Mother of the Nation: A Short Translation History of Yang Qianhe’s ‘Flower Blooming Season’

Abstract

First published in 1942, Yang Qianhe’s Japanese-language short story ‘Flower Blooming Season’ depicts a schoolgirl named Huiying who seeks out female role models to help her navigate the realities of womanhood beyond the school gates. This article uses close readings of the 1979, 1992, and 2001 Mandarin Chinese translations of the text to argue that the translation process politicised the text’s depiction of girlhood through omitting or foregrounding the protagonist’s interest in cultural and social markers of Japanese womanhood. In examining the translators’ differing approaches, the article explores how literary translation reflects and reinforces narratives concerning the period of Japanese rule in Taiwan, as well as questioning the tendency to view imperial subjectivity from a male perspective exclusively.