2.2.2 Three Properties of Language 6

III. Lin Yutang and Moment in Peking 6

3.1 A Brief Introduction to Lin Yutang 6

3.2 An overview of Moment in Pecking and the Two Chinese Versions 8

IV. Studies on Rootless Back Translation of Moment in Peking in Light

of Adaptation Theory 10

4.1 Similar Methods Adopted by Zhang and Yu 11

4.1.1 Transliteration 11

4.1.2 Literal Translation 12

4.1.3 Rootless Back translation 13

4.2 Different Methods Adopted by Zhang and Yu 14

4.2.1 Restoration of Beijing Dialect at Phonological Level vs Lexical Level 15

4.2.2 Reconstruction vs Maintenance of Original Syntactical Sequencing 16

4.2.3 Creative Transformation vs Faithful Translation of the Content 17

4.2.4 Creative Transformation vs Faithful Translation of the Content 18

V.、Conclusion 19

5.1 Major Findings 19

5.2 Limitations and Future Improvement .

Bibliography 20

I. Rootless Back Translation

1.1 The definition of Rootless Back Translation

“ Rootless back translation ” is a new term created by Wang Hongyin in 2012. Wang Hongyin put forward the definitions of original text resto- ration, foreign language creation, and   rootless back translation   in his the-sis The Foreign Language Creation and Rootless Back Translation of Moment in Peking，which is published in Foreign Language and Their Teaching (2012). “Foreign language creation” makes a reference to a novel of Chinese culture but written in English. Hence its Chinese translation version belongs to “rootless back translation”. In other words, one back translation of its English version into the Chinese “original version” which is non-existent in fact. Among it, when we translate an English writing of Chinese classical text back into Chinese, this kind of translation belongs to “original text restoration”, which means back to the Chinese original text directly without going through translation.

This kind of Chinese translation is not a language return but a kind of cultural return. It is named as “rootless back translation”, that is, there is not any “original text” for the back translation in language. As a matter of fact, this study is significant not only for how English writing expresses Chinese culture test, but also for the strategies of Chinese literature creation and Chinese. Furthermore, it is meaningful for the reception psychology of both recent domestic readers and foreign readers. This kind of translation is a typical case named as a weird translation, namely, the back translation of foreign language or foreign land writing. The “original text restoration” of the translation of Chinese classics, is a back translation. That is to say, for the classics, it is a back translation which can return to the original lan- guage state not through any process, including literal changes, i.e. original reproduction. Therefore, for our Translation Studies, this original repro- duction doesn’t need brains and will allow no change in the original text, except as printing necessity. That is means this reproduction does not have any value in understanding and theory.The intention of foreign language creation and foreign lands commu- nication is reflected by the writing of Moment in Peking . It is a novel of binary oppositions of west form and Chinese content and west form, and a novel of combination of western and Chinese. The translating strategies can be pided clearly into two ways: one is domestication, making some creative translation or changes; the other one is alienation, translating in accordance with the original text. The former is consistent with the original content; the latter is consistent with the original form. Judging from the effect, the former is better, because the former realizes the original English writer’s full transition to the target reader, regarding the reading habit of Chinese readers and conforming to the Chinese culture (Wang Hongyin, 2012: 66-69).By the way, some scholars had paid attention to this translating phe- nomenon and special writing and had also conducted some related re- searches before Wang Hongyin (2012) defined the new concepts of “for- eign language creation”, “original text restoration” and “rootless back translation”.