Wang Zhuo |

Professor Wang Zhuo

Current situation and thoughts on overseas translation and research of Chinese coming-of-age novels

The original article was published in the 2022 autumn issue of Fudan Foreign Chinese Literature Series

Abstract: As a unique subgenre of novels with a high degree of integration of "growth dimension" and "education dimension", personal growth and the fate of home and country, the translation of growth novel often means the external dissemination of the value orientation, cultural gene and spiritual dimension of a country, nation and era. In the context of Chinese literature "going out", this paper examines the current situation of translation and overseas research of coming-of-age novels in the past 100 years of development in the mainland, compares the translation and dissemination of Western coming-of-age novels in China, and extracts the importance and particularity of the translation and dissemination of coming-of-age novels, in order to put forward constructive countermeasures from the macro and micro levels for the planning and translation of genre literature in Chinese literature "going out".

Keywords: Chinese coming-of-age novels; Western coming-of-age novels; Translation and research; Chinese literature goes global

I. Introduction

Sarah Graham, in the preface to her book A History of the Coming-of-Age Novel, argues that anyone who reads a novel will eventually encounter a coming-of-age novel—a coming-of-age novel about the challenges faced by young people, "because it is the most popular and timeless genre in the history of literature" (Graham, 1). This is true. Growth novels are novels with the protagonist's educational growth experience as the plot clue (Wang Zhuo, 2022: 66), and their biggest feature lies in their own education (Wang Zhuo, 2008a: 15). The Nigerian writer Chikwenye O. Ogunyemi once said that coming-of-age fiction also serves an educational function when telling the story of the education of others, "so it is interesting that both the protagonist and the reader benefit from this education" (Ogunyemi, 15). In this sense, coming-of-age novels have important values that other types of literary works do not have in shaping people's spirit, literacy, and sentiments. In a certain sense, the translation and dissemination of coming-of-age novels means the external dissemination of a country, nation, and era value orientation, cultural genes and spiritual dimensions. In fact, this is also one of the cultural colonization methods that Western countries continue to use in the process of overseas expansion and colonial rule. For example, beginning in the 50s of the 19th century, Western missionaries to China began to translate a large number of Western coming-of-age novels for Chinese children and adolescents, with the aim of cultivating a generation of Chinese children who believed in Christianity (Song Lihua, 1-14). It is worth noting that the "hot" reading and research "hot" of Western coming-of-age novels in China is in stark contrast to the "cold" reception of coming-of-age novels overseas, and this is also a typical example of the "trade deficit" between literary translation and publishing. This phenomenon deserves in-depth consideration in the context of Chinese literature "going global", and it is urgent to formulate corresponding countermeasures from many aspects such as overseas publishing planning, translation selection, and translation strategy of Chinese coming-of-age novels.

Second, the Chinese "hot" phenomenon of Western coming-of-age novels

Western coming-of-age novels have a large number of readers in China, and Chinese academics have fully researched them. It is no exaggeration to say that many Chinese readers' enlightenment foreign literature books are coming-of-age novels. Western coming-of-age novels have been in China for more than 100 years. It is generally believed that Bao Tianxiao's translation of "Three Thousand Miles of Searching for Relatives" from Japanese in 1903 was the earliest coming-of-age novel translated into China, but if the translation activities of Western missionaries to China are taken into account, the coming-of-age novel entered China at least 50 years earlier (Song Lihua, 1). Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, Dickens' The Great Expectation, David Copperfield, and Austin's Pride and Prejudice), Eliot's Middle March, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Salinger's European and American coming-of-age novels such as The Catcher in the Rye have accompanied many Chinese readers through the most precious years of their lives, and Chinese readers "love them as much as our own literature" (Gao Yu, 98-99).

The reason why these European and American coming-of-age novels can have such a far-reaching impact in China is closely related to the translation and dissemination of these works in China. The spread of European and American coming-of-age novels in China has several distinctive characteristics: 1) it was introduced into China early; 2) Large volume of translation and publication; 3) There are many translations, including many translations by authoritative translators; 4) Large sales and large readership; 5) In-depth research on works and translations.

