Nam Fung Chang

List of John Benjamins publications for which Nam Fung Chang plays a role.

Articles

The futility of decades of government efforts to disseminate Chinese literature has triggered discussions among Chinese scholars on how to translate and who should be entrusted with this task. Some blame the failure on traditional concepts of translation that overemphasize faithfulness to the… read more
Taking China as a case in point, this paper addresses the concern among some Western scholars that the concept of translation in the European tradition is narrower than in some other cultures so that the spread of Western concepts and theories to the rest of the world is threatening “biodiversity”.… read more
Chang, Nam Fung 2011 In defence of polysystem theoryTarget 23:2, pp. 311–347 | Discussion
This article revisits Itamar Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory, including its hypotheses on the position of translated literature and its relation with translation norms, and some of its basic assumptions and principles, such as the heterogeneity, dynamics and overlapping of systems, the quest for… read more
Chang, Nam Fung 2010 Polysystem theory and translationHandbook of Translation Studies: Volume 1, Gambier, Yves and Luc van Doorslaer (eds.), pp. 257–263 | Article
Chang, Nam Fung 2008 A missing link in Itamar Even-Zohar’s theoretical thinkingTarget 20:1, pp. 135–149 | Article
According to Itamar Even-Zohar, for a large social entity to be maintained, a culture repertoire must be invented to create internal cohesion and external differentiation, and from this repertoire certain items are chosen to build a collective identity. In contrast, imported items, if regarded as… read more
This article deals with three interrelated issues: first the ‘cultural turn’ of Itamar Even-Zohar in contrast to the ‘cultural turn’ in Translation Studies, then the application of an augmented version of Polysystem theory in a short case study, and finally the question of objectivity and… read more
Chang, Nam Fung 1996 Towards a Better General Theory of Equivalent EffectBabel 42:1, pp. 1–17 | Article
ABSTRACT On the premise that translating is communicating, E.A. Nida puts forward a theory of dynamic equivalence based on the principle of equivalent effect, which lays a great emphasis on the response of the receptor, but there are some fuzzy areas in his theory, such as whether cultural… read more