(Re)translation and Reception of Li Qingzhao’s Works in the Anglophone West

As the most renowned Chinese female poet, Li Qingzhao (1084-1156 CE) has received extensive attention from Chinese scholars, evidenced by thousands of academic publications. In contrast, the number of her English (re)translations both in mainland China and the Anglophone West, remains under a hundred, resulting in limited scholarly studies typically focusing on the limited number of existing translators and translations. This leads to a lack of comprehensive examination of the (re)translation and reception of her works, a gap this project aims to fill. This project builds on Cadera and Walsh’s (2022) theory that a reciprocal connection exists between retranslation and reception. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, the project triangulates bibliographical data of the English (re)translations of Li Qingzhao’s work from 1918 to 2021 with paratextual materials and textual criticism to build a comprehensive diachronic dataset. The project examines her (re)translations contextually, textually and peritextually, to provide a systematic (re)translation and reception history of Li Qingzhao’s works in the Anglophone world. Taking (re)translations as a primary and collective act among (re)translators, editors and publishers, the contextual investigation charts Li Qingzhao’s complete (re)translation trajectory over the past 100 years. The findings suggest that (re)translations and reception might be related to diverse contextual factors, highlighting her increasing prominence in the Anglophone literary scene and wider reception of her work despite the early marginalization and underrepresentation of her literary diversity, especially in anthologies. The peritextual examination of Li’s ten English collections reveals the effects of elements such as book titles, covers, blurbs, presentations and notes on the poet’s reception. The micro-investigation examines the textual features of early French to English (re)translations to uncover their possible impact of indirect translation on readers. Beyond the (re)translation dataset, creative responses to Li Qingzhao and her works by Anglophone artists are recognized as an alternative type of reception.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Liu, Hongxiu

• P Ieitheg. Ieithyddiaeth
• PE Saesneg

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:3765