Retranslations of World Fairy Tales and Western Novels by XU Zhuodai

LIANG, Yan

doi:2023.16.1.191

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 16(1); 2023 > Article

Research Material

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2023;16(1): 191-203.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2023.16.1.191

Retranslations of World Fairy Tales and Western Novels by XU Zhuodai

Yan LIANG

Associate Professor, Tongji University

徐卓呆による世界童話と西洋小説の重訳

梁艶

Correspondence Yan LIANG ,Email: liangyan@tongji.edu.cn

Published online: 30 June 2023.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

From the 1910s to the early 1920s Xu Zhuodai translated many fairy tales from around the world and Western novels into Chinese, via Japanese translations. His “World Fairy Tales” series, based on the “Otogibanashi” series by Iwaya Sazanami, were integral to the development of the Zhonghua Book Company, and represented an important milestone in China’s initial evolution of children’s literature. His translations of Western prose texts, including short stories by world-renowned authors such as Tolstoy, Maupassant, and Mark Twain, as well as long detective novels by the popular French writers Maurice Leblanc and Fortuné du Boisgobey, were based on Japanese translations such as those in “Various Comic Novels” by Sasaki Kuni. These translations of fairy tales and other texts reflect Xu Zhuodai’s concern for education and his love of humorous literature. How the translation of foreign literature influenced Xu Zhuodai’s literary output is a topic worth exploring in the future.

Keywords: XU Zhuodai, Fairy Tales, Novels, Japanese Translation, Retranslation

キ―ワ―ド: 徐卓呆, 童話, 小説, 日本語訳, 重訳