Loss of Cultural Implication in Female Images in the English Translation of “Xiao笑”in Eileen Chang’s Novel

Abstract

The description of “Xiao笑” is one of Eileen Chang’s writing techniques to display the personalities of her female characters. With a contextual analysis of “Xiao笑”, this paper studies the loss of cultural implication in English translation of “Xiao笑 ”in four novellas of Eileen Chang. It finds out that: (1) A variety of female image were conveyed with the expressions of“Xiao笑” in Eileen Chang’s works and that the top three high frequency phrases of “Xiao笑”in the selected four novels respectively means “taunt” “etiquette” and “flirting”, which manifest the selfishness indifference and conservation of female in Eileen Chang’s works and one of the themes in her works is the relationship between men and women, which conform to the original works.(2) There is cultural loss in the English translation of “smile/laughter” for “Xiao笑”,which weakened the cultivation of the female characters’ images of being the oppressed ones to show their flattery to the society in Eileen Chang’s novels. The findings can offer help to the
translation of characters, especially the translation of “Xiao笑.