A Comparative Study Between Self-Translation and Conventional Translation of Eileen Chang’s Gui Hua Zheng Ah Xiao Bei Qiu from the Perspective of Translator’s Subjectivity

Abstract

Based on the translator’s subjectivity as well as both Chinese and English texts, this paper is to compare the self-translation and conventional translation of Eileen Chang’s Gui Hua Zheng Ah Xiao Bei Qiu with the help of text analysis software in terms of passivity, subjective initiative and purposefulness. The paper holds that the self-translation seems to be concise and comprehensive as well as natural and unrestrained, showing the self-translator’s subjectivity is much greater than the conventional translator’s, and that the conventional translation appears to be faithful and smooth as well as precise and complete, indicating the translator’s subjectivity is, to some extent, fairly covert and restricted.