Take the spread of Dickens' David Copperfield, which Chinese readers are very familiar with and loved, for example. In 1908, the translator Lin Shu introduced the book to China, and the Chinese translation was called "The Rest of the Life of a Piece of Meat". In 1947, Shanghai Camel Bookstore published Dong Qiusi's translation of David Copperfield, the first complete translation of the book in the vernacular. Other representative translations include David Copperfield translated by Zhang Guruo in 1980 and David Copperfield translated by Song Zhaolin in 2012. In the more than 100 years of dissemination in China, the book has been translated into more than 20 Chinese editions by more than 40 translators. This novel has always been a favorite of Chinese readers, and readers' enthusiasm for reading has been unabated. Take "Douban" (www.douban.com) as an example. The topic of Dickens and David Copperfield has received extensive attention in both topic groups and reading channels, with more than 1,000 threads and comments. Netizen "Kiki99" said: "Dickens tells a warm story in plain and simple language, outlining characters with distinct personalities. David's life was completely rewritten after he found his aunt, and the innocent and noble people around him shaped him and made him what he was. 'Never be humble, never hypocritical, never cruel' is the foundation of his winning the love of others. The novel also had a profound impact on modern and contemporary Chinese writers. As a translator, Lin Shu once said: "Diegensgai to the Qing Spirit Mansion, to the turbid society, make me increase countless experiences, and live endlessly?" ” (1-2)。 Lin Shu's translation of Dickens has also influenced generations of Chinese writers: "The unique charm of Dickens' novels and Lin Shu's beautiful translation have made Lin's translated Dickens novels a textbook for many modern writers." Many modern Chinese writers came into contact with Dickens through Lin's novels, such as Bingxin, Shen Congwen, Qian Zhongshu, Lao She, Zhang Tianyi, Contradiction, Ba Jin, Xiao Qian, Wang Meng, etc., all of whom expressed their great liking for Dickens' works. (Innocence, 161)

Another example is the classic coming-of-age novel "Jane Eyre", which has had a profound impact on generations of Chinese readers, especially female readers. Jane Eyre, regarded as the "revolutionary beginning" of women's coming-of-age novels, is an enlightening reading for the awakening and growth of Chinese women (Showalter, 122). Before the founding of New China, there were three important translations of the book, namely Zhou Xiaojuan's "Chongguang Ji" (1925), Wu Jianguang's "The Tale of the Orphan Girl Floating Zero" (1935), and Li Jiye's "Jane Eyre's Autobiography" (1935-1936). Among them, Li Jiye's "Autobiography of Jane Eyre" is the earliest Chinese complete translation. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the translation was continuously reprinted and reprinted, and from April 1956 to January 1958, the New Literature and Art Publishing House printed a total of 16,000 copies of Li Jiye's translation. In 1962, the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House printed another 3,000 copies. According to statistics, since the 90s of the 20th century, there have been hundreds of translations of Jane Eyre (Jiang Chengyong, 11th edition).

Not only are 19th-century English coming-of-age novels widely read and influential in China, but 20th-century coming-of-age novels also have many Chinese readers and researchers. For example, Joyce's Portrait of a Young Artist, created in the early 20th century, has more than 20 Chinese translations in mainland China. The book was published in 1916 and attracted the attention of the Chinese people almost at the same time. In 1933, Fei Jianzhao published "Irish Writer Joyce" in the "Literary Monthly", introducing the book (951). In 1980, Taiwanese translators Li Wenbin and Li Dengxin published the first Chinese translation. In 1983 Chinese mainland the first Chinese translation of the book was born.

European and American coming-of-age novels have not only become reading texts for the majority of Chinese readers, but also entered China's education system and become teaching materials or recommended reading materials for students. Dickens and his coming-of-age novels are also cited as an example. The famous writer and translator Xie Liuyi has pointed out that Dickens's works have long been used as literary reading and teaching materials in Chinese schools (63-70). The Commercial Press's 1905 Imperial English Reader included reading texts adapted from Dickens' works; In 1910-1911, the Commercial Press launched the "English Literature Series", and in 1918 it launched "Model Short Stories in English" and "Model Readers in English", which included stories based on Dickens' novels (Gong Lingfen and Ye Feng, 83-85). After the founding of New China, Dickens's works entered the English and American literature textbooks of the Chinese and foreign language departments of universities, and also entered the Chinese textbooks of middle schools. Netizen "Centennial _Sylvain" mentioned: "The first time I knew about the book "David Copperfield" was in the new curriculum standard language textbook." These European and American coming-of-age novels have played a role in knowledge expansion, cross-cultural exchange, education and enlightenment for Chinese readers, and their positive significance cannot be underestimated. However, in teaching materials and literary readings, foreign works have the predominance, and the cultivation of the future aesthetics, literary outlook, and values of mainland teenagers and children, and the inheritance of China's excellent traditional culture, constitute obvious "cultural security risks" that should also be paid attention to (Yao Jianbin, 6).

