The translation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and his intertextual world in China¹

Abstract

The retranslations of Andersen's fairy tales in the twentieth century have promoted the canonization of Andersen in the modern Chinese literary system. Today, Chinese readers of different ages are fascinated by Andersen's works and the images created by him. However, the literary and cultural significance of Andersen to China lies in his influence. In this paper, the authors will first review the history of translating Andersen's fairy tales in China and then analyze some cases from Chinese literature and culture within the theoretical framework of intertextuality, in an attempt to specify the influence of Andersen on modern Chinese literature and culture. It is argued that Andersen's fairy tales have been cross‐culturally woven into Chinese children's as well as adult literature when the intertextual devices are applied by writers in their own literary creations; meanwhile the fictional elements of the tales are intertextually merged, as symbols, into other forms of cultural products where they are involved in a critical construction of modern Chinese culture.