Joint Patronage in the Context of Translating Chinese Culture into English in the Early 21st Century

The 21st century has marked an unprecedented era in the history of translation in China. Under the “Going out Policy,” translating Chinese culture into English is considered as an essential means of promoting China’s soft power. Chinese institutions’ efforts in translating Chinese culture actually started from the 1950s, but what is different in the new millennium is that more and more Chinese works are translated under a new form of patronage, that is, joint patronage from both Chinese and foreign institutions. Why is there a change of the form of patronage? What are the advantages of joint patronage? As foreign patrons may have different purposes and criteria of translation, conflicts of opinions could be inevitable. How can the Chinese and foreign patrons resolve the conflicts as well as other challenges joint patronage could bring about? These are indeed very important issues in the field of translation studies but still remain unsolved. This research attempts to solve these issues and have an in-depth investigation on joint patronage in the context of translating Chinese culture into English on the basis of a case study of the gigantic project “CPG China Library.”