Front. Lit. Stud. China 2010, 4(1): 425–441
DOI 10.1007/s11702-010-0106-6
RESEARCH ARTICLE
HU Rong
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland and Its Significance in Modern
Chinese Literary History
© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2010
Abstract Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland first translated into
Chinese by Zhao Yuanren was published in 1922. As an advocator of the New
Literature Movement, Zhao chose to translate the famous fantastic novel in
vernacular Chinese, which was virtually a linguistic experiment for the New
Literature. He fulfilled the seemingly impossible mission and his version has
been most popular till now. While the taste of Nonsense Literature which Zhao
favored in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was ignored or changed in its two
Chinese imitators: Shen Congwen’s Alice’s Adventures in China in 1928 and
Chen Bochui’s Ms. Alice in 1931.
Keywords Zhao Yuanren, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the New
Literature Movement, the vernacular Chinese, Nonsense Literature
Introduction
In 1921, nearly sixty years after its birth, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the
famous fantastic novel, was translated into Chinese for the first time by Zhao
Yuanren 赵元任, and his version of the masterpiece deemed “untranslatable”
published by the Commercial Press the next year, came to be a most popular and
highly praised version till now. As a modern Chinese linguist, Zhao chose to
translate the renowned book of “jeu de mots” in vernacular Chinese, which
proved actually a linguistic experiment for the neonatal New Literature. With a
Recieved March 10, 2010
HU Rong ()
Institute of Literature Studies, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai 200083,
China
E-mail: [email protected]
426
HU Rong
scholar’s ambition and childlike innocence, he fulfilled the seemingly impossible
task and was admired for his bringing Alice to China by generations of Chinese
readers. While Zhao’s marvelous work has been canonized in Chinese literary
translation, little attention was paid to the relationship of the little book with the
New Literature Movement, and its impact on modern Chinese literature, which
this paper is to explore. There are three aspects worthy of the further inquiry: (i)
Zhao’s participation in the Vernacular Chinese Movement, especially his
interaction with Hu Shi, one of the leading figures of the Movement; (ii) the
process and effects of Zhao’s translation as a linguistic experiment; (iii) the
influence of Zhao’s version on modern Chinese literature, particularly, the
change of the taste of Nonsense Literature Zhao favored in Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland in its Chinese imitators: Shen Congwen’s Alice’s Adventures in
China in 1928 and Chen Bochui’s Ms. Alice in 1931.
The Translation That Leads to a Life’s Transformation: A
Perfect Match between the Book and the Man
Hu Shi’s 胡适 well known “Wenxue gailiang chuyi” 文学改良刍议 (Some
modest proposals for the reform of literature) issued in the radical journal Xin
qingnian 新 青 年 (New youth) vol. 2, no. 5, sounded the clarion call for
Literature Revolution, and was followed in the next year by a series of
supporting articles, including Chen Duxiu’s 陈独秀 “Wenxue geming lun” 文学
革命论 (On literature revolution), Liu Bannong’s 刘半农 “Wo zhi wenxue
gailiang guan” 我之文学改良观 (My opinions of the reform of literature), and
Hu’s another article, “Jianshe de wenxue geming lun” 建设的文学革命论 (On
instructive literature revolution). The idea of Literature Revolution came to be
fully elucidated and gradually accepted by the Chinese literati. However,
Literature Revolution, first of all, was the revolution of literary language, “the
revolution of baihua 白话 (vernacular Chinese) to replace guwen 古文 (ancient
literary Chinese), the revolution of the living tool to replace the dead tool.” 1
Therefore, the coterie of Xin qingnian soon devoted themselves into the literary
writing in vernacular Chinese, among which Hu Shi’s poems and Lu Xun’s short
stories were the most influential. Till the January 1920, the Ministry of Education
of Beiyang Government issued a decree that the textbooks for the two junior
grades of council schools should be written in yutiwen 语体文 (the vernacular
Chinese), marking the official admission of Baihuawen yundong 白话文运动
(the vernacular Chinese movement). Two months later, Hu Shi published his
Changshi ji 尝试集 (The experimental collection), the first collection of poems
1
Hu Shi, “Bishang Liangshan” 逼上梁山 (Compelled to rebel), in Hu Shi, 1998a, p. 147.
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance
427
in the vernacular Chinese, which proved a great success; about one year later,
Zhao Yuanren, Hu’s close friend, finished the translation of Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland.
It seems quite odd and accidental that Zhao would appear in the above process.
Indeed, he was not among those who initiated the Vernacular Chinese Movement,
nor had he delivered any locally influential discourses on literary or linguistic
revolution. When the Literature Revolution at home rose in 1917, he was
working hard for Ph. D. at Harvard University. After graduation he made a
two-year “meditative trip” around the United States, financed by a postdoctoral
fellowship. In 1919, he went back to Cornell University as a lecturer on physics.