In addition to the boom in translation and reading of European and American coming-of-age novels in the mainland, the research on coming-of-age novels in mainland academic circles has also achieved fruitful results. The publication of European and American coming-of-age novel monographs mainly focuses on the first two decades of the 21st century. In 2004, Rui Yuping published Research on American Coming-of-Age Fiction (China Social Sciences Press). In 2007, Sun Shengzhong's "Research on American Coming-of-Age Novels and Cultural Expression" (Anhui People's Publishing House) and Wang Yan's "The Temporality and Modernity of Novels: A Study on the Temporality of European Growth Education Novel Narratives" (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press) were published. In 2008, Xu Dejin's "Coming-of-Age Novel and Autobiography: A Study of Growth Narratives" (Higher Education Press) and Wang Zhuo's "The Shadow of Growth Projected in the Text: A Study of American Women's Coming-of-Age Novels" (China Book Press) were published; In 2012, Rui Yuping and Fan Yi published "Growing Landscapes: A Study of Contemporary American Coming-of-Age Novels" (Commercial Press); In 2013, Zhang Guolong published "Introduction to Growth Novels" (Anhui University Press); In 2014, Hou Jinping published A Study on the Growth Theme of Chinese-American Fiction (Jinan University Press); In 2019, He Saibo published "A Study on Chinese Translation of Four English Women's Coming-of-Age Novels in the Republic of China" (Wuhan University Press); In 2020, Sun Shengzhong published "History of Western Growth Novels" (Commercial Press) and "Text Interpretation of Western Growth Novels" (Commercial Press). In addition, doctoral dissertations focusing on the study of Western coming-of-age novels have also shown steady popularity. Zhang Jun's "Research on the Influence of Guides in Saul Bellow's Coming-of-Age Novels" (2012), Ning Yunzhong's "Subject Generation in Space: A Study of American Jewish Coming-of-Age Novels" (2013), and Mai Linyan's "Research on Coming-of-Age Novels from Goethe to Saul Bellow" (2021) are doctoral theses in this field. In addition to coming-of-age novel research monographs and doctoral theses, mainland scholars' coming-of-age novel research papers have also yielded fruitful results. According to CNKI database statistics, as of January 2022, there were 1,488 journal papers searched with "coming-of-age novels" as the keyword. These papers mainly focus on the narrative characteristics, character types and text interpretation of the main representative works of British and American coming-of-age novels, conduct a comprehensive and systematic study of European and American coming-of-age novels, and maintain a dialogue with the research on European and American coming-of-age novels in the field of world literature.

Third, the overseas "cold" phenomenon of Chinese coming-of-age novels

In contrast, the overseas translation and research of Chinese coming-of-age novels in the West is much more lonely and lonely, and has had even less impact on "Western literature and Western social life and ideas" (Gao Yu, 98-99). Although the concept of coming-of-age fiction originated in Germany and developed in Europe and the United States, coming-of-age novels in Chinese literature are also a literary category that cannot be ignored. According to some Chinese scholars, Chinese coming-of-age novels in the 20th century experienced almost all the changes of Western coming-of-age novels in 300 years in a century (Xu Xiuming and Ge Hongbing, 92). The reason why coming-of-age novels can be quickly combined with the cultural and political context of 20th-century China and form a unique Chinese coming-of-age novel is not unrelated to the full "indoctrination" factor in Chinese literary genes. China's tradition of "poetry" has a long history. Since Confucius proposed that "when you enter its country, its teachings can be known." Since the teachings of the Poetry, "the tradition of lyrical indoctrination through poetry in Chinese civilization has profoundly influenced the gradual formation of educational themes in Chinese literature" (Zhong Jinjin and Cheng Fangping, 123). Looking at the development of Chinese novels, it is not difficult to find that educational thinking runs through the entire development history of Zhiwei and Zhiren novels that formed in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties periods, to the Tang legend, the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the Zhang Hui novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties. After the Qing Dynasty, from the publication of "Divergent Street Lights" by Li Luyuan to Bao Tianxiao's invitation to serialize educational novels in the "Education Magazine", typical Chinese educational growth novels began to appear (Han Yongsheng, 6). It should be pointed out that the Chinese educational growth novels at that time were more focused on the educational dimension, so it was more appropriate to call them "educational novels". For example, "New New Novels" edited by Chen Jinghan and "Moon Novels" edited by Wu Yueren and others, founded in 1906, have published "educational novels" (Han Yongsheng, 6). However, whether it is an educational novel or a coming-of-age novel, its basic functions of shaping people and edifying are the same. During the transition period of Chinese social history in the early 20th century, coming-of-age novels were one of the most effective tools used by "Liang Qichao" to shape new people (Fan Guobin, 26).

