Chinese Dreams: (Self-)Orientalism and Post-Orientalism in the Reception and Translation of Liu Cixin’s Three- Body Trilogy
Article paru dans le troisième volume de la revue Journal of Translation Studies (published for the Department of Translation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Gwennaël Gaffric
University of Lyon
Abstract
After receiving the Hugo Award in 2015 for the English translation of The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin’s Three-Body trilogy and its translations into a large number of languages have been a massive success, prompting many reactions and much praise. In this article, I attempt to discuss first the global processes of translation and reception of Liu’s novels beyond China. I particularly focus on the Orientalist imaginary conveyed by the publication of the trilogy, at a time when Chinese science fiction has become a tool for the Chinese soft power strategy based on the culturalist and nationalist discourse of the “Chinese Dream.” I also examine the reception in China of the success of Liu
Cixin’s translations, and the way in which Chinese media and officials are also engaging in a process of self-Orientalization. In a the second phase, I try to question the task and the strategy of the translators when confronting these Orientalist projections: how
does a translator makes himself or herself an accomplice of these fantasies, and how can she/he engage in a post-Orientalist or anti- Orientalist approach? This reflection is illustrated by concrete examples from my own translation of Liu Cixin’s trilogy into French.
Keywords
translation, reception, Liu Cixin, Three-Body trilogy, Orientalism, post-Orientalism
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Chinese Dreams: (Self-)Orientalism and Post-Orientalism in the Reception and Translation of Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Trilogy
University of Lyon
Abstract
After receiving the Hugo Award in 2015 for the English translation of The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin’s Three-Body trilogy and its translations into a large number of languages have been a massive success, prompting many reactions and much praise. In this article, I attempt to discuss first the global processes of translation and reception of Liu’s novels beyond China. I particularly focus on the Orientalist imaginary conveyed by the publication of the trilogy, at a time when Chinese science fiction has become a tool for the Chinese soft power strategy based on the culturalist and nationalist discourse of the “Chinese Dream.” I also examine the reception in China of the success of Liu
Cixin’s translations, and the way in which Chinese media and officials are also engaging in a process of self-Orientalization. In a the second phase, I try to question the task and the strategy of the translators when confronting these Orientalist projections: how
does a translator makes himself or herself an accomplice of these fantasies, and how can she/he engage in a post-Orientalist or anti- Orientalist approach? This reflection is illustrated by concrete examples from my own translation of Liu Cixin’s trilogy into French.
Keywords
translation, reception, Liu Cixin, Three-Body trilogy, Orientalism, post-Orientalism
Lien vers le sommaire du numéro
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