A year later, he accepted the invitation from Tsinghua University and returned
home to teach mathematics. What a dramatic turn for Zhao it is, having been
strictly trained abroad to be a physician or mathematician for almost a decade, to
“abruptly” break into the Vernacular Chinese Movement, transfer all his
academic interest to linguistics and eventually gain the fame of a distinguished
linguist, translator and musician.
Maybe we can find the clues in the following three aspects: Zhao’s inborn
talent in linguistics, his response to the call of the time, and his close friendship
with Hu Shi.2. Since his childhood, Zhao had shown a striking sensibility to the
differences of Chinese dialects.3 When studying abroad, though majoring in
math, physics and philosophy successively, he kept earnest interests in multiple
subjects, especially in the growing linguistics, which impelled him to pick a
phonology course at Cornell University. He recalled: “It was after attending Prof.
Davison’s phonology class that I found myself captivated by linguistics. The
learning of international characters of phonology widened my horizon both
visually and aurally, and then I selected more phonology courses at Harvard
University with greater interest.” 4 “After entering the graduate school of
Harvard, while majoring in philosophy, I picked lots of linguistic courses.
Although the department of linguistics had not come into being yet, there was
already such a subject as ‘An Introduction to Linguistics.’”5 Years of hard,
persistent study, excellent hearing competence, gifted sensibility to music, and
systematic training on symbolic logic, all these prepared Zhao for his scholarship
in linguistics and music afterward.
2
Zhao and Hu, both among the second group of students provided by the Boxer Rebellion
Indemnity Scholarship Program in 1910, reached the U.S. and entered Cornell University
together. In June of 1921, as Zhao’s bosom friend, Hu attended and witnessed his wedding
with Miss Yang Buwei. The friendship tied the two families closely and lasted till their death.
3
It is dwelt on in the first two parts of The Autobiography of the Life of Zhao Yuanren,
“Memories of the early years” and “The second nine-year.” See Zhao Yuanren, 1989.
4
Zhao Yuanren, 1989, p. 85.
5
Ibid., 1985, p. 99.
428
HU Rong
Furthermore, Zhao’s concern was beyond the bookish research. In August
1915, the Chinese Students Union of the East America set up an institute of
literature and science. Hu Shi and Zhao Yuanren, who were both elected as
committeemen of literature section, chose deliberatively “the problem of Chinese
characters” as the topic for their section’s annual meeting. Zhao was concerned
about “Wuguo wenxue nengfou caiyong zimuzhi jiqi jinxing banfa” 吾国文学能
否采用字母制及其进行方法 (Whether and how Chinese literature can employ the
system of letters), while Hu focused on “Ruhe keshi wuguo wenyan yiyu
jiaoshou” 如何可使吾国文言易于教授 (By what means the ancient literary
Chinese can get easily taught), and in his paper Hu put forward that the
confrontation of wenyanwen 文言文 (ancient literary Chinese) and baihuawen 白
话 文 (vernacular Chinese) was in nature the confrontation of “half-dead
characters” and “living characters.”6 This argument aroused much attention,
soon the focus of discussion transferred to Chinese literature, and Hu was so
inspired that he wrote to Chen Duxiu, the editor in chef of Xin qingnian, under
whose encouragement Hu expressed his critical thoughts in the famous “Wenxue
gailiang chuyi.” Zhao did not join the debate himself, and as the topic he dealt
with suggested, he was more interested in exploring a scientific way to solve
practical problems. Nevertheless, he was always by Hu’s side on the main stand.
Hu recollected over thirty years later,
Mr. Zhao Yuanren, … He is a man with an inborn hearing for music and most
precise pronunciation, and, no wonder he became an expert in languages. I
admire him for his academic authority very much. We’re old friends. At that
time he was not involved in the boat accident (referring to the anecdote in
1915 when a group of Chinese students of Cornell University went sightseeing
on a lake, their boat capsized accidentally, and poems were written to tell the
story, which brought the discussion about Chinese literature), but he’s a
pioneer to advocate the vernacular Chinese and Romanized Written Chinese.
He often reminded me: “Your speech in vernacular is not pure enough. I’ll
record your talk and replay it for you if you don’t believe.” So we did, and he
was right undoubtedly. The amending he made on my article was extremely
convincing. That was how we began to advocate the vernacular Chinese,
ardent to preach, but slow to practice.7
Hu and Zhao, the two friends made an interesting pair: Hu was outgoing, lively, a
talented speechmaker and charming leader, while Zhao was somewhat withdrawn
6
7
Hu Shi, “Bishang Liangshan,” in Hu Shi, 1998a, p. 141.
Hu Shi, “Tichang baihuawen de qiyin” 提倡白话文的起因 (The origin of the advocacy of the
vernacular Chinese), in Hu Shi, 1998b, p. 535.
