Translating Gender from Chinese into English: A Case Study of Leaden Wings from Feminist Perspective

Informed by feminist linguistics and feminist translation studies, the present study investigates the particular ways in which British translator Gladys Yang (re-)constructs gender in the English translation of the Chinese novel 沉重的翅膀 [Leaden Wings]. Textual and paratextual analyses show a paradox—feminist discourse and linguistic sexism—resides in the translation. Whilst feminist discourse is evident in both the paratexts, i.e. the preface, afterword and list of characters, and the text, the sexism embedded in the English language, represented in the translation by the use of male generic terms man/men and the female child term girl/girls to refer to adult women, finds its way into the translation. This suggests that, however hard translators try to subvert power structures through translation, while they are embedded in the system they may still be influenced by patriarchal traditions.