ABSTRACT
In literary adaptations, the adaptor re-interprets and re-presents the source text (ST) in a way responsive to his/her own historical context by either conforming to or rebelling against it. The replacement of the more exotic Chinese name, in combination with the less prominent positioning of the ST title Chin P'ing Mei, reduces the chance of its immediate identification as a translated work. At any rate, Beiles did not reveal elsewhere that Chinese is his first language, nor did he concede his source of rewriting being a previous translation, yet anyone who has perused the Miall translation will have little difficulty recognising the genetic affinity between the two. Turning to the back cover of the hardback edition, the introduction starts with a superlative to advertise its distinction from other English versions: The fullest translation of Jin Ping Mei available in English.
