Introduction

This chapter introduces the research theme, objectives and questions, the materials, the methodology, the structure, and the significance of the book. Applying actor-network theory, this book studies the practical translation actions that took place in the process of producing one of the English translations of Wu Cheng’en’s novel, Journey to the West (Xi You Ji), from Chinese. The translation, entitled Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China, was produced by a large number of translation agents/translation actors, acting together in different ways, in association with the United Kingdom publishing company George Allen and Unwin Ltd during a period of two and a half decades (1941-1966). This research aims to test the theoretical applicability of actor-network theory, to develop a system of methods that can guide and regulate the research, to add an interesting and organised description of the Chinese-English translation episode to translation history, and to identify and analyse the main translation actors and their methods of networking in the process of producing the translation. Groups of research questions are designed for each objective, which, if answered properly, can help to achieve their corresponding objectives. The research is based on archived publishing correspondence retrieved from the University of Reading, Special Collections, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., with supporting materials such as translations by Waley (including paratexts), autobiographies, old and archived newspapers and journals, and so on. One group of very practical methods of data collection and another group of methodological rules of data analysis make up the methodology. In this research, the meaning of translation is innovatively enriched and extensively enlarged.