On the Transmission of Memes of Traditional Chinese Culture through the Indirect Translation of Xi You Ji into German via English

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_30How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Xi You Ji; indirect translation; traditional Chinese culture; memes

Abstract

The indirect translation of classical Chinese novels played an important role in introducing and disseminating traditional Chinese culture in the West. However, it has long been neglected in scholarship due to its characterization as a form of “re-deformation”, which obscures its cultural significance. The indirect translation of classical Chinese novels such as Xi You Ji involves the transmission of memes of traditional Chinese culture across two cultural boundaries. In this process, memes may undergo adaptive variation in response to socio-cultural contexts and host intentions, while their core meanings remain stable. Employing the meme exploration method, this study demonstrates that the indirect translation of Xi You Ji across English and German realizes the genotypic transmission of memes of traditional Chinese culture. Examining indirect translation from the perspective of memetics enables a more balanced understanding of adaptive variation in surface memes and alleviates concerns about fidelity in the global dissemination of Chinese culture.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Qin Chen
AU  - Yuqing Mao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/13
TI  - On the Transmission of Memes of Traditional Chinese Culture through the Indirect Translation of Xi You Ji into German via English
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language and Cultural Communication (ICLCC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 269
EP  - 275
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_30
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-597-3_30
ID  - Chen2026
ER  -