ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2026.03.012
A Sociological Reconstruction of Eileen Chang’s Self-translation Practices from the Perspective of Actor-network Theory: A Case Study of The Golden Cangue to The Rouge of the North
Jingjing Cui1,*, Ruixin Li2
1School of Foreign Language Studies, Dezhou University, Dezhou 253000, Shandong, China.
2School of Foreign Language Studies, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun 113001, Liaoning, China.
*Corresponding author: Jingjing Cui
This paper represents a phased achievement of the Shandong Provincial Project on Education Reform—Research and Practice on the Integration of Ideological and Political Education into Comprehensive English—the First-class Undergraduate Course of Provincial Level.
Published: March 31,2026
Abstract
Eileen Chang, one of the most representative bilingual writers in twentieth-century Chinese literary history, has long been regarded in self-translation studies as an author engaged in cross-linguistic rewriting of her own works. Traditional scholarship has predominantly focused on linguistic strategies, feminist perspectives, or postcolonial interpretations. This paper adopts Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as its analytical framework to reconceptualize Chang’s self-translation practices as a project of “translation” (in the ANT sense) conducted within the cultural field of Cold War America—a dynamic process through which she strategically negotiated and constructed networks in an attempt to reconfigure her writerly identity and existential space. The study reveals that Chang’s self-translation practices were not mere linguistic conversion but cultural productions embedded in specific social networks; her choice of translation strategies and the reconstruction of textual meanings, jointly shaped by multiple actors within the social field, have had profound sociological significance. This research offers a new theoretical perspective for understanding the social nature of literary translation and contributes to the advancement of translation sociology.
Keywords
Eileen Chang; self-translation; Actor-Network Theory; translation; The Rouge of the North; Cold War literature
References
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https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0102/c404063-31531843.html
How to cite this paper
A Sociological Reconstruction of Eileen Chang’s Self-translation Practices from the Perspective of Actor-network Theory: A Case Study of The Golden Cangue to The Rouge of the North
How to cite this paper: Jingjing Cui, Ruixin Li. (2026) A Sociological Reconstruction of Eileen Chang’s Self-translation Practices from the Perspective of Actor-network Theory: A Case Study of The Golden Cangue to The Rouge of the North. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 10(3), 316-321.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2026.03.012