Translation of Grimme's Fairytales in China in One Hundred Years: Reception y Manipulation

Abstract

This article presents briefly the history of the translation activities and the important translators of Grimms' Fairy Tales in China in one hundred years. We divide this century into four stages (beginning, development, maturity and modernization) and analyze how the translation of the Fairy Tales reached a considerable apogee in three crucial moments in this country. The first apogee happened in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century when multitudes of patriotic scholars manipulated the translation of literary works produced in developed countries to introduce them to China in order to enrich their own culture. The second occurred in the fifties after the founding of the People's Republic of China, then the stories were translated with the urgent purpose of promoting education and developing children's literature. The last boom took place in the nineties, when numerous bilingual story books were published for students of all levels.