摘 要

2016年8月21日，中国科幻作家郝景芳凭借《北京折叠》荣获第74届雨果奖最佳短篇小说奖，获得了科幻界的至高荣誉。但是这并无法掩盖中国科幻小说发展滞后的现实。随着当前文化交流的日益密切，科幻小说的翻译越来越引起人们的重视。但是国内翻译界始终没有给予科幻小说翻译足够的重视。《北京折叠》能够荣获雨果奖，很大程度上得益于它的翻译者——刘宇昆。本文试从译者主体性的角度分析《北京折叠》的翻译，全文共分为四个部分，第一部分介绍了《北京折叠》的内容、作者，以及科幻小说的定义；第二部分讲述了本文的理论基础译者主体性；第三部分是关于译者主体性的具体表现；第四部分是关于译者主体性在翻译过程中的体现；最后一部分说明了中国科幻小说翻译的意义并表达了笔者对科幻小说翻译取得进步的美好祝愿。

关键词：译者主体性；《北京折叠》；中国科幻小说

Abstract

In August 21, 2016, a Chinese science fiction writer Hao Jingfang won the 74th Hugo Award for best short stories by Folding Beijing and got the highest honor in the field of science fiction. But this can not cover up the development of backward in Chinese science fiction. With the frequent culture exchanges, the translation of science fiction has attracted more and more attention. But the Chinese translation field has not paid enough attention to the translation of science fiction. Folding Beijing can win the Hugo award, largely owes to its translator - Ken Liu. This paper attempts to analyze the translation of the Folding Beijing from the translator's subjectivity. This paper is divided into five parts. Part one introduces Folding Beijing and its author, and gives the definition of science fiction; Part two discusses the theoretical basis, translator’s subjectivity; Part three is about the specific manifestation of the translator's subjectivity; Part four is about the embodiment of the translator's subjectivity in the process of translation; The last part is about the significance of the translation of Chinese science fiction and the author hope the translation of Chinese science fiction will make progress.

Key words: Translator’s Subjectivity ; Folding Beijing; Chinese Science Fiction

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 An introduction of the author 1

1.2 An introduction of Folding Beijing 1

1.3.Definition of science fiction 2

2 Translator’s Subjectivity 4

2.1 The study on translation subject 4

2.2 Subject and subjectivity 5

2.3 The definition of translator’s subjectivity 6

3 The specific manifestation of the translator's subjectivity 7

3.1 The translator's subjective understanding of the original text. 7

3.2 The active choice on translation criteria and methods 7

3.3 The transmission of the original text culture 8

4 Translator’s Subjectivity in Translation 9

4.1 The accuracy of tenses 10

4.2 Consistency of person's perspective 10

4.3 Equivalence of semantic functions 11

5 Conclusion 13

References 14

Acknowledgments 15

On the Translator’s Subjectivity in the Translation of Folding Beijing

1 Introduction

1.1 An introduction of the author

Hao Jingfang is a Chinese science fiction writer. She won the Hugo Award for the Best Novelette for Folding Beijing, translated by Ken Liu, at the 2016 Hugo Awards. Hao works as a macroeconomics researcher at China Development Research Foundation, a quango organization located in Beijing, China. Hao was born in Tianjin, on July 27, 1984. After finished high school, she studied at Tsinghua University in the area of physics. After noticing the economic inequality of China, she studied economics in Tsinghua University, obtained a doctoral degree in 2013, and worked as a researcher at China Development Research Foundation.

In 2002, as a high school student, she won the first prize at the 4th national high school new concept of composition contest. In 2016, she won the Hugo Award for the Best Novelette for her work Folding Beijing. She became the first Chinese woman to win a Hugo Award.

1.2 An introduction of Folding Beijing

Folding Beijing, a short story by a Chinese science-fiction writer Hao Jingfang, , is set in a futuristic version of China’s capital where inequality is so stark that different social groups are not allowed to use the same ground simultaneously. In an unspecified future, Beijing within the 6th Ring Road is divided by three classes physically, sharing the same earth surface in each 48 hour cycle: The first governing class with 5 million population occupy the space for 24 hours from 6 am to 6 am, after which the earth's surface will be turned upside-down, to move the second and third class up. The second class has 25 million middle-class people, and will enjoy 16 hours from 6 am to 10 pm. Then, the building of the second class will fold and retract while the high buildings of the third class unfold and rise, which hosts 50 million lower class people, who can be awake for 8 hours till 6 am. When each class is turned down or folded, the residents there would be put into sleep. Travelling between classes is tightly controlled and violators would be put into jail.

Lao Dao, a waste processing worker of the third class, finds a message from Qin Tian, a graduate student in the second class. Qin offers Lao Dao money, if he can deliver a love letter to Yi Yan, Qin's lover in the first class. To make enough money for his adopted daughter Tangtang's kindergarten tuition, Lao Dao accepts this job. After he manages to arrive the first class, he finds that Yi Yan is actually a married woman, who offers Lao Dao more money to hide this fact from Qin. On the way back, Lao Dao is captured due to the lack of an identification of the first class, but rescued by Ge, a security official who was born in the third class. Lao Dao accidentally finds that the whole waste processing industry, the main economic pillar of the third world, can be easily replaced by technology - and it is not replaced only to provide jobs for those third class people. After dropping the response letter to Qin in the second class, Lao Dao comes back to the third class with newly made money, and continues his life.

1.3.Definition of science fiction

Science fiction is a fictional work that describes the influence of science or technology on the society or individual. Science fiction is a new genre of modern western literature, and it is an important literary genre after the capitalist industrial revolution. Most of the science fiction writing is based on a hypothetical exploration of the universe or the future. The particularity of science fiction is that it has a direct relation with the development of science and technology, but it is also a kind of literary creation, does not undertake the task of spreading scientific knowledge(Wu,1991).

Science fiction is generally divided into soft science fiction and hard science fiction. Soft science fiction refers to the branch of science fiction plot and theme focused on philosophy, psychology, politics and sociology etc. The tendency of soft science fiction, generally focuses on the description of characters and emotions, rooted in the social reality, reflect the contradictions and problems in social reality. Hard science fiction is based on physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and other natural sciences, based on the description of new technology and new inventions to human society, the impact of science fiction. Comparison of the two can be seen, the soft science fiction to the emotional focus of the characters, and have many similarities with the general popular literary novels.