ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates why censorship takes place in some of the translations and what factors underlie the censorship, and situates the study of censorship in broader social, historical, and political context. It also deals with context of translation publishing industry during the 30 years of reform and opening up when the Chinese translations of The Second Sex (TSS) and The Vagina Monologues (TVM) came into being. To understand censorship in the Chinese translations of TSS and TVM, it is important to know how censorship has been operated, what has been censored, and who the censors are, particularly in translation and publishing in China. Censorship in translation and publishing concerns two broad areas: sensitive political issues and explicit descriptions of sex. By and large, it can be concluded that there is a lack of censorship of sexuality in the Chinese translations of TSS. TVM poses potential threat to the seeming gender balance, and sexual and marital harmony in present China.
