英语论文网

A ceremony to mark the centenary of the May Fourth Movement was held at the GreatHall of the People in Beijing,April 30,2019.General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out thatduring the May Fourth Movement,a group of advanced intellectuals and revolutionaryyouths in China spread new ideas and cultures in the pursuit of truth.They bravely broke theshackles of feudal thoughts and violently impacted the feudal ethics,morality and culture forthousands of years.Carrying forward the spirit of the May Fourth Movement should not be asimple historical mourning.We need to trace back to the origin and re-examine the historyand culture during the May Fourth Movement.In China,at the beginning of the 20th century,under the background of national peril,translation was strongly advocated by intellectuals asa tool of enlightenment.However,in the line with the concept of“learn from the advancedtechnologies in the West in order to resist the invasion of the Western powers”,at first theyfocused on Western advanced science and technology,rather than social science theories,andliterature was not considered by them at all.“In their view,the reason why foreign countriesdared to invade China wantonly was because of their ships and guns.Later,they graduallyrealized that the prosperity of Western countries also benefited from their advanced politicaland social systems.”(Xie Shijian,2002)The failure of Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895 hasbrought unprecedented shock to Chinese intellectuals.In this new understanding,theyrealized that only by improving the people’s intelligence can the goal of saving the countrybe achieved.At the same time,they also realized that literary works were the most widelyspread and easily accepted form by the public.Therefore,literary translation has attracted theattention of Chinese intellectuals and become one of the most important media for spreadingadvanced civilization and enlightening the public.

1.2 Wu Ruonan’s Life and Her Translation of Little Eyolf

Wu Ruonan,a native of Lujiang County,Anhui Province,is the wife of Zhang Shizhao.She was born in an official family and was an outstanding political activist and translator.Her grandfather Wu Changqing was a well-known Huai Army general,and her father WuBaochu was a modern poet.In 1902,Wu Ruonan came to Shanghai to study in a Girls’school and in 1904,she went to Japan to study English.While studying in Japan,she felt thatChinese women were deeply oppressed and she determined to participate in the revolution.Proficient in English,she had been the English secretary of Dr.Sun Yatsen for some time.With her frequent communication with Sun,her understanding of revolution became moreaccurate and mature.In addition to Ibsen’s play Little Eyolf,she also translated the novelMonsters in Tower by Shunro Oshikwa,and the Chinese translation was renamed“大魔窟”.After returning home,she worked as an English teacher in Tianjin Women’s Normal School.After marrying Zhang Shizhao,Wu Ruonan followed him to Britain,Germany and othercountries.At that time,except for a few women who accompanied the nobles and ministersto Europe,Wu Ruonan was regarded as the first oriental woman to go to Europe.

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