The 20th century was the golden age of the development of Chinese coming-of-age novels, and a series of novel masterpieces were born. Ye Shengtao's "Ni Huanzhi", Zhang Tianyi's "Bao Father and Son", Mao Dun's "Hong", Lao She's "Lao Zhang's Philosophy", "Zhao Ziyu", "Xiao Po's Shengtong", "The Legend of Niu Tianci", Ba Jin's "Home", Luqiao's "Weiyang Song", Yang Mo's "Song of Youth", Liu Xinwu's "Class Teacher", Cao Wenxuan's series of youth education and growth novels are all representative works of different historical periods.

However, the reception of mainland coming-of-age novels abroad is not satisfactory. In terms of translation and introduction, mainland coming-of-age novels have problems such as a small number of foreign translations, a small number of foreign readers, a small scale of foreign publishing houses, and little influence. In terms of research, it is mainly reflected in the problems of insufficient attention of foreign scholars, insufficient in-depth research, insufficient comprehensiveness, and lack of systematic.

Take, for example, Yang Mo's "Song of Youth", which is considered a "true sense" Chinese coming-of-age novel (Li Yang, 95-102). Published in 1958 by the Writers Publishing House and the People's Literature Publishing House, the novel has been reprinted several times since then, and with a circulation of more than five million copies in China, it is a far-reaching Chinese coming-of-age novel. With the strong promotion of the state, the Japanese version of the book was published in 1960, the Korean version in 1961, and the English version in 1964, and has been translated into more than 20 languages, covering Europe, America and other countries, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The book's overseas "focus groups are mainly scholars from university research institutions and sinologists" (Li Xianhui, 24), but the attention is small. Li Xianhui inquired about Goodreads in the article "< Song of Youth> Dissemination and Reception in the World", and made statistics on the acceptance of overseas readers of the English version of "Song of Youth". From August 2010 to May 2017, only 17 readers from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Serbia, Pakistan, Canada and the United States participated in the rating, and only 4 had text ratings. The research perspective of the few foreign papers on the novel focuses on ideological issues, and most of them focus on the sixties and seventies of the 20th century. Among them, only two discuss the image of young people in the novel, one is "The Image of Youth and Age in Chinese Communist Literature" by sinologist Hellmut Wilhelm; Another is "The Taming of the Youth: Discourse, Politics, and Fictional Representation of Youth in the Early PRC" by Chinese coming-of-age fiction expert Song Mingwei. Song Wen clearly positioned the book as a Chinese socialist coming-of-age novel.

If "Song of Youth", as a classic work of "seventeen years of literature", there is a gap in time, ideology and other aspects between Western readers, which affects the dissemination and reception of the novel abroad, then the contrast between the domestic and foreign reception of Yang Hongying's "Ma Xiao Jump" series, known as "Chinese Rowling", needs to cause us to reflect. There is no doubt that the domestic sales of the "Ma Xiao Jump" series have been a great success. The total domestic sales reached 10 million copies, ranking the children's book sales list for 41 consecutive months. However, all eight books in the English version of the "Ma Xiao Jump" series were released by Harper Collins in Europe and the United States in 2008, and all of them were discontinued within 5 years. Reader feedback is even more pitiful, with only one review on the British version of Amazon (Luo Yirong, 57-61). If the contrast between the reception of Yang Hongying's "Ma Xiao Jump" series in the English-speaking world and Rowling's "Harry Potter" series in China is taken into account, this typical case of "trade deficit" in the literary world is even more shocking. "Harry Potter" entered China in 2000 and sold more than 30 million copies in more than 20 years, and the total circulation of "Harry Potter" and its derivative products in China reached 1.7 billion (Zhu Rongting, GA10).