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance
429
and dithery,8 and too versatile to be determined about what field to concentrate
on.9 As proponents of the New Literature movement, they were both keen on the
linguistic practice in vernacular Chinese. Hu’s The Experimental Collection and
Zhao’s translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland represented different
ways to explore the possibilities of literary writing in vernacular Chinese.
An important impetus for Hu to write poems and translate some English verses
in vernacular Chinese was the prevailing conservative opinion of his peers that
vernacular Chinese should only be employed in fictions or dramas, but never in
poems, which demanded more refined language, namely, the ancient literary
Chinese. Even Ren Hongjun 任鸿隽, one of Hu’s good friends, held the same
stand.10 Obviously poetry was the last “fortress” for the warriors of Vernacular
Chinese Movement to conquer by every means.11 Hu took this challenge boldly
and made the first attack with The Experimental Collection, which caught the
eyes of both the “new” and “old” camps at once and came to be the subject of a
heated debate. Though Hu was not a talented poet, his Collection became a
bestseller soon after its publishing, and about ten thousand copies sold within the
following two years.12 And it helped greatly change the prejudice against the
vernacular Chinese and won more supports for the “new” camp by the author’s
modest but firm efforts.
Compared with Hu’s aggressive and tactical way, Zhao’s work seemed much
more peaceful and personal. As a matter of fact, the translation of Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland happened to mark the start of Zhao’s academic life as
a modern Chinese linguist. In 1920 he came back from Cornell to Tsinghua, his
alma mater, intending to be a professor of math, whereas another identity had
been made for him. The Vernacular Chinese Movement was sweeping over the
country at that time, and more and more journals and newspapers were following
suit, even the most discreet ones, such as Dongfang zazhi 东方杂志 (Eastern
miscelany) and Xiaoshuo yuebao 小说月报 (Fiction monthly), switched to the
“new” camp. The decree issued by the Ministry of Education of Beiyang
Government in January 1920, that the textbooks for the two junior grades of
council schools should be written in vernacular Chinese, was a positive sign of
8
It is Zhao’s remark on himself. In fact this characteristic showed itself in his experience of
early years. See Zhao Yuanren, 1989, p. 117.
9
Returning home in 1920 was a turning point of his life: it was in Beijing that he met his
future wife, got involved in Vernacular Chinese Movement and decided to devote himself to
linguistics.
10
Hu Shi, “Changshiji zixu” 《尝试集》自序 (The author’s preface to The Experimental
Collection), in Hu Shi, 1998b, pp. 250–251.
11
Hu Shi, “Bishang Liangshan,” in Hu Shi, 1998a, p. 155.
12
Hu Shi, “Changshiji siban zixu” 《 尝试集》 四版自序 (The author’s preface to The
Experimental Collection of the 4th edition), in Hu Shi, 1998b, p. 270.
430
HU Rong
victory for the Movement. What is most encouraging is, the vernacular works
were so popular among the youth that they wanted more, and supported
whole-heartedly of Guoyu yundong 国语运动 (the national language movement,
aiming at a unification of speech and writing). Due to his academic background
and insight into the reformation of Chinese characters, Zhao joined the
Preparatory Committee of the Unification of National Language soon after his
return, and was assigned to compose textbooks for the Commercial Press and
record teaching microgrooves. He also interpreted for Bertrand Russell, the
famous British philosopher, who traveled and lectured around China from
October 1920 to July 1921, and enjoyed the journey very much, developing his
amazing genius for learning dialects of different parts of China. Among all the
jobs he was engaged in, Zhao felt that “translating Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland is of the greatest fun.”13
Why did Zhao choose to translate this fantastic novel as his “maiden work”? 14
It is a choice of heart first. Lewis Carroll’s Alices had been his favorite for life.15
Once reading them at Cornell as a student, he fell so “addicted” that he believed
“The value of these books are no less than that of the solemnest piece of
Shakespeare; they’re just of another genre.”16 At the same time, he found the
book for children would offer a best sample for his linguistic experiment: “The
Chinese language is now undergoing an examination, and it’s a good chance to
make an experiment for several purposes.”17 That is, an experiment of practicing
yutiwen, new “pronouns,” for example, ta 他 (he)、ta 她 (she)、ta 它 (it), and
the vernacular form of poetry. Indulged in this challenging experiment, Zhao had
already “made up his mind to concentrate on linguistic study.”18 However, to
translate Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland into Chinese, in a sense, was also an
adventure for Zhao, because it looked like a mission impossible to put such a
book full of “nonsense” into Chinese, the vernacular Chinese particularly, since
no one had succeeded in the last half century. Nevertheless, once Zhao did it, not
13
Zhao Yuanren, 1989, p. 126.
Being a distinguished linguist who was proficient in several languages, Zhao could spare
little time for translation, and only published a few versions he worked out, among which
those of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books were the best known. After the great success of his
translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Zhao continued to work on its sequel,
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found there. Unfortunately the press proof got
destroyed in Japanese’s bombing of Shanghai in 1931, and it did not come up in the U.S. until
in 1968.
