
In this thesis the relationship between cultural diaspora and translation as well as the translation in the perspective of cultural diaspora is explained before it is applied to the case study of Lin Yutang’s translating Fu Sheng Liu Ji. With the case study, the author examined how such a perspective of cultural diaspora is manifested in Lin Yutang’s version. From the analysis in the previous chapters, we can draw the following conclusion:
The perspective of cultural diaspora, which resists the assimilation of culture and tries to conduct new cultural practice with the cross-national perspective and the art of cultural translation, provides great enlightenment for translation to complete its mission as promoting cultural diversity and achieve cultural communication.
Firstly, it is an undeniable fact that differences between cultures exist objectively. The nature of culture is diasporic. Presentation of historical and cultural difference and otherness is of importance if a nation tends to develop its culture. Thus it is of vitality for a translator to develop a cultural perspective.
Secondly, in the context of globalization, the translator bear the mission and responsibility of transmitting cultural otherness, thus to realize the cultural diaspora, and cultural diversity finally. The translation then becomes a text of reconstruction of foreignness. The target readers are thus sent abroad with purposes.
Thirdly, the perspective of cultural diaspora recognizes and respects the differences between cultures. During the process of translating, a translator should keep in mind that on the one hand, he should present the otherness of the target culture; while on the other hand, he should flexibly mediate between foreignization and domestication methods to achieve a harmonious translation version. The cultural perspective inspires translator to consider the cultural items in actual context before deciding what kind of item should be foreignized or domesticated. When choosing the appropriate translation strategies, translator should be aware that each piece of cultural information is of different function and importance. Although the diasporic perspective requires us to take foreignization as the major translation strategies, a downright foreignizing strategy doesn’t work. As is shown in the case study in Lin Yutang’s translation version Six Chapters of a Floating Life, he not only presented Chinese cultural foreignness to the target readers but also skillfully and flexibly adjusted them to create a harmonious text, which remains its foreignness but comprehensible for the target readers. That’s why this translation version is chosen as a good example observing the choice of translation strategies under the perspective of cultural diaspora.
In a word, the perspective of cultural diaspora guides translators to recognize and respect the otherness of culture with a tolerant and communicative attitude, and enables them to choose the appropriate translation strategies towards the cultural items to form a diasporic text, which benefits the communication and diversity of culture. The diasporic perspective is new to the study and research on translation theory and practice. Due to the limits and insufficiency of relative researching accomplishments and academic papers, the present thesis may have flaws in a way. The theoretical part of cultural diaspora needs to be further developed. But it is without doubt the perspective of cultural diaspora has aroused attention of researchers. It will be enlightening to researchers in this field. More work remains to be done.
