[Theme] Why Did Writers of the New Culture Movement Embrace Foreign Literature Translation?

[Date & Time] 16:00–17:30,  May 29, 2026  (Fri.)

[Location] 
Room 1102, Public Teaching Building 1

[Speaker] Lü Ruyu
Lecturer, Department of French, School of Foreign Languages. Her research focuses on French Sinology, translation theories and French literary criticism. She has released five translated works and was awarded the Newcomer Prize at the 14th Fu Lei Translation and Publishing Award for her translation of Le mystère Henri Pick.

[Introduction]
Why did writers across the New Culture Movement take up translation? Did they seek linguistic vehicles for new ideas, or reflect on themselves through foreign cultures amid the sweeping reform of old traditions? Can we find echoes of their translations in their original literary works? As classical Chinese blended with Europeanized sentence structures, and traditional imagery intertwined with Western metaphors, the translation boom became a collective exploration of literary potential, while nurturing fertile ground for new thoughts and cultures. This wave of translation subtly transformed the characteristics of the Chinese language and profoundly shaped the development of modern Chinese literature. Let us travel back to this era of linguistic innovation and ideological emancipation, and explore the upsurge of translation alongside these pioneering writers.