This is the case for overseas translation of mainland growth novels, and the situation of overseas research is not optimistic. Authoritative works on foreign coming-of-age fiction studies, such as Franco Moretti's The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture (1987), and Sarah Graham's History of Coming-of-Age Fiction, do not mention Chinese coming-of-age novels. Although "world pluralism" scholars such as Susan Howe insist that a strong tradition of coming-of-age fiction exists outside Germany (Iversen, 26), they also never seem to have taken the initiative to look for this literary tradition in Chinese literature. This is in stark contrast to the growing focus of world literature on African coming-of-age novels and Caribbean coming-of-age novels.

At present, the most comprehensive study of mainland coming-of-age novels overseas is Young China: National Rejuvenation and the Bildungsroman (1900-1959) by Song Mingwei, a traveler. The book was published in 2016 by the Havard University Asia Center. This monograph is based on Song Mingwei's 2005 doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, "Long Live Youth: National Rejuvenation and the Chinese Bildungsroman, 1900-1958, 2005", which caused great repercussions in the academic circles. Michael Berry, a Chinese literature expert at the University of California, Santa Barbara, believes that the book not only tells the story of how the coming-of-age narrative evolved in 20th-century China, but also sketches a complex growth story of modern China itself through this process. Wang Ban, William Haas Chair Professor of Chinese Studies and Comparative Literature at Stanford University, believes that the book outlines the journey of self-shaping from old China to new China, and the book's biggest breakthrough lies in weaving coming-of-age fiction into China's pursuit of nationality and modernity. In addition, domestic and foreign scholars David Der-Wei Wang and Wang Pu have also had relevant reviews or book reviews. In my opinion, the greatest contribution of this work is that it will include, for the first time, Ye Shengtao's Ni Huanzhi (1928), Mao Dun's Rainbow (1930), Ba Jin's Family (1931), Lu Ling's Children of the Rich (1945-1948), Yang Mo's The Song of Youth (1958), and Wang Meng's Long Live Youth Live Youth (1979) and other classic Chinese coming-of-age novels are presented in a complete and systematic manner in front of the interface of Western studies, and try to establish a literary genealogy of Chinese coming-of-age novels. Another important contribution of this work is the construction of a unique isomorphism between the "growth" of young people and the national destiny and modernity of 20th-century China in the specific political, historical and cultural context of China. In addition, Song Mingwei's "Inventing Youth in Modern China" is included in A New Literary History of Modern China, edited by Wang Dewei. This article focuses on the birth and connotation of Li Dazhao's essay "Youth" published in New Youth magazine in 1916, and focuses on how the essay influenced Chinese youth culture in the 20th century and how coming-of-age fiction became the beginning of modern Chinese fiction (Song Mingwei, 2017: 248-253).

Song Mingwei's Young China: A Novel of Reshaping and Coming-of-Age National Youth 1900-1959 is the only academic monograph published in English and published by foreign publishing houses to study the whole picture of coming-of-age novels in China in the first half of the 20th century. In addition, several doctoral theses by overseas Chinese scholars also examined Chinese literary works from the perspective of coming-of-age novels. In 2007, Li Hua completed her doctoral dissertation at the University of British Columbia, "Coming of Age in a Time of Trouble: The Bildungsroman of Su Tong and Yu Hua." The article was published by Brill Press in 2011 under the title Contemporary Chinese Fiction by Su Tong and Yu Hua: Coming of Age in Troubled Times. The study treats the works of two contemporary writers, Su Tong and Yu Hua, as cultural metaphors, reflecting on the growth of Chinese youth during the Cultural Revolution (Li Hua). An important significance of this research is to expand the research scope of the coming-of-age novel genre, that is, to examine contemporary Chinese writers with the theory of coming-of-age fiction, and to consider the relationship between literary genres and individual Chinese literary works. This study shows that Chinese coming-of-age stories enrich the coming-of-age novel genre with unique characters, plots and narratives, opening the door for Chinese coming-of-age novels to integrate into the world coming-of-age novel family.

