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The Language of a Faithful Translator: On Canonising the Mandarin Union Version and Translating The Shack, a Contemporary Bestseller
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 June 2019
Abstract
This article explores the continuing linguistic impact of the Mandarin Union Version by investigating and contrasting two Chinese translations of William Paul Young's global bestseller The Shack (2007): the Traditional Chinese version Xiaowu (《小屋》, 2009) and the Simplified Chinese version Pengwu (《棚屋》, 2010). Ever since its publication, the Mandarin Union Version has served as the predominant Bible within Mandarin-speaking Protestant communities across the world. This has brought about the standardisation of terminology in Chinese Protestantism. The Shack, though widely marked as a Christian novel, is also known for its unconventional fictional representations of Christianity that some Christians think depart from orthodoxy. Both Xiaowu and Pengwu were published by non-Christian publishing houses for a general readership. However, Xiaowu, translated by a Christian, exhibits a significant number of phrases that specifically belong to Chinese Christian terminology shaped by the Mandarin Union Version. Pengwu is a contrast in this regard. By comparing extracts from these two Chinese versions, this article highlights how far the Mandarin Union Version has contributed to the formation of the linguistic repertoire of Mandarin-speaking Christian translators as well as linguistic norms for translated Christian-themed texts into Chinese.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2019
References
1 Mak, G. K. W., Protestant Bible Translation and Mandarin as the National Language of China (Leiden, 2017), pp. 2–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The emphasis is in the original quote.
2 Jost Oliver Zetzsche, in his influential monograph The Bible in China (Nettetal, 1999), details the history of the UV in China.
3 Y. Y. Chong, ‘Canonicity and Stability: On the Evolution of the Chinese Bible Polysystem’ [‘Jingdian hua yu wending xing –Zhongwen shengjing duoyuan xitong de yanjin’ 經典化與穩定性—中文聖經多元系統的演進], in Translation Studies: From Polysystem Theory to Deconstruction [Duoyuan de jiegou –cong jiegou dao hou jiegou de fanyi yanjiu 多元的解構──從結構到後結構的翻譯研究]. (Taipei, 2008). In a nutshell, polysystem theory intends to investigate socio-semiotic phenomenon within their contexts in a systemic way. It regards each socio-semiotic activity as a component of a larger polysystem, and each polysystem is a hierarchical system in which the power relations amongst different elements interact dynamically.
4 Ibid., pp. 26-27. Chong builds her discussion upon Even-Zohar's hypothesis that canonised texts are those that occupy the centre of a polysystem. Although the main aim of this article is not to engage in theoretical discussion, it is worth mentioning here that Even-Zohar's equalisation of ‘canon’ and ‘centre’ has been challenged by some researchers. For instance, Philippe Codde quotes Rakefet Sheffy to point out that: “Clearly, items can be canonised “in the sense that they are largely recognised and their prestige acknowledged” but are not central “in the sense that they do not meet contemporary prevailing literary norms nor serve as active models for producing new texts”. See Sheffy, R., ‘The Concept of Canonicity in Polysystem Theory’, Poetics Today 11, 3 [Fall 1990], pp. 511–522CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See Codde, P., ‘Polysystem Theory Revisited: A New Comparative Introduction’, Poetics Today 24, 1 (2003), p. 103CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Chong, ‘Canonicity and Stability’, pp. 23-24.
6 Ibid., pp. 28-33.
7 Zetzsche, The Bible in China, p. 343.
8 Ibid., pp. 344-345
9 The earliest history of Han Chinese immigration that can be traced nowadays is that of the migrants from Fukien in the second half of the sixteenth century: see Shao-hsing Ch'en (1966) (1979), cited in Hsiau, A., Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism (London, 2000)Google Scholar. Taiwan gradually became a Han Chinese-dominated society when Chinese immigrants, mostly from Southeast China, started settling in the island in the seventeenth century at the time that Taiwan was colonised by the Dutch. Before then, Taiwan was mainly inhabited by different groups of aborigines whose languages are classified as Malayo-Polynesian languages. See Hsiau, Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism, p. 3. Nowadays, the roughly delineated demographic statistics of Taiwan's population shows that approximately 69% of Taiwanese people are Hoklo people whose ancestors were immigrants from Fukien with Hoklo as their mother tongue, 15% are Hakka primarily originating from Kwangtung and have Hakka as their first language, 14% are categorised as Mainland Chinese whose families resettled in Taiwan along with KMT's retreat after the Chinese Civil War, and the remaining 2% are the various indigenous Taiwanese groups. See ‘Taiwan Flashpoint: History’, BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/04/taiwan_flashpoint/html/history.stm (accessed 25 September 2017).
