ABSTRACT
Jin Ping Mei, a classic Chinese novel written in the Ming dynasty, circa 1618, has a long history of entanglement with literary censorship in China. The erotic components in Jin Ping Mei have offered a serious challenge to most of its English translators. The odyssey of Jin Ping Mei's entering the linguistic and cultural territory of English is a vivid example of the interaction between texts and contexts. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book provides an overview of the research on the English translations of Jin Ping Mei. It deals with the two major texts of this research, namely The Golden Lotus (LOTUS) by Clement Egerton and The Plum in the Golden Vase (PLUM) by David Tod Roy. The book presents a comparative textual analysis of LOTUS and PLUM to explore the divergent interpretation and reproduction of the linguistic, cultural and literary features of the source text.