15
Zhao had planned to attend the annual meeting of Lewis Carroll Society of North America
when he passed away unexpectedly. See “Letter to the original editor from Madam Zhao
Rulan”, In Zhao Yuanren, 1989, p. 5.
16
Lewis Carroll, Zhao Yuanren, 1988, p. 10
17
Ibid.
18
Zhao Yuanren, 1985, p. 128.
14
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance
431
only could it prove the dynamic of the vernacular Chinese is, but also his
capability as a newcomer in linguistics. In a word, it is an experiment of multiple
significances: Zhao chose the book, while he himself was chosen by the
Movement. Fortunately it’s a perfect match, for we have little chance to find
anyone more qualified than Zhao, who, as a true master of the vernacular
Chinese with the similar academic quality and childlike innocence of the
author,19 was most likely to understand the original text thoroughly. So he did,
and acquired the best reward by attaching his name to his favorite book forever
as a result.20
Another thing worthy of attention is that, Hu Shi was “on the scene” all along.
Zhao visited him as often as he did at Cornell, “having long talks about
phonology and the matters of Romanized Written Chinese.”21 In addition to
encouraging Zhao to participate in the Movement, Hu played an important role in
introducing Zhao to the Commercial Press in need of hands for their new
textbooks in vernacular Chinese.22 The Press then published Zhao’s translation
soon after it was finished. Meanwhile Hu must be one of the first readers of
Zhao’s work: as he put down in his dairy on May 6th, 1921: “I went to visit Zhao
at noon. He’s about to finish the translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
A real masterpiece!” 23 Even the Chinese name of the book was finally decided
by Hu.24 In a sense, Zhao’s translation was not simply an individual behavior,
but a positive response to the call of the Vernacular Chinese Movement with the
support of the pioneer of the New Literature and of New Poetics, and as well a
linguistic exploration of the discourse paradigm of modern Chinese, which need
a survey from the perspective of modern Chinese literary history.
New Style, New Words, and New Nursery Rhyme: A
Comprehensive Experiment of the Narrative Vernacular
Chinese
As concluded above, Zhao took his translation of Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland as a comprehensive experiment of the narrative vernacular Chinese.
19
“Lewis Carroll” was a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was, in real life, an
Oxford Mathematics Lecturer.
20
The day when Zhao wrote the preface to his translation, June 1st of 1921, happened to be
the date of his wedding. Was it just a coincidence, or a secret mark for sweet memory?
21
Zhao Yuanren, 1989, p. 127.
22
Mrs. Zhao recalled, Hu introduced Sun Boheng 孙伯恒, the manager of the Beijing branch
of the Commercial Press, to discuss with Zhao about the work on microgrooves in mandarin
the day after they got married. See Zhao Yuanren, 1989, p. 182.
23
Hu Shi, 1998c, p. 107.
24
Zhao Yuanren, 1989, p. 126.
432
HU Rong
He described the way he carried it out in the “Illustration” before the text:
The first step of my way to translate this book is, I’d think of what we’ll say in
spoken Chinese at sight of a sentence. After that I put it down, checked it
against the original. And then, in order to reach the standard of “every word is
faithfully translated,” I tried to make some amendments, and kept alert never
to get it sound like a foreign language.25
And then he emphasized:
It would be impossible to translate this book perfectly into Chinese if we
didn’t employ the vernacular Chinese, so this translation can serve as a sample
to judge the vernacular Chinese too.26
Since aiming to translate the fantastic novel faithfully, Zhao had no other
choice in language but the vernacular Chinese, because the novel is first a book
“for the children,” to be more accurate, a book for the children to listen to. Its
readers are mainly of two kinds: the children who can read the book themselves
(and they always read everything aloud), and the adults who’d like to read it
aloud for the children. Therefore, to be not only “easy to read” but also “nice to
listen to,” a good fairy tale should be written in clear words, simple grammar and
amiable tone, which only the vernacular can afford. Nevertheless many people at
that time still stuck to the tradition of translating in ancient literary Chinese
whatever they met, including fairy tales. In September 1918, Zhou Zuoren 周作
人 , a knowledgeable writer and scholar, severely criticized Shizhijiu 十之九
(Nine Tenths), a translated collection of Hans Christian Andersen by Chen Jialin
陈家麟 and Chen Dadeng 陈大镫. Zhou was disappointed very much for the two
outstanding merits of Andersen: “the childlike style” and “the wild thoughts,”
disappeared completely in the translation in ancient literary Chinese, which
absurdly “turned a kid’s words to a master’s doctrine.” Thus Zhou felt a great
pity for Andersen, “the most unfortunate of writers around the world,” whose
work suffered so terrible translation in China.”27 As Zhou pointed out, it was a
fatal mistake to tell fairy tales in any language beyond children’s understanding
such as the ancient literary Chinese. Just imagine the long list of strange words
and the gazing puzzled eyes of little boys and girls!
