CHIN 452 - Translating Chinese: Theory and Practice

How and why did the first translators who began to translate English into Chinese and Chinese into English, choose the texts they translated? What problems, both linguistically and culturally, did they encounter? Did the same issues arise when translating into Chinese and English, and how were they respectively addressed? Who did the translating? This course approaches the topic of Chinese translation simultaneiously from a socio-historical, empirical, and theoretical perspective. It addresses some of the fundamental issues faced when translating Chinese into foreign languages, English in particular. A the same time, the course functions as a practical workshop in which we read and translate a wide variety of Chinese primary texts and familiarize ourselves with tools of translation. Prerequisite(s): 2 years of Chinese language. (4 Credits)