ABSTRACT

Chinese translations of Western feminist classics have been complicated by cultural barriers and manipulated by publishers and translators. In 1953, H. M. Parshley translated Le deuxième sexe, often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy and the starting point of second-wave feminism, into English. Although severely criticized (Flotow 2000; Moi 2002; Simons 1983), Parshley’s English translation was the only source text for most Chinese translations. This chapter analyzes two earlier translations of The Second Sex and two of Le deuxième sexe , all in Chinese. It engages with the paratextual materials of the Chinese translations, especially translators’ prefaces and publishers’ notes, to see what cultural mediators say about these translation projects given the ideological and political constraints in Mainland China, known formally as the People’s Republic of China (hereafter PRC), and across the Taiwan Strait, in Taiwan. Drawing on the translations of the marriage and sexuality chapters, I investigate different word choices in four Chinese translations and analyze the “value orientations” behind these selections (Munday 2012, 13). I will take examples from prefaces and notes in a number of different translations, but restrict my more detailed analyses to four specific translations (Taiwan, 1973; PRC, 1998; PRC, 2011; Taiwan, 2013). 2

Following the Chinese civil war (1927-1950), the Communist Party of China took full control of Mainland China and founded the PRC in 1949. The Nationalist government had relocated its government to Taiwan in 1948, where it imposed martial law that was not lifted until July 15, 1987. Under military rule, formation of new political parties was illegal in Taiwan; the Taiwan Garrison Command censored all publications; registration of newspapers was limited to existing ones (Ku 1989, 12). Practically speaking, all channels of reform or change were closed, and it was made very clear that the government wanted no agitation of any kind. The Nationalist Party attempted to preserve the patriarchal and Confucian tradition in a tightly controlled society as one way of countering the drastic social and political

changes taking place in Mainland China (PRC). Women were encouraged to play supportive and subservient roles both at home and in society, and a maternal image of women was propagated and glorified (Ku 1989). In contrast, and as a result of the Communist Party of China’s policy of subordinating women’s organizations to national interests, gender differences in the PRC were erased and “iron girls” who “held up half the sky” served as role models for women. Paradoxically, for some time, Taiwan and the PRC resembled each other in their

subordination of feminism to priorities of nationalism and class-based revolution. . . . Both revolutionary parties attempted to impose discipline whenever expressions of feminist autonomy or radicalism appeared divisive, and both encouraged a retreat from radical feminism and family revolution.