10 ‘The Chronicle of Taiwan's Language Policy (1895-2007)’ [‘Taiwan yuyan zhengce da shiji (1895-2007)’ 台灣語言政策大事紀(1895~2007)], National Museum of Taiwan Literature, http://dig.nmtl.gov.tw/taigi/02sp/04_list.html (accessed 25 September 2017).
11 Especially with the 50-year Japanese influences during the Japanese occupation, today's Taiwanese Hokkien has some linguistic elements that make it different from its origin.
12 ‘The Origin of the Bible in Pe̍h-ōe-jī’ [‘Pe̍h-ōe-jī shengjimg de youlai’ 白話字聖經的由來], The Bible Society in Taiwan, http://www.bstwn.org/bmag/bmag19/Amoy%20Romanized%20Bible.htm (accessed 25 September 2017).
13 Ibid.
14 It was not until 1945 that the newspaper restarted. The Taiwan Church News’s predecessor was The Taiwan Fucheng Church News台灣府城教會報 founded by Barclay in 1885, which was the first printed paper in Taiwan's history.
15 The tension between the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) and the KMT-led government caused by the latter's forbidding of public use of languages other than Mandarin was one of the reasons that prompted the PCT to become actively involved in Taiwan's democracy movements.
16 ‘The Main Reason Behind the Opposition Between the Presbyterian Church and Kuomintang’ [‘Zhanglao jiaohui yu Kuomintang duili zhi yaoyin—chajin Taiwan muyu shengjing’ 長老教會與國民黨對立之要因─查禁台灣母語聖經], Chung-Hsing University Student Christian Fellowship, http://nchucsf.pixnet.net/blog/post/3122422長老教會與國民黨對立之要因─查禁台灣母語, (accessed 25 September 2017).
17 ‘The Chronicle of Taiwan's Language Policy (1895-2007)’.
18 R. Motoko, ‘Christian Novel Is Surprise Best Seller’, The New York Times (24 June 2008), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/books/24shack.html?em&ex=1214452800&en=40f16df7490a912f&ei=5070 (accessed 25 September 2017).
19 See the website of Windblown Media: http://windblownmedia.com (accessed 25 September 2017).
20 C. L. Grossman, ‘Aim at “spiritually interested” sparks “The Shack” sales’, USA Today (30 April 2008), http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-04-30-shack_N.htm (accessed 25 September 2017).
21 According this USA Today report, the co-editing lasted for fifteen months before publication and was undertaken by Young and two former pastors, Wayne Jacobsen, who published So You Don't Want to Go to Church Any More under the pseudonym Jake Colson, and Brad Cummings. See C. L. Grossman, ‘Shack’ opens doors, but critics call book ‘scripturally incorrect’, USA Today (28 May 2008), http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-05-28-the-shack_N.htm (accessed 25 September 2017).
22 The book was ranked the fifth on Eslite Bookstore's 誠品書店 bestseller list for all books sold through this leading retail bookstore chain in Taiwan during the year 2009.
23 Both ‘xiaowu’ and ‘pengwu’ mean ‘a shack’, yet the term ‘pengwu’ is not commonly used in Taiwan, which is manifested in its absence in the online dictionary published by Taiwan's Ministry of Education.
24 Pengwu’s translator Zhu writes in her Afterword that, when translating the novel, she frequently referred to the Bible that her grandmother left her and the Chinese-English Bible given to her by her father. However, there is no mention of whether or not the translator herself is Christian. Also, it is worth mentioning here that since Pengwu does preserve conspicuous Christian messages presented in the original, censorship presumably is not a cause of the dilution of some Christian elements in this Simplified Chinese version.
25 All Bible verses in English quoted in this article are from the New International Version.
26 The translation of these quoted words in the Mandarin UV is: 那在你們心裡動了善工的，必成全這工，直到耶穌基督的日子 。(腓立比書1:6)
27 I interviewed only Chen because I could not obtain the contact details of the other translator Zhu. As this article mainly draws on Chen's Christianised translation of The Shack to represent the link between the authoritativeness of the Mandarin UV and Christian translators’ language use, the answers that I received from the Christian translator Chen should be sufficient for this study.