The "Adaptation" in Modern China's Translated Novels and Its Causes

The large number of foreign novels translated into Chinese for the purpose of enlightening the people has dramatically impelled the evolution of traditional Chinese novels in early modern times.Translators' subjectivity consciousness and the then realistic demands for translation were the dominant factors in that process.Characterized by this functional tendency of the translators,most of the translated novels were adapted versions,i.e.,they tended to interpret the original culture in terms of the TL cultural norms.Whether the adaptation strategy was a conscious or unconscious choice,it was related to the translating purposes and motives of the then translators.According to the German functionalist theory(Skopostheorie),the translator should base his/her work on the client/commissioner's requirements and take into consideration the translation skopos and the readership,and then select only what accords with these in ST to translate.In this sense,the principles of skopos theory can exactly account for the adaptation strategy that was popular in the translation of foreign novels in early modern China.