The “Substituting Translation for Creation” in Women’s Novels: Centered on Period of the 1910s 

Guo Yanli

Abstract: In the 1910s, there emerged texts of “substituting translation for creation” in novel writings by Chinese women, which was a product of a newborn style in transition of modern Chinese literature. At that time, influenced by the plots, characters, and techniques of expression in the Western literature, some women learnt from those writings consciously or unconsciously when they wrote novels. This phenomenon was closely related with the deepening of the “introduction of Western learning to the East” as well as women writers’ reading of Western novels, and experienced the process from imitating the Western novels to “substituting translation for creation”. They transplanted, filtered and remoulded the Western novels into new texts which expressed localized characteristics. “Substituting translation for creation” had certain guiding and enlightenment significance to modern women novels, as it broadened the way to learn from the Western literature, and benefited the development of local literature/culture. This phenomenon also appeared in the creation of new poetry during the period of the May Fourth Movement, and even earlier, in the works on history and geography in early modern times. Its occurrence was both a conscious behavior that the generation of intellectual elites sought the truth and learnt from the West actively, and a new exploration and practice to broaden the cultural/academic perspective as well as promote the development of local culture/literature.