ArticleTranslation Theories and Skills http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.10.003
A Narrative Approach to the Japanese Translation of Allusions
Shasha Cheng1, Xiaoming Lu2,*
1Graduate School of Social and Cultural Sciences, Okayama University,3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.
2School of Foreign Languages, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou Higher Education Park, Wenzhou 325035, Zhejiang, China.
*Corresponding author: Xiaoming Lu
This work was supported by the General Research Project of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education: “The Exploration and Practice of Integrating Traditional Chinese Culture into Translation Teaching” (Project No. Y202457200).
Published: October 31, 2025
Article history: Updated on June 26, 2026
Abstract
With the significant enhancement of China’s cultural influence, the translation of texts that contain classical allusions is attracting increasing translation pedagogy and research circles attention. Such texts frequently integrate traditional cultural resources, making their translation essential for cross-cultural communication. The current research seeks to explore the perennial problem of translating classical allusions carrying significant historical and cultural implications for translators. Drawing on narratology and the theoretical insights put forth by Mona Baker regarding narrative translation, this research explores the translation of classical allusions in a representative corpus of modern Chinese texts. Through the three-dimensional analytical model of temporal-spatial construction, selective appropriation, and label construction, the study uncovers translation techniques emerging from a narrative model. The central claim made in this study is that translators need to be conscious of their target audience, understand the source text thoroughly, and accumulate sufficient knowledge about Japanese culture. This will help them reconstruct the narratives in a manner that maintains cultural integrity while communicating effectively across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Applying Baker’s narrative techniques, this research analyses the translation of 75 classical allusions taken from a representative corpus of modern Chinese texts into Japanese.
Keyword
Classical Allusion Translation; Narrative Theory; Cross-Cultural Communication
References
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Copyright
© 2025 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
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How to cite this paper
A Narrative Approach to the Japanese Translation of Allusions
How to cite this paper: Shasha Cheng, Xiaoming Lu. (2025). A Narrative Approach to the Japanese Translation of Allusions. Translation and Foreign Language Learning, 1(3), 414-419.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.10.003