A Study on Wang Fengzhen’s Chinese Translation of The Good Earth in the Perspective of Cultural Turn

The Good Earth, a novel by the modern American author Pearl S. Buck, takes rural life in China as its main theme, and vividly reproduces the “vernacular China” of the early 20th century in terms of folk customs, the image of peasants, and the concept of the land, etc. Pearl S. Buck’s writing gesture of truly understanding a foreign country and putting it into words constructed a new image of China, eliminated the prejudice of the Western world against China at that time, and had important practical significance for the friendly exchanges between the East and the West. From the end of the 1980s, with the occurrence of “cultural turn”, cultural studies gradually penetrated into the field of translation. The focus of translation research has also shifted from language to culture. As a special transnational literature, Pearl S. Buck’s work has high research value in the cultural field. Therefore, this paper will explore the characteristics and strategies of Wang Fengzhen’s Chinese translation of “The Good Earth” and the translator’s view of translation from the perspective of the cultural turn, with the help of textual close reading and textual analysis. In addition, as Pearl S. Buck’s works have an important influence overseas, this study also strengthen understanding of the China’s image construction and the power relationship between China and the West at that time, to further improve the dissemination of traditional Chinese culture overseas.