Double Translation: Cross-cultural Exchange in Wang Chen-ho’s Rose, Rose, I Love You

This thesis aims to reconsider Wang Chen-ho''s novel Rose, Rose, I Love You from the perspective of cultural translation. Rose, Rose, I Love You is not only Wang''s last novel, but also his first novel brought to English readers. Written in 1984 and translated by Howard Goldblatt in 1998, there are numerous differences concerning cultural translation and translated modernity between the original text and the translated one. Wang Chen-ho''s writing invites different cultural and linguistic origins, including Mandarin, Japanese, English, Taiwanese, Hakka etc, and thus I deem his writing as a kind of cultural translation. In this novel, we found his manipulation of the concept of modernism and modernity, along with his deliberate misunderstanding of American culture and language in Taiwan in the 1960s. Later, when this novel is translated into English by an American Sinologist, Howard Goldblatt, it makes the “double translation” condition of Rose, Rose, I Love You. Hence, this thesis tries to examine the image of Taiwan after the double cross-cultural exchange, and to sort out the ideology behind the translator as well as the (un)translatability of culture. In addition, through Goldblatt’s translation, we can have in-depth discussion on translated Taiwanese novels, along with the voice position of Taiwanese literature under the cross-cultural situation.