In 1813, Friedrich Schleiermacher, a German philosopher, gave a lecture named On the Different Methods of Translating, in which he proposed two ways of translation. His theory was translated by Lefevere as “...there are only two. Either the translator leaves the author in peace as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him”(Lefevere,1997, p.4). Based on Schleiermacher’s view, Lawrence Venuti proposed“domestication” and“foreignization” translations in his work The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation in 1995. Domestication and foreignization are two different translation strategies in dealing with cultural persities during the process of translation. Foreignization is oriented towards source language culture,which means that it tends to keep the distinct flavor of the original work,sometimes even at the cost of target language readers’ understanding. Adopting foreignization strategy would represent “a strategic cultural intervention in the current state of world affairs”(Venuti,1995, p.20).
1.2 Eileen Chang's Self-translation and The Golden Cangue
As one of the most famous authoresses in the history of modern Chinese literature, Eileen Chang gains popularity among a great number of Chinese readers. Meanwhile, she also contributed a lot to the translated literature. She has translated works of some famous American writers into Chinese. Eileen Chang has been insisting on translating her own works for two reasons: on the one hand, she has confidence in her mastery of English because of her educational background; on the other hand, she holds that the author is the one who understands the work best and can express it in another language in the most appropriate way.