Now no one would doubt that the vernacular Chinese was the best choice, but
25
26
27
Lewis Carroll, Zhao Yuanren, 1988, p. 1.
Ibid., 1988, p. 10.
Zhou Zuoren, 1918.
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance
433
this was only a start. There are lots of dialogues and interior monologues in
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which demand accordingly the vernaculars
bearing the children’ tongue. In fact, the vernacular has various styles, such as
seriousness, elegance, directness, etc. The translator has to find the right style to
fit the original. Zhao explained in the “Illustration”: “I adopted the mandarin for
narration. As for the dialogue, I had to pick up a dialect to keep its liveliness.”28
Beijing dialect came to be his choice because “the vocabulary of Beijing dialect
is easier to understand.”29
In this way, Zhao had already overthrown the convention of translation in the
ancient literary Chinese, and set up a claim that the language policy of modern
Chinese literary translation should be based on the mandarin flexibly
supplemented by dialects according to the needs of the original.30 It was indeed
a very constructive and practical method to help establish the new aesthetic
principals and linguistic paradigms of the New Literature. Of course, Zhao did
his best to realize his ideal through the translation. We can compare his version
with another by taking the first two paragraphs of Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland:
The original:
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and
of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister
was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use
of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day
made her feel very sleepy and stupid,) whether the pleasure of making a
daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies,
when suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.31
Zhao’s version:
阿丽思陪着她姊姊闲坐在河边上没有事做，坐得好不耐烦。她有时候偷偷地
瞧她姊姊看的是什么书，可是书里又没有画儿，又没有说话，她就想道，
“一本书
里又没有画儿，又没有说话，那样书要它干什么呢？”
所以她就无精打采地自己在心里盘算——（她也不过勉强地醒着，因为这热
天热得她昏昏地要睡）——到底还是做一枝野菊花圈儿好呢？还是为着这种玩意
儿不值得站起来去找花的麻烦呢？她正在纳闷的时候，忽然来了一只淡红眼睛的
28
Lewis Carroll, Zhao Yuanren, 1988, p. 1.
Zhao was so careful that he wrote a special check list of Unusual Words particularly, in
order that Beijing dialect would not be too local for the readers to understand.
30
For the same reason, he spared some proper place for the ancient literary Chinese, for
instance，the “dry English” in the third chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
31
Lewis Carroll, Zhao Yuanren, 1988, p. 4.
29
HU Rong
434
兔子，在她旁边跑过。
32
Another version of 1980s:
阿丽思和姐姐一起坐在河岸上，没事可干，坐得腻味了；她向姐姐正看着的书瞄
了一两眼，可那上面没有图画，也没有对话。阿丽思想道：
“一本书没有图画，又
没有对话，那有什么用啊？”
所以她在心里琢磨着（她也不过是勉勉强强地琢磨着，因为这热天热得她昏
昏沉沉地发睏又发呆），做一只野菊花圈儿倒挺好玩，可是值不值得为它费事，起
33
身去采花呢？这时候，一只粉红眼睛的白兔子，突然打她身边跑过。
The two versions are both in mandarin (the latter was published in 1981, about
sixty years after Zhao’s), However, if reading them aloud, we can perceive the
subtle difference: Zhao did better in imitating the kid’s tone, which resulted from
his insight into the fairy tale and his proficiency as a linguist. The most admirable
and incredible thing is his handling of the nursery rhymes in the book. Just as
Zhao said in the “Illustration,” the experiment he would carry on was on “the
style of poetry” instead of “poetry,” because “the verses in this book are all
nonsense, only bearing the form of poems,” and it was convenient to try out the
“double-syllable word” of the vernacular Chinese. Actually these nonsense
verses may be the toughest part of the book to translate, for the translator has to
pass on the sense of nonsense of English to the readers through the rhymes and
rhythms of another language. Only when the readers have as much fun in them as
the native, can we say the version is spiritually faithful. Although it is almost a
mission impossible, Zhao did his best to turn every verse into pure Chinese song
for the kids, for example, the short piece Alice recites in chapter 2:
小鳄鱼，
尼罗河上晒尾巴。
片片金光鳞，
洒点清水罢。
笑眯眯，
爪子摆得开又开。
一口温和气，
欢迎小鱼儿来。34
32
Ibid., p. 5.
Lewis Carroll, Chen Fu’an, 1981, p. 3.
34
Lewis Carroll, Zhao Yuanren, 1988, pp. 20–21. The original poem:
How doth the little crocodile/ Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile/ On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,/How neatly spreads his claws,
33
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance
435
The original is a sarcastic imitation of a popular didactic poem, which could be
hardly perceived in translation. Zhao was so considerate that he managed to put it
into a lovely Chinese song in the same rhyming form abab, with an additional
explanation of the original in footnote. In fact, Zhao’s work on these verses is a
great success, for generations of little Chinese readers have scarcely doubted
what they read aloud and enjoyed are not native at all!
