ArticleInterdisciplinary Studies of Translation http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2026.02.021
A Study of the Translation and Dissemination of Mao Zedong’s Poetry in Britain from the Perspective of Translator Behavior Criticism Theory
Xiaolong Ren*, Yang Yang, Jun Zhang, Beilei Li
School of Foreign Languages, North China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, Hebei, China.
*Corresponding author: Xiaolong Ren
The paper is funded by the Project of North China Institute of Aerospace Engineering (ZD-2026-09) and the Project on International Communication Capacity Building of the China International Communications Group (2025WWJJY21).
Published: February 28, 2026
Abstract
Mao Zedong’s poetry is a significant treasure and symbol of Chinese revolutionary culture. The translation and dissemination of his poetry are a very important channel to construct China’s international discourse system. Based on Zhou Lingshun’s translator behavior criticism theory, this study applies a three-dimensional framework to examine the translation history, the features of translators’ behavior and the mechanism of dissemination of Mao’s poetry in Britain. The study finds that British sinologists’ translation behaviors show a truth-seeking—utility-achieving continuum. Through analyzing the behaviors of British translators, the study unveils the cultural filtering and image construction mechanisms in the dissemination of Mao Zedong’s poetry in Britain, providing theoretical reference for the international translation of China’s revolutionary literature in the new era.
Keyword
Translator behavior criticism theory; Mao Zedong’s poetry; British translation; dissemination studies
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Copyright
© 2026 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 Study of the Translation and Dissemination of Mao Zedong’s Poetry in Britain from the Perspective of Translator Behavior Criticism Theory
How to cite this paper: Xiaolong Ren, Yang Yang, Jun Zhang, Beilei Li. (2026). A Study of the Translation and Dissemination of Mao Zedong’s Poetry in Britain from the Perspective of Translator Behavior Criticism Theory. Translation and Foreign Language Learning, 2(2), 322-327.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2026.02.021