Wang Xinyuan

The 47-year activities of the American missionary of the liberal party, Lin Lezhi, is associated with the period of changesin the era of the Qing dynasty. He took an active part in those changes whileplaying an important role in translating Western scientific works. With a clear goal and special strategies, he spread the advanced cultures and thoughts ofthe West and thus affectedChina in many ways. Many translated works still have an indelible significance. Lin Lezhi is a distinguished American missionary translator who preached in China. Any studies of the history of translation in the era of the Qing Dynasty would be incomplete without mentioning Lin Lezhi.

In this article, the author provides a brief overview and analysis of translations of Leo N. Tolstoy’s works in China, and also tries to show what influence such famous translators of his writings as Mao Dun (1896–1981) and Ai Wu (1904–1992) have had on Chinese literature and intelligentsia.

Anna Karenina is one of Leo Tolstoy’s most famous novels and is very popular among Chinese readers. The article shows two translation versions of the novel into Chinese: one by Zhou Yang and Xie Sutai, published in 1989, and the other by Cao Ying, published in 1982). In addition, the author presents studies of this novel by Chinese specialists.

The spread of Western medicine in China occurs in different ways: it is carried out through the setting up of Western hospitals, the creation of Western medical schools and the translation of Western medical literature into Chinese. The spread of Western medicine is inseparable from the medical activities of missionaries in China. As an American missionary doctor, Jia Yuehan worked for 40 years at the Canton Hospital in Guangzhou Province, and spent most of his time working in Western medical education, as well as translating Western medical literature. He played an extremely important role in the spread of Western medicine in China.

Since its emergence in human society, translation activity has always been closely linked to social development as its integral part. Political, economic and social conditions have obvious limitations that influence the concept and practice of translation; therefore, translation activities have a strong social dimension. In many translations, the translator not only plays the role of a medium, but may also carry out related editing and proof-reading work. The complexity of translation activities and the interactive nature of linguistic communication make the translator’s role in society as a social individual inevitably multifaceted. In commercial oral negotiations, for example, interpreters often play the following roles: messenger of information, mediator and facilitator of commercial matters, negotiation assistant and informant. An interpreter can be transformed into a reader, author, creator and researcher as required. Because language is a multidimensional collection of information, traditional translation is essentially equivalent to reproducing cognitive, communicative and artistic information. Language, culture and literature, which are closely related to translation, have social properties and therefore the study of the social nature of translation is very promising. The paper also considers machine translation as one of the technologies that take the place of auxiliary actors in the structure of translation activities, the further role of artificial intelligence and humans in translation, their interaction, and the changing social function of translation in this context.