Zhao Yuanren’s Translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Its Significance in Modern Chinese Literary History

Abstract

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland first translated into Chinese by Zhao Yuanren was published in 1922. As an advocator of the New Literature Movement, Zhao chose to translate the famous fantastic novel in vernacular Chinese, which was virtually a linguistic experiment for the New Literature. He fulfilled the seemingly impossible mission and his version has been most popular till now. While the taste of Nonsense Literature which Zhao favored in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was ignored or changed in its two Chinese imitators: Shen Congwen’s Alice’s Adventures in China in 1928 and Chen Bochui’s Ms. Alice in 1931.

Key words： Zhao Yuanren; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; the New Literature Movement; the vernacular Chinese; Nonsense Literature