Cross-cultural writing and translating in the American context: an examination of the construction of the China image by Lin Yutang and Amy Tan

Lin Yutang and Amy Tan share common ground in several aspects. First, they are familiar with both American and Chinese cultures, and second, their cultural orientations are complicated in that while they are visibly attached to the Chinese culture, we may also find some misinterpretations about China in their writings. Additionally, they both write about China for English readers. Meanwhile, when they depict the image of China, their writing and translating involve much of their individualized interpretations of China, which from the intertexual perspective, reflect their respective cultural stances. (The following section is cited with a slight adaptation from the abstract on the same subject that the author presented to the conference “2017 International Conference on Cross-Cultural Studies Intercultural Adaptation, Globalization, and Risk” held in Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan in 2017. It can be accessed at http://english.fju.edu.tw/conference/paper/Wangshaodi%20abstract%209-2.pdf ). The intertextual relations between the writers and the translators’ cultural orientations and their texts can facilitate a foundation to interpret their translation and writing. The writer bases this study on the English writings, biographical backgrounds, and Chinese–English translations of Lin and Tan, attempting to understand the constitution of their attachment to oriental culture and the self-orientalism in their cultural stances. Based on this, the writer studies the image construction of China in their texts and tries to interpret the intertextual relationship between their cultural orientations and their Chinese–English translating and writing, along with an analysis of contributing factors to such manifestations, hoping to shed light on the exploration of the China image construction in the cross-cultural writing and translating between China and America.