1. Student's full name: Wu Yu 2. Gender: Female
3. Date of birth: November 18, 1987
4. Place of birth: China
5. Decision No. 886/QD-XHNV-DT dated April 28, 2021, of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, recognizing the student.
6. Changes in the training process: Extension of study time according to Decision No. 1367/QD-XHNV dated April 26, 2023, of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
7. Thesis title: The original text and Vietnamese translation of Ba Kim's "Records of Thoughts" from a comparative perspective.
8. Major: Foreign Literature; Code: 8229030.03.
9. Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thu Hien
10. Summary of the thesis results:
Ba Kim was a towering figure in Chinese literature, leaving behind many valuable works with immense influence in his country and around the world. *Sui Xiang Lu* (Record of Thoughts) is a work of significant intellectual value in the history of 20th-century Chinese literature, achieving a remarkable number of publications in various forms in China and being translated into numerous languages worldwide. As a result, *Sui Xiang Lu* has many translations in different languages and has been published in many countries. This thesis selects the Vietnamese translation of *Sui Xiang Lu* and compares it with the original text. Through this research process, the thesis has obtained the following results:
When it entered Vietnam through translation, the translated version of "Tuy Tuong Luc" differed from the original not only in its linguistic structure but also in the structural foundation of the work.
Structurally, from a chronological perspective, the collection of essays was written between 1978 and 1986, following the end of the Cultural Revolution. In the Vietnamese translation, however, translators focused on essays written during the five-year period from 1979 to 1984, almost completely omitting works written in 1978, a crucial period after the end of the Cultural Revolution, and 1985-1986, the peak of the intellectual liberation movement in China.
In terms of subject matter, the original *Recollections of Thoughts* focuses on five major themes: reflections on the Cultural Revolution, discussions of contemporary social realities, recollections of friends and relatives, discussions of literature and art, and international cultural exchange. Of these, the themes of contemporary social realities and literary issues are given the most attention by Ba Kim. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese translation of *Recollections of Thoughts*, while not translating the entire content of the original, pays particular attention to the themes of reflections on the Cultural Revolution and recollections of friends and relatives. More specifically, because the recollections of friends and relatives are linked to events during the Cultural Revolution, the Vietnamese translation of *Recollections of Thoughts* tends to focus more on the theme of the Cultural Revolution than on contemporary social realities, as in the original.
From a reception perspective, if the original *Sui Xiang Lu* in China is viewed as an important text reflecting changes in the history of modern thought rather than a purely literary memoir or record, then the Vietnamese translation appears as a documentary text on literature, where the translator aims to "re-examine" and provide readers with more information about contemporary Chinese cultural and literary life after a long period of strained diplomatic relations between Vietnam and China.
The research findings of this thesis show that the translation method and the reception environment directly impact 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" of the work "Tuy Tuong Luc" in Vietnam, and the work's ideological content is also deciphered in a unique way.
11. Practical applications:
This thesis serves as a useful reference for the study of contemporary Chinese literature in Vietnam in general, and for the study of the writer Ba Jin and his work *Tuý tưởng lục* in Vietnam in particular.
12. Future 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
