Adaptation as Translation: The Representation and Reception of “The Ballad of Mulan” in the Anglophone World

“The Ballad of Mulan”, a well-known ancient Chinese poem recording the story of Mulan who took the place of her aged father to enlist in the army by disguising herself as a man, has been translated many times into English, both interlingually and intersemiotically. The various versions are not domin...

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Main Author: Bilin Liu
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Istanbul University Press 2023-05-01
Series:İstanbul Üniversitesi Çeviribilim Dergisi
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Online Access:https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/61B4F697FDD240DAB110576C69178E98
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author Bilin Liu
author_facet Bilin Liu
author_sort Bilin Liu
collection DOAJ
description “The Ballad of Mulan”, a well-known ancient Chinese poem recording the story of Mulan who took the place of her aged father to enlist in the army by disguising herself as a man, has been translated many times into English, both interlingually and intersemiotically. The various versions are not dominated by faithfully translated texts but by adaptations represented by Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel The Woman Warrior (1976) and Disney’s animation Mulan (1998). To further learn about the dissemination of “The Ballad of Mulan” outside of China, this research examines its adaptations and their reception in the anglophone world. Recognizing adaptation as translation by employing Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet’s concept of “equivalence” based on Christine Nord’s preservationadaptation percentage in translation, this study employs a descriptive approach. It first gives a chronological list of the English adaptations of “Mulan” that fall into four major genres (including dramas, novels, picture books, and videogames). It then scrutinizes the features of these adaptations and summarizes three adaptation types. Finally it investigates the acceptance of “Mulan” adaptations of three kinds as per statistics collected from representative websites and mainstream media. It argues that the adaptations altering or fabricating parts of the original story outnumber those of other kinds and are generally the best received.
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spelling doaj-art-a065937824ee495b8f5a4843f460f5212025-08-20T02:15:19ZdeuIstanbul University Pressİstanbul Üniversitesi Çeviribilim Dergisi2717-69592023-05-0118618110.26650/iujts.2023.1243760123456Adaptation as Translation: The Representation and Reception of “The Ballad of Mulan” in the Anglophone WorldBilin Liu0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3692-0303The University of Hong Kong, Hong-Kong, China“The Ballad of Mulan”, a well-known ancient Chinese poem recording the story of Mulan who took the place of her aged father to enlist in the army by disguising herself as a man, has been translated many times into English, both interlingually and intersemiotically. The various versions are not dominated by faithfully translated texts but by adaptations represented by Maxine Hong Kingston’s novel The Woman Warrior (1976) and Disney’s animation Mulan (1998). To further learn about the dissemination of “The Ballad of Mulan” outside of China, this research examines its adaptations and their reception in the anglophone world. Recognizing adaptation as translation by employing Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet’s concept of “equivalence” based on Christine Nord’s preservationadaptation percentage in translation, this study employs a descriptive approach. It first gives a chronological list of the English adaptations of “Mulan” that fall into four major genres (including dramas, novels, picture books, and videogames). It then scrutinizes the features of these adaptations and summarizes three adaptation types. Finally it investigates the acceptance of “Mulan” adaptations of three kinds as per statistics collected from representative websites and mainstream media. It argues that the adaptations altering or fabricating parts of the original story outnumber those of other kinds and are generally the best received.https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/61B4F697FDD240DAB110576C69178E98adaptationanglophone worldreceptionthe ballad of mulantranslation
spellingShingle Bilin Liu
Adaptation as Translation: The Representation and Reception of “The Ballad of Mulan” in the Anglophone World
İstanbul Üniversitesi Çeviribilim Dergisi
adaptation
anglophone world
reception
the ballad of mulan
translation
title Adaptation as Translation: The Representation and Reception of “The Ballad of Mulan” in the Anglophone World
title_full Adaptation as Translation: The Representation and Reception of “The Ballad of Mulan” in the Anglophone World
title_fullStr Adaptation as Translation: The Representation and Reception of “The Ballad of Mulan” in the Anglophone World
title_full_unstemmed Adaptation as Translation: The Representation and Reception of “The Ballad of Mulan” in the Anglophone World
title_short Adaptation as Translation: The Representation and Reception of “The Ballad of Mulan” in the Anglophone World
title_sort adaptation as translation the representation and reception of the ballad of mulan in the anglophone world
topic adaptation
anglophone world
reception
the ballad of mulan
translation
url https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/61B4F697FDD240DAB110576C69178E98
work_keys_str_mv AT bilinliu adaptationastranslationtherepresentationandreceptionoftheballadofmulanintheanglophoneworld