Study of Discourse on Translating Chinese Literature Since 1949

After the founding of New China in 1949, the translation of Chinese literature commenced in large quantities at home and abroad. Accordingly, voluminous meta-discourses have been produced, which formed an expansive body of concepts, statements and knowledge about what, how and why to translate. It exists in a wide range of texts, generating a knowledge repertory for translating Chinese literature. This article argues that such a huge body of knowledge about translating Chinese literature deserves to be treated as an independent area for critical interrogation, which is suggested to be conducted from both synchronic and diachronic dimensions, centering on agents, products, events and categories, by resorting to an assortment of methods including textual analysis, hermeneutics, sociology, oral history, corpus linguistics, to name just a few. This integral and systemic study will enrich Chinese discourses on translation, constructing a translation discourse system with local characteristics, and guiding the practice thereof.