Review on the English Version of Hanvueng, A Baeu Rodo Scripture

David Holm is an English native speaker of high proficiency in Zhuang language and Meng Yuanyao is a Zhuang native speaker of great familiarity with English. They worked together to produce an English version Hanvueng: The Goose King and the Ancestral King: an Epic from Guangxi in Southern China. This book is translated from the vernacular scriptures of the Zhuang Ethnic Group, one of the Chinese minorities. It was published in 2015. Based on a careful reading of this book, the author of this article argues: firstly, this book is of ethnographic Zhuang-English translation because it was translated directly from Zhuang language to English language by adopting ethnography methods of fieldwork and it provides numerous cultural and linguistic notes for those items that may be difficult for readers to understand; secondly, it characterizes the joint efforts of in-and-out governmental organizations, including various organizations, work units, and research projects, and the collaborative work of Zhuang and English giants, authority figures, involving officials, scholars, and common people; thirdly, it is no doubt a good example of ethnographic thick-translation version in translating Zhuang classics into English. This book provides a new approach to translating and introducing minority ancients works to the outside world to promote international communication and it is of great referential significance for “going global” strategy of Chinese minority classics.