THE OVERSEAS DISSEMINATION AND RECEPTION OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE QUOTATIONS OF MAO ZEDONG: BASED ON AMAZON READER REVIEWS

Abstract

For a long time, as the main object of foreign translation and dissemination of Chinese books, The Quotations of Mao Zedong has had a remarkable impact on China and the world. The comments and evaluations of foreign readers are an important aspect to study and measure the effectiveness of the work’s foreign translation and distribution. In this paper, with the help of data crawler tool and text mining tool ROST CM6, a quantitative and qualitative study on the reader reviews of the translation of The Quotations of Mao Zedong on Amazon platform is conducted. The trends of star ratings, emotional attitudes and number of reviews show that most readers have positive attitudes toward it, and give it positive evaluations. Readers’ motivation for reading is based not only on circulation but also on personal interests such as historical, philosophical or study needs; at the same time, its political ideology is another important reason. Although there are flaws in the quality of book design and the language quality of the translation, the overseas dissemination of the translation of The Quotations of Mao Zedong is on the rise and the overall acceptance is good.