Sinophone Routes: Translation, Self-translation and Deterritorialization

Chinese literature in translation reflects a variety of circumstances related to the status of the author: personal and political; indeed, in the process of literary translation, as much as in literary creation, emotions, individual taste, aesthetics and cultural background blend with ideological and social factors. This is even more apparent in the case of migrant or self-exiled writers, where creation and translation form often a productive tension which affects not only the style and reception of their works but also their own deepest identity. Drawing on sinophone studies but not confining my analysis to that frame, this chapter focuses on three writers who, in different epochs, have got across space and cultural borders in search of a new life and new meanings, creating - both consciously and unconsciously - a peculiar “third Chinese space”. By scrutinising their works mainly from the translation studies point of view, I present the multifarious ways in which their split or composite identity as “translated beings” (Rusdhie; Cronin) is embedded in an interweaving of linguistic, cultural, psichological and political dislocation. Their personal and literary stories share the same roots but took different routes: Zhang Ailing (1920- 1995) and Yiyun Li (b. 1971) left China for the US to pursue new opportunities and escaping from un undesirable environment, while Ma Jian (b. 1955) fled Europe in protest against China’s policy; as a result of their voluntary deterritorialisation they adopted different practices such as translation, self- translation and use of the acquired language, oscillating between monolingualism and hybridisation.