As for the second purpose of his experiment, how to use properly the new
“pronouns” which have been fully accepted, Zhao made a good demonstration in
his translation. Readers usually get amazed at Zhao’s mastery skill in the
homophonic means to translate some names, paying little attention to the
appellations he created deliberately, which are also indicative of his exploratory
efforts. For instance, it seems quite queer to translate “the mock turtle” to su
jiayu 素甲鱼 (the turtle-shaped tofu), and “the real turtle” to hun jiayu 荤甲鱼
(the real turtle), however, if we look at these two strange names from a kid’s
perspective, we will find the reason: since almost every Chinese kid has tasted su
ji 素鸡 (the chicken-shaped tofu) and su ya 素鸭 (the duck-shaped tofu), it gets
easy and funny for him to understand what’s the difference between the mock
turtle and the real one. Here we can perceive how familiar Zhao was with the
way Chinese children think and reason.
Generally speaking, Zhao’s translation is a real masterpiece, and his ambitious
experiment of the vernacular Chinese through the translation has proved a
valuable linguistic practice, and has influenced millions of Chinese readers,
children and adults. Although followed by many other translations in which some
corrections or updates are made, Zhao’s has been respected as classic
indisputably for its pioneering achievements in the past ninety years.
Alice’s “Adventures” in Modern China: The Variation of the
Taste of Nonsense Literature
Zhao’s translation caught the eye of the new literature circle as soon as it was
published in 1922. Zhou Zuoren, who had paid close attention to the construction
of a new literature for children, wrote a review immediately in high praise of “the
peerless wonderful book,” and recommended it eagerly not only to the children
but to the adults “who were once children.”35 The book has earned unanimous
recognition and enduring popularity. It kept reprinted and was included in “New
Library of High Schools,” the influential series created by the Commercial Press
And welcomes little fishes in,/ With gently smiling jaws!
35
Zhou Zuoren, 1988, p. 51.
436
HU Rong
in 1947. Since then Alice and her adventures entered the childhood of
generations of Chinese, charmed and excited them, and even when they have
grown up, the story still evoke in them innumerable curiosity, imagination and
pleasure.
The wide interest in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland helped to bring about its
two Chinese imitations (or sequels): Shen Congwen’s 沈从文 Alice’s Adventures
in China in 1928 and Chen Bochui’s 陈伯吹 Ms. Alice in 1931. It’s quite
unusual in modern Chinese literary history for two Chinese writers to pick up the
same character from a foreign novel and make her the heroine of their own works.
Alice, the little girl from England, was put on the top of the welcome guest list
modern Chinese writers would like to invite to China. Nevertheless, her
advantages in modern China were totally different from those in wonderland, for
the taste of Nonsense Literature of the original has been changed, or, to be more
accurate, has been replaced by some Chinese traditional literary taste in its
imitations.
In the English literary history Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are renowned as the summit work
36
of Nonsense Literature, which is filled with incredible creatures, ridiculous
plots and dazzling wordplays. Following Alice’s steps, readers will gradually find
themselves in the wonderland of the wildest fancy and delicate nonsense. The
charm of the book derives from its amazing sense of humor, imagination and,
particularly, its marvelous nonsense, which, implying a treasure of symbolic
logic, rather appealed to Zhao. He dwelt on the “nonsense” in “the translator’s
preface”:
The joke in this book is of another kind, whose sense lies in its nonsense. Why?
There’re two reasons: firstly, the author intends to create an artwork instead of
a fable; secondly, the so-called “nonsense” in English means butong 不通 in
Chinese. However, not all nonsense is significant ... The point of nonsense is
that, it sounds like a word of sense, but nonsense in fact; it looks like a thing of
sense, but nonsense too … Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a reference
book of philosophy and logic as well. When probing into the profoundest of
logic, many puzzles of “nonsense” will emerge, and some are unsolvable till
now.37
And Zhou Zuoren also emphasized observantly the merit of “nonsense” of the
book. In addition to an extensive citation to sing high praise of it, he criticized
two prevalent opinions of the literature for children: one thought “the book for
36
37
Donald Rackin, 1969, p. 3.
Lewis Carroll, Zhao Yuanren, 1988, pp. 7–8.
