Translating kominka: Shaping narratives of Japanese rule in Taiwan through translation post-1975

This project, titled Translating kominka: Shaping narratives of Japanese rule in Taiwan through translation post-1975, examines translations of Japanese language texts written by Taiwanese women during the final decade of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan (1934-1945). The source texts for these translations were published under a series of cultural assimilation policies, particularly the kominka policy enforced from 1936 onward. The kominka policy forbade publication in languages other than Japanese, and works were heavily censored. Since 1975, translation has played a decisive role in reframing kominka texts, but its contribution is underrepresented in existing scholarship. Using the translations and retranslations of kominka works by five Taiwanese women - Zhang Bihua, Ye Tao, Huang Fengzi, Huang Baotao and Yang Qianhe - this project will redress the current gap in the literature. Analysis will be guided by the following question: how were translation and retranslation used from 1975 onward to shape the legacy of Japanese rule in Taiwan?
Bert Scruggs considers the authors central to this thesis in his microstudy of 'female subjectivity in early and mid-century Taiwan' (Scruggs, 2015: p.89). Anne Sokolsky's on Huang Fengzi and Yang Qianhe discusses the authors' 'varying degrees of comfort with being part of the colonial empire' (Sokolsky, 2010: p.239). However, neither of these studies explores the treatment of women authors in the post-colonial period. My research will complement these studies by outlining how translation has shaped the image of women as colonised subjects.
Existing discussion of kominka translation focuses exclusively on male authors and not been particularly detailed. Leo Ching references the politicised Chinese translation of Wu Zhuoliu's The Orphan of Asia (Ching, 2001: p.179). Bert Scruggs notes how 'postcolonial politics mediates the translation of colonial texts' but does not examine the features of this mediation in detail (Scruggs, 2015: p.9). This study will expand on the works of these scholars to demonstrate the full scope of translation's reframing power.
The project's central methodology will be Norman Fairclough's theory of critical discourse analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1989). Though not conceived with translation studies in mind, CDA is nonetheless a very effective method for scrutinising ideological translation. Ying Xiong's study of Ouchi Takao's translations of Chinese literature in 1930s-40s Manchuria showcases the benefits of this approach (Xiong, 2014: p.206). I will move beyond Xiong by applying this methodology in a comparative framework across the four areas of my research.
Sections one and two of the project will use critical discourse analysis look at the translation of literary and non-literary kominkatexts. Section one will concern literary texts, examining the impact of gender and time period as variables in the translation process. Primary material will include Formosa (Forumosa/Fumosa) (1934) and Taiwanese Literature (1): Selected Japanese Works (1996) (taiwan wenxue (1) riwen zuopin xuanze). Section two will turn to Taiwan' s Folk Customs (Minzoku Taiwan) (1941-1945) an ethnographic study translated into Chinese by Taiwanese author Lin Chuanfu during the late 1980s. The journal includes essays by Yang Qianhe and Huang Fengzi. This portion of the project, contextualised by the first, will question the different treatment of literary and non-literary kominkatexts.
Sections three and four will consider the reception of these translations. Section three will look at critics writing on these kominka texts during the 1990s including Xu Junya and Ding Fengzhen, alongside scholarship by Ye Shitao and Chen Yingzhen from the 1970s and 1980s. Section four will focus on Yang Qianhe, analysing the Chinese translation of Yang's memoir Prism of Life (Jinsei no purizumu) (1993) published in 1995.