Translation as Rewriting: From Niezi to Crystal Boys

• Main Authors: Yi-Fang Liu, 劉議方
• Other Authors: Yiu-Man Ma
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ycz3qq

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 翻譯碩士學位學程 === 106 === Abstract Niezi is the only full-length novel by Taiwanese writer Bai Xianyong. Published in 1983, with male homosexuals as the subject, Niezi created a sensation in the literary world then and is seen as the pioneer of Chinese homosexual literature. Bai has indicated that his aim of writing Niezi is to probe into the issue of homosexuality “from a Chinese perspective” and that theme of Niezi is “father-son relationships.” Thus, Niezi not only portrays the image of the underprivileged male homosexuals in Taipei in the 1970s, but the work has also probed into the father-son relationships and conflicts in the Chinese traditional culture, as well as the conflicts between the homosexual individuals and the Taiwanese society. In the novel, the gay teenagers, unacceptable by their families and the society, construct their own community in the Taipei New Park, and engage in prostitution. The same-sex relationships they build, including the relationship with their mentor Yang and their relationships with their sponsors, are described as quasi father-son relationships, which can be regarded as an extension of the traditional Chinese familial structure. Also, Bai has depicted the homophobic atmosphere in the society, where the public’s imagination of male homosexuals is still based on the depiction of male-male relations in pre-modern Chinese literature, which can be discerned by Chinese classic literary allusions used in the novel. On the other hand, religious belief is also a significant element in the fiction. With the concept of reincarnation and karma in Buddhism, integrated with the belief of Taoism and Chinese folk religion, the concept of life in Niezi is presented. Niezi is not merely a gay novel but also a fiction that writes about “human being.” The English translation of Niezi, titled Crystal Boys, by Howard Goldblatt was published in 1990 by Gay Sunshine Press. Goldblatt has indicated that rewriting is inevitable in translation. Since the 1990s, the focus of Translation Studies has gradually shifted from the debates on faithfulness to the examination of manipulative strategies in the process of translation and proposed an idea of translation as rewriting. The study discusses the correlation between the story of Niezi and its title and analyzes how the image of the male homosexuals are re-made with the translation of the title from “niezi” to “crystal boys” by Goldblatt. Further, the study examines the translation strategies deployed by Goldblatt in Crystal Boys and scrutinizes Goldblatt’s re-presentation of the image of male homosexuals in Taipei in 1970s, the father-son conflicts in the traditional Chinese culture, and the public’s imagination of male homosexuals on the basis of the pre-modern Chinese literary works. It is in the interest of this study to investigate how Niezi is transformed in Crystal Boys through Goldblatt’s re-presentation.