ArticleInterdisciplinary Studies of Translation http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.10.020
On Cultural Representation and English Translation of Song Dynasty Costumes in Shuihuzhuan
Li Xu*, Dongmei Zhou
College of Foreign Languages, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, Hubei, China.
*Corresponding author: Li Xu
Published: October 31, 2025
Abstract
As one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Shuihuzhuan depicts the costumes of people of different classes in Song Dynasty in an exquisite manner. These costumes are not only the material carriers of social culture in Song Dynasty, but also undertake the literary functions of shaping characters, implying status and transmitting values. This paper takes the costumes in Shuihuzhuan as the research object, systematically sorts out the different cultural representations of practical simplicity and luxurious complexity of the costumes of two groups in the novel. Taking John and Alex Dent-Young’s English version of Shuihuzhuan as the research text, combined with Liu Youling’s optimization suggestions, based on the English translation cases of typical clothing, this paper analyzes the translator’s strategies in dealing with culture-loaded words. It also puts forward the translation principle of balancing cultural accuracy and readers’ acceptability. The analysis reveals that effective translation of such items requires a tripartite strategy: meticulous cultural annotation for iconic items, terminological standardization across the text, and functional adaptation based on the garment’s narrative role.
Keyword
Shuihuzhuan; Song Dynasty Costumes; Cultural Representation; English Transla-tion of Clothing
References
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Copyright
© 2025 by the author(s).
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How to cite this paper
On Cultural Representation and English Translation of Song Dynasty Costumes in Shuihuzhuan
How to cite this paper: Li Xu, Dongmei Zhou. (2025). On Cultural Representation and English Translation of Song Dynasty Costumes in Shuihuzhuan. Translation and Foreign Language Learning, 1(3), 516-520.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.10.020