ABSTRACT

Canonical modern Chinese writers were often influenced by Western or Russian literature and in many cases were themselves its translators. A common form of cultural resistance is an unwillingness to translate canonical foreign texts. In the Chinese cultural context, canonicity and translation are irrevocably interconnected and interdependent. A canon is an artifact carefully constructed and shaped by generations of thinking about what works are essential. Translation and canonical foreign literature have brought about both subtle and fundamental changes to conceptions about canonization and canon formation in the Chinese literary establishment. Cultural liberalism has become possible through increased cultural contacts with the outside world, and cultural production inevitably needs to cross cultural boundaries with the freedom to move toward foreign cultures. In the Chinese cultural context, to publish Chinese translations of canonized Western literary works has always been viewed as part of the cultural responsibility of Chinese publishers.