What Should I Call You?
In a short story I once translated from Chinese to English, none of the main characters was given a name. Instead, all were called by their relationship to the narrator, such as 妈妈,爸爸,大姐,姐夫,二姐,etc. While using Mom and Dad as names is quite workable in English, it gets rather awkward to use relationships such as oldest sister, brother-in-law, and second sister in place of a name when writing in English. While it is perfectly natural and easy to follow in Chinese, a translation that relies on familial relationships in place of names can become quite cumbersome or awkward in English.
I was fortunate that this particular story was short enough that I could manipulate the sentences so that I did not have to repeat the sister, brother-in-law combination too often. It was tricky distinguishing between the two sisters, but I managed that as well. I was even able to avoid the rather awful rendering of “First Sister” and “Second Sister” that I have sometimes seen other translators use. In my own work, I try to avoid using familial relation words as if they are proper names, using “my oldest sister” instead of “First Sister,” and so forth. In a pinch, I might use the pinyin jiejie, or Jie if that is workable, indicating with a gloss early in the text that it means older sister. While that is not ideal, it is at least better than the the very awkward English version First Sister, Second Sister, etc., or even things such as “Sis.”
A similar problem is when job titles are used in place of or in addition to a name in the Chinese text. While there are a few job titles that might work with a name, such as Dr. Smith or Coach Jones, they are much rarer than what is seen in Chinese. The use of such job titles as Manager Li or Director Zhang is terribly unnatural in English, but I have often seen inexperienced translators use just such renderings.
Though I disagree with it, I do completely understand the motive for using this approach in English. In the minds of many people who use such forms of address, the use of familial names and job titles in place of or in addition to a name is a very important part of Chinese culture. While I would not dispute that point at all, I find that such renderings in English do nothing to capture what they mean in the original, where they are natural and offer just a touch of formality and respect, and often a measure of warmth too. By contrast, the result of a more literal rendering in English sounds obsequious, when it doesn’t sound outright sarcastic or nonsensical. Rather than capturing what the terms mean within their own cultural context, such addresses misrepresent the relationships altogether, and in so doing, misrepresent Chinese culture. It is one of those cases in which a literal translation of the term actually undermines the effect that term has in its original context.
The trick to determining how to translate such terms is to first consider the effect they have on a Chinese reader. The use of 姐姐 instead of an older sister’s name is both a term of respect and affection. In English-speaking cultures, the same effect is perhaps achieved by a nickname of some sort, especially one that is only used by the family. Even more natural, though, is simply the use of the sibling’s given name.
Another (and more important) effect of the use of words that mark relationships – whether they be familial, hierarchical, or an indication of a certain level of familiarity – is that they serve to remind each member of the community of her or his place within that group. The security that comes with knowing one’s place within the community is of profound significance in Chinese culture, perhaps to a degree that it cannot be in more individualistic cultures, which would include most of those where an English translation is likely to be read. What is important in the Chinese, then, is not the name used, but that sense of belonging to a community, knowing one’s place within it, and gaining a sense of security from that, even if the place one occupies is less than perfect. In calling the characters in a story not by given name but by their relationship to the narrator, it is actually this sense of belonging and security that is being reinforced, and it is important that the translator not lose sight of that.
The question that naturally arises, once we have determined that the key thing is this sense of belonging and security, is how we duplicate that feeling in English. The use of words such as “First Sister” or “Director Zhang” will not achieve it. In fact, it might undermine that sense, as the use of such terms sounds jarring and even alienating when used in English. To render something that is so natural in Chinese into jarring, alienating English is to do the text and its reader an injustice. Rather, we should find ways to duplicate both the naturalness of the Chinese and the effect those terms have within their own culture. How we achieve this will change from text to text, and we will have to look for cues within the work itself to guide us toward details that can be emphasised to achieve that effect. This requires close reading and careful consideration, but in my experience, it is almost always doable.
The key to achieving this effect is to always remember what it is we are aiming for – a reflection of the surface parts of the culture of the original text, or the deeper meanings to which those surface items point. If we get too hung up on the literal translations of the names used in the original, we can easily end up missing the relationships those names are intended to indicate.