港大中文學院

2026/27 School of Chinese Research Student Seminar

 
Date & Time: November 6, 2026 (Fri) 16:30-19:00 (HKT)
Venue: CRT-7.28, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Mode of Delivery: Face-to-face
  
Topic #1:
百年英譯中的陳芸重構——《浮生六記》的性別身份與重譯研究
Reframing Chen Yun across a Century of English Translation:
Gendered Identity and Retranslation in Six Records of a Floating Life
 
Speaker:  Ms. WANG Yujia 王雨嘉 (MPhil) 
 
Language: Putonghua

Abstract:

《浮生六記》以沈復的回憶敘述呈現妻子陳芸的言語、技藝與日常判斷。她以知識與技藝參與夫妻生活，也促成丈夫口味的改變；沈復對她的肯定，又與妻職和男性才識的標準相接。本報告探討英譯如何連接陳芸的實際貢獻、夫妻互動與人物評價，重構她作為審美夥伴的位置。

研究比較 1935 至 2025 年間五種英譯：林語堂（Lin Yutang）的 Six Chapters of a Floating Life（回譯《浮生六章》）、雪莉·M·布萊克（Shirley M. Black）的刪節重排本 Chapters from a Floating Life: The Autobiography of a Chinese Artist（回譯《浮生篇章：一位中國藝術家的自傳》）、白倫（Leonard Pratt）與江素惠（Chiang Su-hui）合譯及 方晉清（Alex Fang）譯出的 Six Records of a Floating Life（回譯《浮生六記》），以及 孫廣仁（Graham Sanders）的 Six Records of a Life Adrift（回譯《漂泊人生六記》）。研究借鑑女性主義翻譯研究的第三波議程，結合事件進程與語言細讀，分析施事、程度、情態及關係稱名如何參與人物定位。

比較顯示，杜鵑段中，白倫與江素惠合譯本把陳芸寫成不忍觀看丈夫修剪的人，方晉清則以愛憐程度連接她自身修剪的限度。在鄉居段，方晉清將沈復對生活方案的明確贊同，接到假設擁有居所的條件句與失伴追憶，使共同未來的提議在回望中獲得意義。在悼辭譯文中，方晉清以親密夥伴指稱陳芸，同時保留以男子襟懷才識衡量她的評價。材料知識獲採納、共同品題、待客款項經手及味覺改變，則為夥伴關係提供具體的實踐內容。

本報告揭示，陳芸的審美夥伴位置由實際協作與敘述評價共同構成。較早譯本已有共同實踐和知己表達，方晉清的親密稱名亦與性別化標準並存。重譯通過重新連接人物的貢獻、夫妻關係與價值評判，形成不同的身份呈現。

In Six Records of a Floating Life, Shen Fu recalls his wife Chen Yun through everyday judgments, practical skills, and retrospective appraisals. Yun contributes knowledge and skills to shared activities and changes Shen’s taste, while his praise draws on standards of wifehood and masculine ability. This seminar examines how English translations connect Yun’s contributions, conjugal interaction, and evaluation to construct her position as an aesthetic partner.

The comparison covers five English versions published between 1935 and 2025: Lin Yutang’s Six Chapters of a Floating Life (back-translation: 《 浮 生 六 章》 ); Shirley M. Black’s abridged and rearranged Chapters from a Floating Life: The Autobiography of a Chinese Artist (back-translation:《浮生篇章：一位中國藝術家的自傳》); the two versions entitled Six Records of a Floating Life (back-translation: 《 浮 生 六 記 》 ), by Leonard Pratt and Chiang Su-hui and by Alex Fang; and Graham Sanders’s Six Records of a Life Adrift (back-translation:《漂泊人生六記》). Drawing on the third-wave agenda in Feminist Translation Studies, the analysis examines agency, degree, modality, and relationship terms within narrated sequences of proposal, response, practice, and appraisal.

In the azalea passage, Pratt and Chiang present Yun as unable to bear watching Shen prune, while Fang’s degree construction connects her affection to limits on her own trimming. Fang’s rendering of the rural-living episode links Shen’s explicit assent to a counterfactual clause about possessing a home and then to bereavement, giving the proposed shared future a retrospective significance. In the elegy, the intimate designation “dearest companion” coexists with a masculine standard of magnanimity and intellect. The adoption of Yun’s knowledge, shared appraisal, her handling of hospitality funds, and changes in Shen’s taste establish concrete forms of partnership.

This research locates Yun’s position as an aesthetic partner in the connection between practical collaboration and narrated value. Earlier translations already articulate shared practice and companionship, while Fang’s emphasis on intimacy coexists with gendered standards of appraisal. Retranslation creates different representations of identity by reconnecting contribution, conjugal relations, and character evaluation.

 
Topic #2:
 
The Forgotten Struggle:

A Study in the Chinese Translations of George Orwell's Burmese Days from a Postcolonial Perspective

被遺忘的鬥爭：歐威爾《緬甸歲月》中譯本的後殖民翻譯研究

 
Speaker: Mr. LAI Chun Kiu 黎俊翹 (PhD) 
 
Language: English

Abstract:

Can George Orwell, once a white colonial policeman, be read through a postcolonial lens? This study proposes the concept of "postcoloniality": a quality of mind that recognises and resists coloniality, transcends temporal and spatial constraints, and moves beyond the coloniser/colonised binary, thereby extending postcolonial critique to sympathetic figures within imperial structures during the colonial period. Drawing on Orwell's Burmese Days and its seven Chinese translations, the study explores how Chinese -a non-colonial language and culture -can act as a third-party mediator, fostering a non-confrontational, dialogical approach to cross-cultural exchange between the two poles of the colonial relationship and, ultimately, contributing to decolonisation.

曾為殖民地警察的歐威爾，能否從後殖民視角加以解讀？本研究提出「後殖民性」概念，指一種能辨識並抵抗殖民性、跨越時空限制、突破殖民者／被殖民者二元對立的心智品質，藉此將後殖民批評視野延伸至殖民時期身處帝國體制、卻同情被殖民者的人物。本研究以歐威爾《緬甸歲月》及其七個中譯本為分析對象，探討中文與中國文化作為非殖民的語言文化，如何以第三方調解者的角色，促成殖民雙方以非對抗、對話的方式進行跨文化交流，並最終有助於去殖民。

ALL are welcome*
*NO Pre-registration is requested.