Le tribolazioni di un americano in Cina
Traduzione indiretta e transtestualità nella novella «Qie ming bo» 妾命薄 (1906) di Bao Tianxiao 包天笑 (1876-1973)
Abstract
From the end of the Qing dynasty through the early Republican period, the translation of world literature played a crucial role in shaping China’s modern commercial publishing and literary cultures. Such translations were frequently produced as indirect translation. Within this context, the novelist Bao Tianxiao, with a limited knowledge of foreign languages, carried out most of his translations through Japanese intermediaries. This paper analyses the translinguistic trajectory of Bao’s short story «Qie ming bo» (1906). Through a comparative reading, the study reconstructs how a short sketch by Mark Twain was rendered into Chinese via Hara Hōitsuan’s translation (1903) and examines the extent to which Bao creatively reworked the source material.
Submitted: March 23, 2026 | Accepted: June 24, 2026 | Published July 30, 2026 | Language: it
Keywords Bao Tianxiao • Hara Hōitsuan • Mark Twain • Creative translation • Indirect translation
Copyright © 2026 Daniele Beltrame, Barbara Bisetto. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2026/62/006