models, function of translation within the polysystem. This study shows that a translated literature not only can assume a "primary" function within one polysystem, but also a "secondary" within another, supporting Even-Zohar's claim that the hierarchical level reached by a text within a given culture bears a correlation to the nature of the polysystem of the receiving culture and its social/literary historical circumstances. Even-Zohar considers the role translations play in the polysystem along two lines, noting that in cultures that are "weak", translations tend to play a strong or primary role and are located in the literary centre; and in cultures that are "strong", translations tend to play a secondary role and tend to be marginalized by the literary centres. Even-Zohar's thinking accommodates not only the primary role martial arts fiction as translated literature plays in the "weak" cultures in the East, but also the secondary role in the "strong" culture in the West. Are these criteria literary or political? The data on Asian countries suggest that they follow a law of literary interference in the polysystem which states that 'a literature may be selected as a source literature because it is considered a model to emulate,' bearing out Even-Zohar's claim that 'political and/or economic power may play a role in establishing such prestige, but not necessarily. What counts most is the cultural power of the source system.'
转自：http://www.muhupin.x-y.net/TAIWAN-1.htm，作者资料隐去。 |
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发表于 2006-10-24 16:35:44
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