1. Student's name: Wu Yu 2. Gender: Female
3. Date of birth: November 18, 1987
4. Place of birth: China
5. Decision on recognition of students No. 886/QD-XHNV-DT dated April 28, 2021 of the President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
6. Changes in the training process: Extend the study period according to Decision No. 1367/QD-XHNV dated April 26, 2023 of the President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
7. Thesis topic: Original work and Vietnamese translation of Ba Kim's work "Tuy Tuong Luc" from a comparative perspective.
8. Major: Foreign Literature; Code: 8229030.03.
9. Scientific advisor: Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thu Hien
10. Summary of thesis results:
Ba Kim is a giant in Chinese literature, he left behind many valuable works, with great influence in his country and in the world. Sui Xiang Lu is a work of important ideological value in the history of Chinese literature in the 20th century, creating a miracle in the number of publications in many forms of text in China and being translated into many languages around the world. Thanks to that, Sui Xiang Lu owns many translations of the work in many different languages and is published in many countries. The thesis chooses the Vietnamese translation of the work Sui Xiang Lu and compares it with the original. Through the research process, the thesis obtains some results as follows:
When entering Vietnam through translation, the translation of Tuy Tuong Luc had differences compared to the original, not only in the language but also in the structure of the work.
In terms of structure, from the perspective of the time of composition, Sui Tuong Luc was composed from 1978 to 1986 after the end of the Cultural Revolution. In the Vietnamese translation, the translators focused on translating the Sui Tuong Luc composed in about 5 years from 1979-1984 and almost ignored the works composed in 1978, an important time when the Cultural Revolution had just ended, and 1985-1986, the peak of the Movement for the Liberation of Thought in China.
In terms of themes, the original Sui Xiang Lu focuses on five major themes including reflections on the Cultural Revolution, discussions on contemporary social reality issues, memories of friends and relatives, discussions on literature and art, and international cultural exchanges, in which the themes of contemporary social reality and literary issues are of most interest to Ba Kim. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese translation of Sui Xiang Lu, on the one hand, does not translate the entire content of the original, on the other hand, the translator pays special attention to the themes of reflections on the Cultural Revolution and memories of friends and relatives. More specifically, because memories of friends and relatives are all associated with stories that occurred during the Cultural Revolution, the Vietnamese translation of Sui Xiang Lu shows a tendency to focus on the theme of the Cultural Revolution rather than the concern for contemporary social reality as in the original.
From the perspective of reception, if the original Sui Xiang Lu in China is seen as an important text reflecting changes in the history of modern thought rather than a literary memoir, a purely literary record, the Vietnamese translation appears as a literary documentary text, in which the translator aims to "re-evaluate" and help readers have more information about contemporary Chinese cultural and literary life after a long period of rift in diplomatic relations between Vietnam and China.
The research results of the thesis show that the translation method and the reception environment have directly affected the life of a literary text, creating different restructuring activities for that text. Therefore, the restructuring of the form and content of the translation has created a "variant" work of Sui Tuong Luc in Vietnam, the ideological content of the work is also decoded in a unique way.
11. Practical application:
The thesis is a useful reference in the study of contemporary Chinese literature in Vietnam in general, and in the study of writer Ba Kim and the work Sui Tuong Luc in Vietnam in particular.
12. Further research directions: None
13. Published works related to the thesis: None
INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS
1. Full name: Yu WU
2. Sex: Female
3. Date of birth: November 18, 1987
4. Place of birth: China
5. Admission decision number: 886/QD-XHNV-DT, Dated 28th April, 2021
6. Changes in academic process: Extend the study time under Decision No. 1367/ QD-XHNV dated April 26, 2023.
(List the forms of change and corresponding times)
7. Official thesis title:
A comparative Study of the Original Version of Ba Jin's Random Thoughts and its Vietnamese Translation
8. Major: Foreign Literature; Code: 8229030.03.
9. Supervisors: Dr. Nguyen Thu Hien, Associate Professor and Dean of Faculty of Literature
(Full name, academic title and degree)
10. Summary of the findings of the thesis:
Ba Jin is a major pillar in the Chinese literature scene, who has accomplished many valuable works and exerted great influences on both China and countries all over the world. Random Thoughts is one of his masterpieces with profound ideological value in the 20th Century. It is then considered a literary miracle that a book written by a Chinese writer would be translated into different languages and published in various forms throughout the world. As a result, different versions of Random Thoughts have been created. This thesis focuses on the comparison between two versions of Ba's Random Thoughts, namely, the Vietnamese translation and the Chinese original. Through an in-depth analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn:
Since its translation and introduction into Vietnam, Random Thoughts has gone through a series of changes not only at the linguistic level but also in its structure. In terms of structure, Random Thoughts was written between 1978 and 1986 after the Chinese cultural revolution. The Vietnamese translation only selects articles that have been written during 1979 and 1984; Those that have been written during 1985 and 1986, during which time China has reached the height of its enlightenment wave, have not been selected.
In terms of theme, Random Thoughts puts emphasis on the following five: reflections on the Chinese cultural revolution, thoughts on social issues, reminiscence of family members and friends, sentiment on literature and culture exchanges with the outside world. Ba pays, among the five, special attention to social issues and issues related to the Chinese literary circle. Different from the Chinese original, the Vietnamese version focuses mainly on two themes: reflection on the Chinese cultural revolution and reminiscence of family members and friends; and the articles it has selected are related to events that haven happened during the Chinese culture revolution. It is rather clear that, unlike the Chinese original focusing more on current social issues, the Vietnamese version favors culture-revolution-related topics.
From a reception aesthetic angle, Random Thoughts has been considered as a work of intellectual history rather than a mere literary text nor memoirs. In comparison, the Vietnamese version has been perceived as a work that “re-understands” the cultural and literary aspects of China during the long period in which diplomatic ties are broken off between China and Vietnam.
This thesis has drawn to the conclusion that the presentation of literary work is directly affected by its means of translation and recipient environment. Through reconstructing structure and contents, a new variant of Random Thoughts has been created in Vietnam bringing forward a unique perspective of interpreting its ideological contents.
11. Applicability in practice:
This thesis provides a valid reference for those who wish to conduct in-depth studies on Chinese writer Ba Jin and his work Random Thoughts; it also provides insights on how contemporary Chinese literature has been received by Vietnamese readers from a reception aesthetics angle.
12. Next research direction: None
13. Published works related to the paper: None
