Re-conceptualizing foreignness: Strategies and implications of translating Chinese calligraphic culture into English since the twentieth century

This article explores how the English language has (partially) accommodated the culture of Chinese calligraphy since the twentieth century. The notion of cultural translation is used and substantiated as the theoretical and explanative framework of this study. Translators have employed two strategies to make the culture of Chinese calligraphy translatable, namely, the reconstruction of this culture and recourse to visual means of representation. The methods of re-organizing Chinese calligraphic culture in the Anglo-American context show that the approaches to Western art are used, and cultural dilution occurs to varying degrees. In addition, the conjunction of pictures and texts helps expose the meanings embedded in Chinese calligraphy, and functions as a means of conveying cultural messages. The practice of cultural translation emancipates the expressive power of the English language and offers a newly woven context that guarantees cross-cultural understanding of foreignness. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.