Modern Social Science Research

Literary works often embody a nation ' s cultural memory and values, serving as an important medium for intercultural communication. Against the broader backdrop of Chinese culture going global, the translation and international dissemination of literary works plays a significant role in enhancing China’s cultural soft power, as they are windows into the charming Chinese culture. With high literary value, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow has gained in popularity, capturing the imagination of readers since its publication. It has become a successful case of overseas dissemination. Through an analysis of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, this research aims to explore how the translator improves Western readers’ acceptability while preserving the aesthetic qualities of the original. The research finds that, on the one hand, the translator adopts the foreignizing strategy to reproduce, as faithfully as possible, the Shanghai image depicted by Wang Anyi, presenting the work’s overall style with minimal loss and conveying its literary features and content to readers in a relatively integral manner. On the other hand, the translator also employs domestication to an appropriate extent, achieving a dynamic balance between cultural retention and communicative effectiveness and thereby enhancing readability and acceptability. This translation not only realizes the value and significance of translating Chinese literary works for global readerships, but also offers valuable experience for the future translation and overseas dissemination of related works.

Literary translation; The Song of Everlasting Sorrow; Foreignization