Translating Western Girlhood: Laura M. White’s Chinese Translation of Sara Crewe (1888)

This paper aims to illustrate how certain Western ideals of girlhood are communicated to Chinese women across the boundaries of language, power, ethnicity and culture through translation. It examines the Western girlhood, featuring the notion of feminine self-sacrifice, in the Chinese translation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s (1849–1924) Sara Crewe (1888) translated by Laura M. White (1867–1937). White was a Protestant American woman missionary who worked in various sectors related to women’s education in China for four decades from late nineteenth century. Given her engagement in educating Chinese women, this paper studies her Chinese translation Xiao Gongzhu (1913) to investigate whether it reflects certain notions on Western girlhood that are not present in the original. A comparative textual analysis is conducted between the original text and White’s translation to compare the images of Sara, the young girl protagonist. With the analysis illustrating that White amplifies the self-sacrificial spirit of this Western girl, this paper argues that White attempted to construct a Western epitome of girlhood through translation for Chinese girls to emulate.