Translating Feminism in Children’s Folk Tales – A Comparative Analysis of Two English Translations of Meng Jiangnü

Abstract

Children’s literature adapted or originating from folk tales serve as a unique access to the core social concepts of a country. This paper approaches feminist translation and adaptation of children’s literature through examining two English translations of a Chinese folktale, Meng Jiangnü for children at the reading age of 5 to 14 years. The illustrative case studies attempt to compare translations of some cultural constructs encompassing the naming practices, the “ku” (mourning) custom and the calabash (fertility) custom, that expose, foreground or impact gender and feminist consciousness, and demonstrate the basics and categories on the grounds of which the texts are established. Since the article embraces all the gender issues on social and cultural grounds, it analyses the texts in a descriptive manner and proposes four translational strategies including removing, weakening, preserving and strengthening. Through close observation of the adaptations or translations of folk tales for children, we are able to perceive the (un)conscious feminizing process by the translator, the rewriter or the editor though they are reluctant to be labelled as “feminists”.

Keywords

• feminist translation and adaptation
• children’s literature (cl)
• cultural constructs
• children
• chinese folktales