CALL Research Journal #13

I originally planned to write a comparative translation research on Stephen King’s work – Different Seasons. Unfortunately, I found that there are only two Chinese translations available…. Besides, these two versions were translated by the same group of people. So I think there might not be many differences for me to compare, which left me no choice but to change my research target.
After a long consideration, I decided to do a comparative translation analysis on the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This book was written in early 20th century. The title “Brave New World” is actually a sarcastic expression of the world created on the basis of human’s ideal but turns out to be a great disappointment, a dystopia. Huxley’s prophecies, such as bottled baby and cloning, have become reality today. Human’s desire of pursuing scientific advancement also brings the fear that we might get lost in the illusion of false perfection and eventually sacrifice the true value of being a human. To my relief, I am glad to find there are at least four Traditional Chinese translations published between 1994 to 2004. I think it could be interesting to compare the different translating styles and strategies used by these translators during this 10-year period. For instance, how they deal with the neologism in the book. It is evident that bottled baby or cloning is an unfamiliar concept at the time the book was completed. Did the translators create a term with equivalent meaning or simply adopt the modern terminology like 試管嬰兒 to translate the neologism? Which way is better? Hopefully I can dig out more details worth discussing in translating Dystopia fictions like this one.