Exploring Chinese Experimental Literary Translation: Translation of Latin American Magic Realism into Modern Chinese

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to develop useful empirical research methods to advance the understanding of experimental Chinese literary translation. This will be based on an empirical corpus-based study of two modern Chinese versions of Gabriel García Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. The case study reveals that in translating linguistic events, textual features and cultural phenomena that are unknown to the target audience, for example, magical realism, into Chinese, translators may adopt a range of translation strategies and tactics that lead to significant differences between the genre of the translation and the corresponding genre in the target language. New linguistic expressions and writing techniques introduced by experimental literary translation will either be normalised by existing writing conventions or be accepted by the target readership which in turn will expand and enrich the target language and cultural system.