Translating “Maoist China”: The Development of French Maoism through Literary Translation

Abstract

The translation of Chinese literature brought Mao Zedong thought and the Chinese revolutionary spirit to France in the 1960s, giving rise to the development of French Maoism. The translation conducted by French left-wing intellectuals focused on Mao’s literary works and other left-wing revolutionary literature, which encouraged French avant-garde writers to project an image of idealized “Maoist China” onto the land of France, with an ambition to promote social and political reforms at home. Utopian fantasies about Chinese literature and politics drove the development of French Maoism, but the disintegration of spontaneous Maoist organizations and the trips to China allowed pro-Maoist intellectuals to recognize their idealized misinterpretation of China gradually.

Keywords:

• French Maoism
• Chinese literary translation
• Mao’s literary works
• Chinese revolutionary literature

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 毛泽东, whose pinyin is Máo Zédōng, is internationally known as Mao Zedong, and is also romanized as Mao Tse-Toung, Mao Tsé-toung and Mao Tsö-tong in French. In this paper, the titles of books or articles that refer to people’s names retain the original personal designation, as is the case for the following names.

2 鲁迅, whose pinyin is Lǔ Xùn, is internationally known as Lu Xun, and is also romanized as Lu Sün, Lou Siun, Lou Sin and Luxun in French.

3 屈原, whose pinyin is Qū Yuán, is internationally known as Qu Yuan, and is also romanized as K’iu Yuan in French.

4 It is a collection published by Éditions Gallimard, including Anthologie de la poésie chinoise classique (1962), Anthologie des mythes et légendes de la chine ancienne (1989) etc.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is sponsored by Major Program of the National Social Science Fund of China (20&ZD140).

Notes on contributors

Xin Huang

Xin Huang is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Foreign Languages at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research interest focuses on comparative literature and translation studies.