Title: Strengthening and Weakening of “Self-Image”: A Study of Li Yao’s Translation of The Rose Crossing

Abstract: Using imagological theory, this paper makes a comparative study of changes in the China image in Nicholas Jose’s The Rose Crossing and Li Yao’s translation, and shows how the “self-image” deviated from the original work from both traditional and realistic perspectives. Through image analysis of the text, this paper finds that the translator remolds a China image that satisfies the expectations of the target language context in three examples: the image of the Celestial Empire, the image of loyalty to the emperor and nation, and the image of sex. The regressive self-image constructed by the translator reflects his cultural interpretation of the dual vision of tradition and reality. By studying the rewriting of the China image in the translated text, this paper explores the interaction among cross-cultural writing, translation, and the cultural image, hoping to broaden academic research on the China image in Nicholas Jose’s works and further promote the development of image-based translation research.

Keywords: imagological approach, self-image, The Rose Crossing, China image

Author: Rong He, School of Humanities, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China; Linxin Liang, Associate Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.