ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the state of Chinese translation theory in as many different forms as possible. The blossoming of Chinese translation theory gives rise to a wide range of academic works spread on a continuum, with Western translation theory on one end and original Chinese theory on the other end. On the ‘Western end’, the simplest kind of work is adopting ideas from the imported theory and examining Chinese translation data to reveal new light brought about by new theory. The concept of equivalency in Chinese translation theory can be traced back to Nida, whose innovative idea of ‘dynamic equivalence’ was first introduced to China in the 1980s. The idea of ‘functional equivalence’ was considered innovative and a major breakthrough from the traditional, rigid paradigms of formal or semantic equivalence in Chinese translation studies circles from the 1980s onward. Lu Xun seemed to offer a cogent solution to how the deconstruction approach should be conceptualized in Chinese translation theory.
