Su Dongpo in the English-Speaking World and the Chinese Context: A Study on the Image Disparity in Lin Yutang’s The Gay Genius and Its Back-Translation

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_86How to use a DOI?

Keywords

The Gay Genius; Back-translation; Su Dongpo

Abstract

Spurred by digital media and consumer culture, Su Dongpo has become a sensation in the new era. The construction of Su Dongpo’ s image has gained widespread attention. While significant achievements have been made across various fields, the cross-disciplinary dialogue remains inadequate. This study employs close reading and comparative analysis to extract the defining features of Su Dongpo’ s portrayal. It draws on postcolonial translation theory and translator subjectivity theory to reveal the cultural mechanisms behind the construction of his image. This study finds that when a biography returns to the source language culture through translation, the image of the host will undergo second construction. The Gay Genius itself is a selective construction of Su Dongpo, while Zhang Zhenyu’s Chinese translation is a reconstruction of this image. The image of Su Dongpo shifts between The Gay Genius and its Chinese translation because Lin Yutang wrote for Western readers and reshaped the sage to suit their expectations. The differences between the two Su Dongpo images are the natural outcome of writing for particular readers and translating for another. The Chinese translation offers a portrait that has passed through two distinct cultural filters.

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  - Weilun Huang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/04
TI  - Su Dongpo in the English-Speaking World and the Chinese Context: A Study on the Image Disparity in Lin Yutang’s The Gay Genius and Its Back-Translation
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 3rd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 791
EP  - 797
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_86
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-609-3_86
ID  - Huang2026
ER  -