Introduction

Besides collaboration-oriented translation practices, the type of translation activity of Taiwan literature is individual and commerce-based. In response to the manifold trajectories of enquiry, translation studies have taken different approaches or turns by borrowing theoretical frameworks and concepts from other disciplines to study the sophisticated phenomenon of translating and translation. The examination of translation and its practice is always considered a multiplicity and proliferation of meaning that is intricately entwined with an array of political, economic, historical, and socio-cultural factors which significantly impact on the translation as a linguistic and cultural representation. This translation activity involves negotiations, interpretations, compromises and interactions between two cultures and among various translation players. A discipline of translation research concentrates on the cultural aspects of translation that consider language inseparable from culture and explores the translation of material culture as well as the sociolinguistic aspect of translating culture. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts in this book.