Translated revolutions: Translation of Latin American literature in the 1970s Hong Kong left-wing literary field

Abstract

Latin American literature is often related to the influence of magical realism on many canonical Hong Kong novels and their relationship with the formation of Hong Kong's cultural identity. Current studies on pro-modernist writers and magazines are comprehensive, but few have noticed the translation on leftist magazines and newspapers, primarily because leftist writers are often associated with Chinese nationalism and mainland Chinese political propaganda on literary realism and anti-colonialism, instead of connection with western literature. However, as Chinese leftist cosmopolitanism is gaining attention from scholars, the world view of leftist writers and their translation of international left-wing literature attract closer scrutiny. This paper will first provide a brief overview of the translation of Latin American literature in the 1970s Hong Kong literary field. It will then focus on the left-wing journals with a case study on Ocean Literature (1972-80), the most important leftist literary magazine in 1970s Hong Kong, which responded to the calling of the political campaign of the “Asia-Africa-Latin-America” alliance proposed by Chinese Communist Party, whereas translation was tasked with the new mission of understanding their third world “comrades”. A comparison with pro-modernist translators on similar source texts will also be discussed to examine how political position varied their translation strategies. It will conclude by investigating how these Hong Kong translators interacted with the local, national, and international contexts in the 1970s.