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance
437
children does not belong to the true literature,” and another believed “the book
for children should root in real or possible experience, or it was not literary at
all.” Zhou felt the latter, which “rejects the fancy work due to its uselessness,”
did more harm because:
As for the children themselves, since they need in deed this fancy work when
their imagination is to be developed, it’s beyond the right of us adults to
deprive them of this need, no matter in what holy name, such as God, emperor
or country, just as we mustn’t deprive them of clothing and food.38
What Zhou requested from the adults was the respect for the psychological needs
of children as vital as their physical needs. He argued the love for fantasy and
daydream was in children’s nature, and it would be the worst policy for adults to
suppress this nature with their moralism or impose all the arbitrary restrictions
upon children, while Chinese people had long taken for granted that any idea
unpractical in the little heads was harmful and should be prohibited, let alone
nonsense. In this regard Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is very original for the
author’s “remarkable knowledge of the child’s inner nature,” and the Alice books
“give young people self-confidence, a feeling that the author is sharing the joke
with them, not playing one on them: that he enjoys sharing the joke, that he
knows how to turn the conventions of everyday life into a joke.”39 Moreover, the
books own an enduring charm even to the adults, as Virginia Woolf remarked:
“the two Alices are not books for children; they are the only books in which we
40
become children.” However, Zhou’s advocacy of this nonsense taste in the
books for children did not get much response, and up to now a great many books
are still written in order to “regulate the behavior of children under the guidance
41
of the adult’s values.” The two Chinese imitations of Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland offer a good opportunity to observe how the taste of nonsense
literature in the original was changed or replaced.
Shen Congwen’s Alice’s Adventures in China was at first a serialization in
Crescent Magazine (from March to October, 1928). Then it was published by
Crescent House as a two-volume novel. Shen picked Alice and the Rabbit (Shen
named it Nuoxi 傩喜) out of the original, and made another dream for them,
where they traveled in China together. The journey of oriental exoticism turns out
to be a nightmare for the two visitors from the west, for wherever they go around
China, famine, ignorance and superstition prevail. The gentlemen in the town all
38
39
40
41
Zhou Zuoren, 1988, p. 53.
Morton N.Cohen, 1981, p. 20.
Virginia Woolf, 1969, p. 266.
Mei Zihan, et al. 2002, p. 92.
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HU Rong
worship the west blindly, and are busy fighting each other along with a group of
mean and snobbish servants. Alice and her partner then come to the west of
Hunan Province, a mountainous residence for Miao 苗 People, one of the
minorities of China, and they witness a number of uncivilized customs, including
a ruthless slave trade. Finally they suddenly wake up and end their extremely
uncomfortable “adventures” at a loss.
Sharp sarcasm and criticism go throughout the whole story, where Alice, along
with the Rabbit, is undergoing a bitter journey of exposure to the depraved
modern China rather than exciting adventures. Shen, the young writer, admitted
later his first novel was “a failure.” “I had intended to write something like
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for my younger sister, so that with the story
she could comfort our mother sick at home,” Shen recalled, but once he began
writing, he found himself “unable to melt the deep misery of our society into the
naive fun, pure and clean. And the sting is too straight and shallow.”42 As a poor,
self-taught writer, Shen had suffered from poverty, loneliness and injustice,
which urged him to become a keen critic of society more than an innocent joker
of nonsense. Obviously Shen did not think much about his younger readers,
because he wrote the story in a way children may feel hard to read—long
sentences, difficult grammar and irony tone, all challenge the children’s
patience—and Shen completed the story within a month so hastily that his Alice
had the only chance to join a party with her new friends in China. In the seventh
chapter of the first volume, Alice presents herself at a party of birds and enjoyed
several songs, whereas, to the readers’ surprise, the topic of the birds’ ballads is
“the debate of love”!
Another imitation is Chen Bochui’s Ms. Alice, a serialization as well in a
semimonthly Xiaoxuesheng 小学生 (The pupil) in the spring of 1931. Like Shen,
Chen tells Alice’s adventures in China in his fairy tale for pupils. It’s evident that
Chen had studied Carroll’s Alices carefully and tried to follow the original in
plots, scenes and characters. As a skilled writer of books for children, Chen got a
better understanding of his little readers than Shen, and attached more
importance to the dialogue and interior monologue of his characters. His Alice
remains a curious, honest and polite girl, who occasionally makes some mistakes
out of carelessness or quick temper. Like what she meets in wonderland, Alice
here encounters many queer animals and attends a number of debates, parties and
trials. Chen did not even forget to add dozens of nursery rhymes to his book,
which at first glance seems quite close to its original in the style at least. In
general, this fairy tale has learned a lot from its original but missed the core: the
nonsense flavor, which Chen abandoned on purpose to get along with the
traditional claim that books for children should be instructive and echo Zeitgeist.
42
Shen Congwen, 2000, pp. 3–4.
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance
439
Chen explained why he wrote the tale in the postscript:
After looking through Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland I was attracted and
excited by this innocent, impulsive, clever, brave and lovely girl, and then an
idea occurred to me that she could be invited to China, the semi-feudal and
semi-colony, and through her experience Chinese children will get to know
their own country, learn what to love, what to hate, what’s right and what’s
wrong, and then consider where to go and choose the correct way for
themselves.43
Therefore it is easy to understand why the writer put various labels of class on
the insects by their nature:
At sight of the barefooted worker, Alice suddenly thought of several hateful
faces: those of bristletail, the profiteer, of snake, the police, of Dr. Firefly, the
manager of electric company, of snoozing bug, the judge, of cicada, the poet,
of python, the emperor, of gadfly, the fortuneteller, of grasshopper, the rascal,
of fly, the gangster, and of mosquito …
“But what a kind face the bee worker has!” Alice said to herself, “and that
snail coolie is also very kind!” She could not help having pity for the bee when
she looked at his face again.44
During the serialization took place the Event of September 18th in 1931, so the
writer “could no longer go on as planned, and Alice was not only a healthy
45
‘common girl’ any more, she was supposed to be ‘a fearless little fighter’ then.”
