Transcendence and Subversion: Studies on Fu Guangming’s Chinese Translation of Shakespeare Plays

Abstract

Since his translation of Tales from Shakespeare was published in 2006, Fu Guangming, a contemporary Chinese writer, scholar and translator, has become a diligent and assiduous translator and researcher of Shakespeare plays, due to his deep love for this playwright. In Fu’s translations of Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice, we can see his attempts to accomplish accurate and smooth translations in order to surpass all previous efforts with renditions which cater to the reading habits of 21st century Chinese readers. He has not only explored the background history of Shakespeare plays by scrutinizing the text, tracing the textual sources, analyzing the archetypal characters and doing research on different versions of Shakespeare plays, but also corrected many mistranslations and misinterpretations in former Chinese translations. By distilling the essence of western and Chinese Shakespeare studies, he has written many penetrating academic papers. With the publication of his first translation of Romeo and Juliet in Taiwan and frequent communications with Shakespearean experts of Taiwan, he has improved Shakespeare studies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. With the courage of transcendence and subversion, Fu’s translation of Shakespeare plays into modern Mandarin has made a unique contribution to global Shakespeare studies.