Translating idiomatic expressions in Hong Kong popular fiction : with special reference to Yi Shu's stories

This paper discusses the translation of idiomatic expressions as seen in the works of Hong Kong popular fiction author Yi Shu. Very little research has been published in the area of translating popular fiction, especially how this differs--if at all--from the translation of "high" or "serious" literature. While some may argue that figurative language such as idiomatic expressions should not be handled any differently in popular literature, this paper argues that, due to the complexities of Chinese-English translation, the tremendous gap between the source-language and target-language cultures, the style of popular fiction writing, and the expectations of the target readers of translated popular fiction, this is not always defensible in practice. A variety of different methods for handling the translation of Chinese idiomatic expressions are presented and then applied to the translation of specific examples taken from Yi Shu's short stories.