Consequently a “holy war” of the beneficial insects against the pests broke out in
the 18th chapter. Alice started to lead her friends to resist the invading of troops
of pests, and rejected the suggestion of surrender, determined to fight to the end.
Isn’t that the “fable” Zhao Yuanren pointed out and the “education of utility”
Zhou Zuoren was concerned about? It seemed quite reasonable and natural for
the fairy tales to take the responsibility of teaching children what to do in
wartime, and Carroll’s Alice had to stop her adventures of nonsense. Perhaps she
could never find the wonderland in modern China, where the taste of nonsense
literature had been excluded by the mainstream for ages. Therefore Zhao
Yuanren’s translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has carried
significance beyond his expectation by reminding every Chinese reader, adults
especially, of the fact that he or she was ever Alice once upon a time.
43
44
45
Chen Bochui, 1981, p. 142.
Ibid., p. 82.
Ibid., 1981, p. 142.
440
HU Rong
References
Carroll, Lewis (1988), Zhao Yuanren 赵元任 (trans.), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (English-Chinese), Beijing:
Shangwu yinshuguan.
Carroll, Lewis (1981), Chen Fu’an 陈复庵 (trans.), Yang Jingyuan 杨静远 , (proofread),
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (English-Chinese). Beijing: Zhongguo duiwai fanyi
chuban gongsi.
Chen Bochui 陈伯吹 (1981), “Alisi xiaojie houji” 阿丽思小姐·后记 (Epilogue of Ms Alice),
in Chen Bochui tonghua 陈 伯 吹 童 话 (The collection of Chen Bochui’s fairy tales),
Changsha: Hunan shaonian ertong chubanshe.
Cohen, Morton N. (1981), “Introduction: Lewis Carroll and the Alice Books,” in Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland and through the Looking-Glass, New York: Bantam Books, Inc.
Hu Shi 胡适 (1998a), Ouyang Zhesheng 欧阳哲生 (ed.) Hu Shi wenji 1 胡适文集 (Collected
works of Hu Shi: book 1), Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe.
Hu Shi (1998b), Hou Jian 侯 健 (ed.), Hu Shi mingzuo xinshang 胡 适 名 作 欣 赏 (An
appreciation of the masterpieces of Hu Shi), Beijing: Zhongguo heping chubanshe.
Hu Shi (1998c), Shen Weiwei 沈卫威 (ed.), Hu Shi riji 胡适日记 (The diary of Hu Shi),
Taiyuan: Shanxi jiaoyu chubanshe.
Mei Zihan 梅子涵 et al. (2002), Zhongguo ertong wenxue wu ren tan 中国儿童文学 5 人谈
(Talks among five friends on Chinese literature for children), Tianjin: Xinlei chubanshe.
Rackin, Donald (1969), “Preface,” in Donald Rackin (ed.). Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland:
A Critical Handbook. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc.
Shen Congwen 沈从文 (2000), Alisi Zhongguo youji 阿丽思中国游记 (Alice’s adventures in
China), vol. 1, Haikou: Nanhai chuban gongsi.
Woolf Virginia (1969), “Lewis Carroll’s Crystallized Childhood,” in Donald Rackin (ed.),
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Zhou Zuoren (1988), “Alisi manyou qijing ji” 阿丽思漫游奇境记 (Alice’s Adventures in
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About the Contributor
Hu Rong 胡荣, Lecturer in Institute of Literature Studies, Shanghai International
Studies University and editor of the quarterly Comparative Literature in China,
Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance
441
obtained her Ph. D. from Fudan University in 2008. Her academic interests focus
on comparative literature and modern Chinese literature. Her publications
include “Linghun chengbao de zhencha he tanxian—ping Can Xue jiedu Kafuka
yu bo’erhesi” 灵魂城堡的侦察和探险——评残雪解读卡夫卡与博尔赫斯 (An
exploration into the castle of soul: On Can Xue’s understanding of Franz Kafka
and Jorge Luis Borges), “Xiandai yishu de duanzan miyue: Juelanshe yu Xiandai
zazhi” 现代艺术的短暂蜜月：决澜社与《现代》杂志 (An ephemeral honeymoon of
modern art: The Storm Society and the journal Les Contemporans), and “1919:
Xinqingnian yu yichang weisui de geming” 1919：《新青年》与一场未遂的“革
命”(1919: The journal New Youth and the unfulfilled “revolution”), etc.