A noteworthy phenomenon is that the classic Chinese masterpiece "Dream of Red Mansions" is positioned as a coming-of-age novel. Louisiana State University professor Li Qiancheng's monograph "Fictions of Enlightenment: Journey to the West, Tower of Myriad Mirrors, and Dream of the Red Chamber" and the article "Fictions of Enlightenment: Journey to the West, Tower of Myriad Mirrors, and Dream of the Red Chamber" by red scientist Andrew Plaks "Leaving the Garden: Reflections on China's Literary Masterwork" and others explain "Dream of the Red Mansion" as an enlightenment and coming-of-age novel. In 2008, Ma Ning completed his doctoral dissertation at Princeton University, From Material to Romantic Egoism: A Comparative History of Chinese and European Novels, 1550-1859. In the third chapter of the article, the author conducts a case study of Jia Baoyu in "A Dream of Red Mansions" and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, which positions the novel as a Chinese coming-of-age novel from the perspective of Bakhtin's coming-of-age novel theory and based on the structural characteristics of the irreconcilable contradiction between self and reality in "Dream of Red Mansions".

In addition, there are some research results on modern and contemporary Chinese literature, mentioning Chinese coming-of-age novels. For example, Peter Button, a sinologist at McGill University in Canada, in his Configurations of the Real in Chinese Literary and Aesthetic Modernity (2009), Focusing on Chinese realist texts from the 20s to the 60s of the 20th century, he examines the works "Song of Youth" (1959) and "Red Rock" (1961) especially from the perspective of the relationship between the subjective shaping education (bildung) and modern aesthetic discourse in modern coming-of-age novels.

The above combing shows that the overall number of overseas studies of Chinese coming-of-age novels is small, and most of the researchers are overseas Chinese scholars, and the research objects mostly focus on coming-of-age novels in ancient and modern Chinese literature, and pay little attention to contemporary Chinese coming-of-age novels. This situation is in great contrast with the characteristics of the mainland's large research volume and large research group of European and American coming-of-age novels, rich and diversified research methods, and timely tracking of contemporary coming-of-age novels in Britain and the United States.

4. Chinese coming-of-age novels

The multi-dimensional significance and countermeasures of "going out"

Some scholars have pointed out that "at present, the acceptance of Chinese literature overseas is mainly limited to the academic level" and that "if China's reading of foreign literature has moved to the mass level, the acceptance of Chinese literature overseas is still in a niche range" (Jiang Zhiqin, 36). In a sense, the Chinese "hot" of Western coming-of-age novels and the Western "cold" of Chinese coming-of-age novels are actually a microcosm and typical case of this "trade deficit" in Chinese and Western literature. It's just that compared with other Chinese literary works, such as foreign translations of ancient Chinese literature and Chinese classics, the "deficit" phenomenon of Chinese coming-of-age novels is more obvious. Foreign translation of Chinese literature is the preferred path and important content of the "going out" strategy of Chinese culture (Chen Wei), and the overseas dissemination and development of Chinese literature is a great cultural undertaking that focuses on the future and is committed to building a community with a shared future for mankind (Yao Jianbin, 1). Since the beginning of the 21st century, Chinese people have carried out a series of explorations and attempts in the process of "going out" (Hu Anjiang and Liang Yan, 69), but the imbalance between the translation and translation of literary works still exists.

As a unique subgenre of fiction, the Chinese coming-of-age novel "Going Global" has an unusual multi-dimensional meaning. There is no doubt that as an important part of Chinese novels, Chinese coming-of-age novels "going out" have the universal significance of Chinese cultural dissemination. Especially considering that there are many coming-of-age novels that have become classics of Chinese literature, the significance of "going out" cannot be ignored. However, the unique nature of coming-of-age fiction itself determines that its "going out" also has an unusual meaning.

