Abstract

The book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan written by Chinese-American writer Lisa See was published in 2005. Then, it won an immediate success and sold over 1000,000 volumes. See vividly depicts the feudal male-dominated culture in China which ruins women as well as the experience and living condition of people suffering from tempestuous course. The book has provided exquisite and subtle feminine psychological descriptions and details of female culture in Hunan Province (e.g. nü shu, foot-binding, old sames). Therefore, it is important for the translators to reproduce the details.
This thesis makes a comparison between the original work and Xin Yuanjie’s Chinese version (published in 2006), finding that a mutually beneficial yet subtle connection exists between the feminist writer and her translator. Adopting a gendered perspective to explore the translation of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is fruitful because the writer and the translator are of the same sex and are on the same page.

Key words: gender, translation, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

摘要

美国华裔作家邝丽莎的Snow Flower and the Secret Fan一书自2005年出版以来受到人们的广泛好评，销量过100万册，其成功主要在于对封建时代中国男权文化摧残、压制女性的描写和对命运跌宕起伏下人物经历、生活状态的刻画。书内涉及大量细腻委婉的女性心理描写以及诸如女书、缠足、老同等女性特有的文化，如何再现这些细节是翻译的重点。
本文对原著及2006年忻元洁翻译的《雪花和秘密的扇子》进行对比研究，发现女性作者和女性译者之间有一种互惠互利但偶尔脆弱的关系。鉴于作者和译者性别相同，观点一致，以性别视角来探索Snow Flower and the Secret Fan一书的翻译是很有必要的。

关键词：性别；翻译；《雪花和秘密的扇子》

Chapter One Introduction

Chinese American women writers, especially Lisa See, leave a lasting imprint on contemporary American literature world. Being a female writer, See concerns about female survival situations and how to strive for woman’s rights, showing strong feminist consciousness in her works, represented On Gold Mountain ，Peony in Love，Shanghai Girls and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. As a very typical one, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a great hit. Cosmopolitan(2006) evaluated the book as “Startling vivid... Punishing customs, such as foot-binding, and unbreakable female bonds are brought to life in enchanting detail. So gorgeous it hurts.” Also, what attracts the readers most is the beautiful, real and secret world that See unfolds in front of the audience.
 Feminist translation theory aims to identify and critique the tangle of concepts which relegates both women and translations to the bottom of the social literary ladder(Sherry Simon 2001). Composing from female insight and vision, female writers convey certain type of sensitive female psychology through various techniques of writing. Since the book centers around the unique theme of lifelong female friendship and sufferings, translators need to take gender positions when it comes to the translation theory.