Tianyu Yu
Thesis title (PhD)
CHINESE MODERNITY AND GENDER RE-CONSTRUCTED IN LIN YUTANG’S TRANSCREATION WORK: A CASE STUDY ON MOMENTS IN PEKING
Moment in Peking is an English novel written by Lin Yutang (林语堂, 1895-1976) during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Lin used many translation strategies to introduce Chinese culture in his original English text, and his writing has the characteristics of “transcreation” — “partial translation and partial writing”. Moment in Peking also has been produced into some Chinese abridged translations, three Chinese full translations, a Yue opera adaption, a film adaption and three television adaptions.
There is considerable research on Moment in Peking, but no one studied its multiplicity from Chinese modernity, gender studies and transcreation perspective together yet. This study aims to fill this gap.
This study assumes that Lin adopted a fresh perspective of placing women in the centre of the story and historical context in Moment in Peking and it aims to offer a bigger picture of China’s transformation to modernity through a critical account of the transcreational presentations of Chinese women characters in Moment in Peking as well as their different appropriations in the back-translations and visual adaptations of Moment in Peking in different historical contexts of 20th century China.