First, the special significance of coming-of-age novels "going out" lies in the high integration of the "growth dimension" and the "education dimension" of this subgenre (Xu Xiuming and Ge Hongbing, 82-93). This literary form often attempts to teach readers to understand the processes of their present and past emotions, growth, and belonging, and in the most classic coming-of-age novels, the model of teaching the reader to become a "citizen" is the main core of the novel text (Buckley, 18). The unique educational and educational purpose of coming-of-age novels, as well as the transmission of values and personality shaping functions contained in them, are unique functions that no other type of literary work has or is difficult to fully realize. The personality shaping function of coming-of-age novels is clearly expressed from the composition of the word. The word "Bildungsroman" in "Bildungsroman" From the point of view of word formation, "Bild" means "image, image", both "VorBild", which means "model", and "Nachbild", which means "copy". In general, the meaning of the word is to copy according to a model, to indoctrinate or cultivate according to a certain set ideal (Gadamer, 22-25), and it is the process by which the subject actively knows and shapes itself (Zhang Yinghui, 44-47). The teachings of the manifestation of coming-of-age novels (Wang Zhuo, 2008b: 73-74) and the indoctrination function enable this genre to more fully convey the emotional outlook, values, and world outlook of a nation and an era, which is also one of the important missions of Chinese culture to "go global".

Second, this category has a strong function of social and cultural shaping. Coming-of-age novels record the process of identifying the protagonist with his own social values in a linear or non-linear manner, and also undertake the mission of negotiating the social order and social values between the protagonist and the protagonist. Coming-of-age novels not only involve people's physical growth and emotional growth, but also profoundly touch on the negotiation and interaction between self and society. As Apollo Amoko puts it, coming-of-age novels focus on the shaping of young protagonists in an uncertain world (Amoko, 200), so personal growth in coming-of-age novels is often also a metaphor for national reconstruction, involving complex interactions between personal growth and social transformation and modernization processes (Wang Zhuo, 2021). As Moretti puts it, coming-of-age novels are crucial "not only in the history of fiction, but in our entire cultural heritage" because, as we read them, they "describe and reconstruct our relationship with society as a whole" (Moretti, 23). Chinese coming-of-age novels, especially modern and contemporary coming-of-age novels, express China's construction and interpretation of nationality and modernity, and it is of great significance to let foreign countries fully understand the national spirit, traditional cultural heritage and modernization process of the mainland in the context of the current construction of a "community with a shared future for mankind".

Third, coming-of-age novels are read by both teenagers and adults. In fact, whether it's Dickens' Great Expectations, Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, or William Golding's Lord of the Files, many adult readers have a reading list. The reason for this is that the "general outline" of coming-of-age novels often involves the transition from childhood to adulthood (Buckley, 17-18), and narratives often unfold from the dual perspectives of childhood and adulthood (Wang Zhuo, 2008b: 73). For example, in Dickens's David Copperfield and Great Expectations, Flaubert's Sentimental Education (1869), the protagonists David, Pip, and Frederic all grow up acquiring certain social roles: David becomes a respected writer and journalist, Pip becomes a gentleman in London, and Frederic eventually becomes a member of the middle class. This characteristic of coming-of-age novels determines the diversity of its readership, and such a large readership group means that coming-of-age novels have a strong communication orientation and dissemination strength that other genres do not have.

It can be seen that as a novel genre with unique value, the significance of coming-of-age novels "going out" is very significant. This requires us to strengthen the planning of literary categories in the process of "going out" of Chinese literature. And this is precisely the weakness of the mainland's current literary "going out". A lot of Chinese literature that "goes out" also tends to have a lot of contingencies. As the German translator Hao Mutian said, "In Germany, the publication of a Chinese novel is only due to a chance encounter or an attempt." This unplanned nature is manifested in the greater arbitrariness of the choice of writers and literary genres, and the lack of systematic translation of the works of the same writer. (Quoted from Liu Shasha, B01) In fact, many scholars have noted the importance of Chinese categories and text selection in the process of Chinese literature "going out", and have put forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions. Ma Xinqiang believes that in the selection of texts, we need not only to pay attention to the issues of the times, but also to take into account the subject matter and genre of the works (89). Chen Wei also believes that "from the perspective of text selection, foreign translation of Chinese literature needs to pay attention to world discourse, and at the same time strengthen national cultural self-confidence, so we must try to choose those stories or works that can promote and explain to the world those stories or works with Chinese characteristics, containing Chinese ideology, culture and national wisdom, which are the best materials for telling Chinese stories well."

