杜博妮 英国爱丁堡大学
McDougall, Bonnie, University of Edinburgh
原文Original
Translation as Gift-Exchange: Chinese Writers and Foreign Translators in the Late 1970s and Early 1980s
Looking back at the years immediately following the Cultural Revolution, we can see more clearly than was possible at the time the lingering influence of the preceding three decades. One remnant of the past was the suspicion with which foreigners, including students and ‘foreign experts’ employed by Party and government organizations, were generally regarded in China. Another was the importance of personal connections in obtaining scarce goods and services. These factors affected the relationships between Chinese writers and their foreign translators in ways that were not fully understood at the time. The notion of ‘gift-exchange’ provides a framework for the study of these interactions.
Early studies on gift-exchange were based on societies where commercial transactions were secondary to non-commercial exchanges. It was subsequently observed that gift-exchange was also practiced even in industrial and post-industrial societies where commercial transactions had become dominant. Further research on twentieth-century Chinese society challenged the universality of some gift-exchange practices, such as the direction of asymmetrical gift-exchange. Contrary to the accepted view that seniors tended to be givers rather than recipients, it was more common in China for the junior partner to offer frequent and lavish gifts.
This ambiguity in relative status may have affected perceptions of the relationships between Chinese writers and foreign translators. Of greater weight, however, was the failure by both parties to take into account the contrast between China, emerging from a command economy where personal connections competed with money for access to goods and services, and the market-based economies familiar to translators.
To many of the new writers of the 1970s and 1980s, suspicion of foreigners was part of the discredited old ideology: hence, their own readiness to develop working partnerships with foreigners. For the new arrivals, many with a background in Chinese studies, the chance to work together with writers was a rare opportunity to gain insights into Chinese literature, culture and society.
The writers, offering their works for translation, also offered entry into their family and social circles, and, in addition, access to goods and services that even special shops for foreigners could not supply. Unfortunately, the translators were usually unaware that they in turn were under an obligation to provide their writers (and by extension their families and friends) with access to goods and services inaccessible to Chinese people. Even more unfortunately, writers found it difficult to understand that failure of translators to reciprocate was in part due to their unfamiliarity with the unwritten rules of gift-exchange.
As China moved towards a market economy, relationships between writers and translators also moved onto a commercial basis. Social intercourse between Chinese and foreigners also became more commonplace. The gift-exchange relationship still exists in individual cases but no longer characterizes a general trend. Nevertheless, this period resulted in the production of translations of the new literary works that attracted unprecedented interest inside and beyond China.
译文Translation
作为礼物交换的翻译：1970年代末1980年代初的中国作家与外国译者
回顾一下文革刚刚结束之后的那些年月，我们现在也许可以更清楚地看到那之前三十年挥之不去的影响。那段历史留下的后遗症之一是包括留学生和受党和政府机构聘请的“外国专家”在内的外国人普遍会受到怀疑。另一后遗症则是私人关系在获取短缺物资及服务时变得特别重要。这些东西以一些当时还未能被充分理解的方式，影响了中国作家和外国译者之间的关系。现在来看“礼物交换”可以为研究中国作家和外国译者的相互关系提供一个基本理论框架。
对礼物交换的早期研究通常针对那些商品交易从属于非商品交换的社会。后来，人们发现，即便是在商品交易已经取得主导地位的工业化和后工业社会之中，礼物交换依然存在。对20世纪中国社会的进一步研究挑战了礼物交换实践中的某些普适准则，如不对称礼物交换的指向。原来大家普遍接受的观念是，年长者和位高权重者馈赠礼物而不接受礼物。与之相反，在中国更为普遍的情况是，年轻人和地位卑下者频送奢礼。
这一关系地位的模糊性也许已经影响了中国作家与外国译者对相互关系的看法。然而，更为重要的是，双方未能考虑到各自体制上的巨大差异。中国正从计划经济脱胎而出，私交与金钱在获取物资与服务时相互竞争，而外国译者们更熟悉市场经济。
对于七十、八十年代的许多新起作家来说，对外国人的疑虑是业已失信的旧意识形态的一部分。所以，他们已经准备与外国人结成合作伙伴。另一方面，对于具有中国研究背景的年轻外国译者来说，同中国作家合作也是一次难得的了解中国文学、文化和社会的机遇。
作家们在提供可供翻译的作品之时，也让译者走进了他们的家庭和社交圈，同时还使译者得到一些甚至连外国人特供商店都无法提供的物资及服务。不幸的是，译者们通常意识不到，他们反过来也有义务向作家们（并扩展到他们的家庭和朋友）提供一般中国人无法得到的物资和服务。更为不幸的是，作家们无法理解，译者们不能互通有无的部分是由于他们不熟悉礼物交换的不成文规则。
随着中国走向市场经济，作家与译者间的关系亦转而建立在商业基础之上。与此同时，中国人与外国人之间的社交往来也越发平常。在个别作家与译者那里，礼物交换关系仍然存在，但已经不再是主导倾向。不过，正是在“礼物交换”时期翻译出的一批新文学作品在海内外引起了前所未见的关注。