2. Literature Review

2.1 Synopsis of Wolf Totem

Wolf Totem is written by Lv Jiamin, a university professor, whose pseudonym is Jiang Rong. It is an epic story which describes nomads’ life and their stories with wolves on the Inner Mongolia grassland. It happened during the 1960s and 1970s. The novel is presented by dozens of coherent wolf stories. It displays the relationship between people and nature, the nature of wolves and the character of people. It also gains insight into nature rulers and humanity. The protagonist Chen Zhen, a young Chinese intellectual from Beijing was sent to the Inner Mongolia grassland to be a member of production team during Cultural Revolution. From his eyes and experience, we know deeply about the magic ecology of grassland. The novel has two clues across all chapters. One clue is the philosophy of balanced ecology presented by the description of wolf and other species and their co-existence with eco-environment. It stimulates thinking towards nomadic culture, industrial civilization, and agricultural civilization. The other clue is the national character. It reveals bad qualities of people like cowardice, short-sightedness through the contrast between the wisdom of nomads with wolf spirits and tillers of the land. In a word, it is novel with rich connotations in history and culture.

2.2 Core Concepts of Eco-translatology 源[自-吹冰*`论/文'网·www.chuibin.com 

2.2.1 Eco-translatology

Eco-translatology is a combination of Translation and Ecology which advocates the study of translation in the light of Ecology. Driven by modern ecology trends, the approach to translation as adaptation and selection is an emerging theory firstly put forward by Hu Gengshen in 2001, based on Darwin’s principle of natural selection. The theory gets some inspirations from Darwinism to explore the relationship between the translator and eco-environment in the translational activity, such as “eco-environment”, “adaptation”, “selection”, “survival of the fittest” which are also core concepts in the theory. Hu defines translation as a selective activity for translator in order to fit the translational eco-environment. Under this viewpoint, he holds that the process of translation is an alternant cycle of adaptation and selection which lays an emphasis on the leading role of translator. It is composed of two stages.(Hu Gengshen, 2004: 222)In the first stage, a translator is subordinate to some key factors of translational eco-environment deciding whether he or she is the best choice and gains the right to translate. In the second stage, the translator, a crucial element of the translational environment, becomes the ruler who decides, selects and controls during the whole translation process. In other word, the translator constantly applies three-dimensional transformations and gives considerations to all potential constraints to give birth to the best translation version, in order to survive in the multi-dimensional translation space. In conclusion, the best work meets the highest standards of holistic adaptive selection from the aspects of multi-dimensional transformations, reader’s feedback and translator’s quality.

2.2.2 Translation Eco-environment

Translation eco-environment, according to Professor Hu, is a world presented by the source text, source languages and target languages, a connected and interacting integration involving language, communication, culture, community, reader, author as well as client. It is a general environment concluding translator and transmission of translation work. It is a collection of all factors which restricts translator’s best adaptation and optimized selection. As the research goes deeply, the scope of eco-environment is become wider. It includes the text involved, culture environment and translation community which are made up of people engaged in translation activity like translator, reader, patron, publisher and reviewer. (Hu Geng shen, 2011:5-9) Translational eco-environment whose typical element is source text will screen out the qualified translator who has a good command of both languages and shows great passion and interests toward the work. What’s more, there is another important element is reader. Translators should take into account the overall factors and values of tradition of the target language. The overlap area of reader’s needs and source text will make translation activity go smoothly.