This article studies the history of the introduction and translation of Gabriel García Márquez’s works into contemporary China. Based on thoroughly exploring each key step in the process of translation and reception of his works—including selection of source texts, adoption of translation strategies, identity of translators, criticisms of translation, and the arguments over the key concepts—the article disinters the differences of cultural contexts among various historical periods in which García Márquez was introduced and accepted in China. This article is composed of five parts. The first part gives an overview of the history of translation and reception of García Márquez in China. Part two elaborates on the paradox of the Chinese version of “magic(al) realism,” which is widely used in Chinese contemporary literature. Part three is an exposition of the impact of García Márquez being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and the myth of the impact of the Latin American Boom on Chinese literature in the 1980s. Part four deeply discusses why the works of García Márquez are deemed “new classics” in China in the twenty-first century, despite having been left out in the 1990s. Part five concludes that the description of the history of translation of García Márquez for four decades not only uncovers how the global publishing market and the system of literary criticism managed by the West influence Chinese translated literature, but also reveals the ideological conflicts in China since the 1980s.
Research on the Development of Chinese Contemporary Literature Trend under the Language and Culture Angle of View
