By exploring the strategies Howard Goldblatt employs during the translation process, this paper seeks to study Howard Goldblatt’s English translation of the breakthrough Chinese novel----Red Sorghum. This paper aims to analyze Goldblatt’s translation style, determining whether Goldblatt makes use of particular translation strategies.

The study on this novel are important due to several aspects. Firstly,the novel is pioneering in that it was translated by Howard Goldblatt, an American native English speaker, who has little personal connection with Chinese history and culture. Secondly,the novel is set during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) which resulted in a very historically and culturally based novel. Thirdly, Mo Yan’s writing style is unique in that he uses colloquial Chinese dialects throughout the novel and writes in a non-chronological order, moving back and forth in time, thereby worthy of a complex but interesting read. Finally, during these years, attributing to these intelligent international translators’ efforts, Chinese literature has attained a greater chance to be shown on the world stage. Analyzing their translation style conduces to explore more effective strategies for the “going out” strategy of Chinese literary works. The combination of these factors allows the study on this novel to be significant and its findings of vital importance.

The purpose of this study is to provide obtain a better understanding of the translation process and Goldblatt’s translation strategies and styles as well, in the field of translation. The problem is to determine the translation strategies, decisions, and norms at play during the translation process, thereby providing a descriptive study of the English translation of Red Sorghum. Through this analyze in the translation decisions made by Goldblatt, the translation strategies he employs, and hence the translational norms at play, one is able to better understand the translation process and Chinese-English translation at the meanwhile.

The main focus of this section will be on research status both at home and abroad. In order to better understand the process of translation and why translators make the decisions they make, one needs to conduct in-depth research into the norms and conventions that exist in translation. It can be said that “being a translator cannot be reduced to the mere generation of utterances which would be considered ‘translations’” (Toury, 1995, p. 53) but must in fact be seen as a process which is guided by certain constraints or collective ideas which form part of the whole translation process. Translation can therefore be described as being subject to certain constraints which “extend far beyond the source text, the systemic difference between the languages and textural traditions involved in the act, or even the possibilities and limitations of the cognitive apparatus of the translator as a necessary mediator” (Toury, 1995, p. 54).

The traditional translator’s style or translation style is mainly focused on the original author’s unique writing style and how to use the personalized language in the translation. The study of translator's style in modern translation studies mainly explores how to describe the characteristics of translation language which is unique to literary translators and translators. Baker has interpreted the translator's style as a "fingerprint", which includes a range of linguistic and nonverbal features.(Baker Mona, 2000, p.245) These linguistic features means in translator’s different translation literary works, some of the regular language patterns shown in all their translations are not one-off, but rather a preference, recurrent, habitual pattern of language behavior, which is not entirely the result of the influence of the source text or the language style of the original author.

Red Sorghum, which became widely known as a post-Mao breakthrough novel (Goldblatt, 2009), was written by Mo Yan during his time at the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) college (Mo amp; Lin, 2006). Red Sorghum was not only a breakthrough novel in terms of the excellent imagery and approach to writing but also due to the fact that it broke down boundaries like no other Chinese novel had ever done before. It broke down boundaries in terms of “sexual libertinism and truth-telling about the war with Japan” (Link, 2012, p. 6) while at the same time creating an interesting plot.

Furthermore, in terms of its translation, Red Sorghum is described as a “challenging and brilliant novel which is one of the most important doors that has been opened for Westerners to gain a glimpse of Chinese history and culture as a robust alternative to projecting Western values and identities on the East” (Davis-Undiano, 2012, p. 5). By giving Western readers the opportunity to read stories about a period in China that many Westerners were not aware of, it has created many new talking points and bridged huge gaps between the West and China. Mo Yan’s “difficult and challenging vision…opens a door for Western engagement with Chinese culture as few others have done” (Davis Undiano, 2012, p. 5). The novel was first published in China in 1986 and later translated and published for the Western audience in 1993. This story is “a historical romance with bold and unrestrained erotic imagery, which propelled Mo Yan’s writing into a new creative vista” (Wang, 2000, p. 487). “On the surface, Red Sorghum seems to be about the war against Japan. But in reality, it’s about the folklore and legends … Of course, it’s also about the… longing for the contentment of love and a life of freedom” (Mo, 2010, p. 226). The novel is therefore much more than just the truth-telling of trying times in China’s history but a novel filled with stories of legends, love, and freedom, and one that could not go unpublished.

In terms of Mo Yan’s literary style, Red Sorghum is not written in chronological order but rather moves back and forth with the reader making connections between the different events (Inge, 2000). Mo Yan’s novels are unique in this way. “For writers like Mo Yan, and so many of his contemporaries, history is neither circular nor linear but random and shifting, until the boundaries between past and present blur into obscurity” (Weston amp; Jensen, 2000, p. 330).

As Mo Yan’s sole English translator, Goldblatt has allowed the English-speaking world a view into Chinese literature, culture, history, and the brilliant literary writings of Mo Yan. Howard Goldblatt is now a well-known American literary translator of several Chinese novels. Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum, The Republic of Wine (1992), The Garlic Ballads (1989), Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh (2003), Big Breasts and Wide Hips (1996), and Wolf Totem (2004) are just a few of the many works translated by Goldblatt (Cohorst, 2012).

Furthermore, Howard Goldblatt’s translations often give the sense that the works were originally written in English (Inge, 2000), a language that not many of the writers for which he translates understand. In fact, Goldblatt has only worked with two writers that understand English, one of which is the well-known writer Pai Hsien-yung (Levitt, 2013). A writer like Mo Yan, who does not speak English, would not be able to comment or assist Goldblatt in the translation of Red Sorghum or any other of his works. It can therefore be said that the translation of Red Sorghum is solely the work of Goldblatt with very little contribution from the writer, other than the fact that he could be consulted should there be a misunderstanding of the Chinese source text.