Introduction

As the first scholarly volume to introduce the very broad theme of Chinese literature in English translation, we were selective in the timeframe chosen for analysis. Qiang Geng labels the circulation of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world as “gift-giving”: the Chinese government arranged for Chinese literary works to be translated into English and distributed the translations to the West free of charge. Geng approaches the topic of outbound translation, i.e. translation initiated by the source culture rather than sought out by target culture, using the example of the Panda Books Series, produced by China’s Foreign Languages Bureau since the early 1980s. Geng approaches the topic of outbound translation, i.e. translation initiated by the source culture rather than sought out by the target culture. Translation is presented as launching pad for Gatherer’s in-depth discussion of literary expression; translation strategy is examined, not in terms of linguistic fidelity, but with regard to its impact and effect in context of target language.