Translating Modernity and Reconstructing World Literature

The issue of modernity with regard to the function of translation has been one of the most cutting-edge theoretical topics in both Chinese and international contexts, especially in dealing with globalization and world literature. As we know, modernity functioned both politically and culturally in the Chinese context. And large-scale translation in the 1920s and 1930s played an important role in constructing the modern Chinese literary canon. This literary and cultural translation has also led to serious debate among China’s intellectuals. The great achievements in modern Chinese literature can never be neglected, especially from the perspective of world literature; for through such large-scale literary and cultural translation, modern Chinese literature has come closer and closer to the mainstream of world literature, carrying on direct dialogues with its international counterparts — a role that will function dynamically in the reconstruction of world literature. This essay therefore calls for another large-scale translation in the current age of globalization: translating contemporary Chinese literature into the major world languages and deconstructing the West-centric framework of world literature. In the Chinese context this is another stage of modernity, and it is one that will contribute a great deal to the remapping of world literature in the age of globalization.