Translation Strategies and Meme Transmission: A Comparative Study of Du Fu’s Five Hundred Words from Ch’ang-an to Feng-hsien

Abstract

Du Fu has long been regarded as the greatest poet in Chinese literary history. Both American sinologist Stephen Owen and Chinese historian William Hung have highly praised his literary achievements and cultural significance. As one of Du Fu’s most representative long narrative poems, Five Hundred Words from Ch’ang-an to Feng-hsien embodies profound social criticism, personal concerns, and rich cultural connotations, making it an important text for the translation and dissemination of classical Chinese poetry. Drawing on Chesterman’s (2016) memes of translation, this study aims to investigate how translation strategies shape the transmission of cultural, ideological, emotional, and poetic memes in the English translation of Du Fu’s poetry, thereby deepening understanding of the preservation, adaptation, and transformation of Chinese classical poetry across cultures. Using qualitative textual analysis, it compares the translation strategies adopted by the two translators and investigates how these strategies influence the transmission of poetic memes across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The analysis focuses on the translation of cultural images, historical allusions, poetic language, and emotional expression. The findings reveal distinct strategic preferences between the two translators. Owen generally adopts a source-oriented approach that emphasizes linguistic fidelity and cultural preservation, whereas Hung tends to employ a more target-oriented approach characterized by explicitness change, interpretation, and cultural filtering, prioritizing readability and accessibility for English readers. These differences influence the fidelity, fecundity, and longevity of poetic memes in the target culture. The study argues that effective meme transmission requires a balance between preserving source-cultural meanings and addressing target readers’ communicative needs.