Based on this, one of the countermeasures to deal with the literary "trade deficit" is to plan, enrich, and design the genres of Chinese literature to be launched. At present, more scholars and the book market are focusing on overseas translations of Chinese spy warfare, science fiction, and suspense novels. There is nothing wrong with this choice. Especially with the success of Mai Jia's classic cipher novel "Decryption" and Liu Cixin's science fiction novel "Three-Body Problem" to the overseas book market, Chinese science fiction and cipher novel fever have also appeared overseas. However, it is regrettable that as a genre literary work, the planning and promotion of coming-of-age novels "going out" are obviously insufficient. In fact, coming-of-age fiction is precisely the genre of Chinese literature that should be promoted. The cultural genes of personal growth and national construction carried by this novel subgenre make it more fully reflect personal emotions and outline the fate of groups and nations, and has strong readability. In fact, Chinese's personal life, thoughts, and the development and changes in China are what many overseas readers are really interested in and want to know through literary reading. A good example of the good results achieved in foreign translation of Cao Wenxuan's works, which positions coming-of-age novels "between children's literature and adult literature" (Xu Xiuming and Ge Hongbing, 91), is a good example (Yao Jianbin, 6). The unique evolution process of the development history of coming-of-age novels in the People's Republic of China over the past 70 years is also the history of national growth and national struggle in the mainland in a certain sense. Whether it is the "revolutionary historical narrative mode and revolutionary realistic narrative mode" in the 50s and 70s of the 20th century, or the narrative mode of coming-of-age novels in the 80s and 90s (Xu Yan), or the increasingly obvious typological characteristics and more independent aesthetic characteristics of coming-of-age novels in the first 21st century, they all reflect the uniqueness of the growth process of Chinese people in the past 70 years and the interaction between national construction and human growth from multiple levels. Foreign translations of mainland literature should give full play to the unique function of coming-of-age novels, "through the true portrayals of today's Chinese society in these works, promote the international community's understanding of China's actual situation, reverse the one-sided understanding of the world, especially Western society, based on history, and eliminate their misunderstanding of the relevant policies of the Chinese government" (Ma Xinqiang, 89). Based on this, the author suggests planning a foreign translation project of Chinese coming-of-age novels based on literary genres. One advantage of this model of foreign translation is that there is a common discourse and reader's expectations. At the same time, due to its specific historical and cultural soil, Chinese coming-of-age novels have aesthetic and narrative characteristics that are very different from Western coming-of-age novels. Similarity is the cornerstone of literary dialogue, difference is the spark of collision and questioning, and literary exchange based on dialogue and questioning is the real sense of cultural communication.

In addition to planning foreign translation projects according to subgenres at the macro level, coming-of-age novels also have their "peculiarities" in terms of specific translation strategies (Huang Jiajia and Xu Derong, 95). The explicit educational and educational purpose of coming-of-age novels, as well as the cultural values and spiritual dimensions contained in the text, require that their translation strategies should highlight the "cognitive and critical functions of the translated text", so as to play the role of "brokers" of culture and knowledge (Simon, 283). This is also the translation strategy of "intellectual acceptance" advocated by Spivak, whose translated texts often have components such as preface, stamp, and annotation (Simon, 283). There are many successful cases of this translation strategy in foreign translations of Chinese literature. For example, the English translation of the Book of Poetry by the British sinologist James Legge, and the British sinologist A. Graham. G. Graham's English translations of Late Tang Poems include a lengthy preface explaining the cultural background, translation concepts, and strategic choices. Different from the foreign translation of other types of literary works, the foreign translation of coming-of-age novels should strengthen the communication and education functions through cultural translation strategies. There are many successful cases of Chinese translators who have undertaken to strengthen the education and cultural dissemination functions of coming-of-age novels when translating Western coming-of-age novels. For example, Pampa's translation of the Mexican-American female writer Sandra Sandra Cisneros (1954- ) The House on Mango Street (1984) is a case in point. One of the most striking features of a novel translation is that the translator adds 50 annotations to the text of the novel. These 50 annotations participate in the whole process of translator's translation, not only as a translation strategy, but also as an effective means to "manifest" the "genre" of this coming-of-age novel and the "educational function" of the novel (Wang Zhuo, 2008b: 73-74). This translation strategy is worth learning from the translation practice in the process of mainland growth novels "going global".

V. Conclusion

In the two-way dimension of the tradition of Chinese literary education and the historical process of China's modernization, Chinese coming-of-age novels are the perfect carrier for conveying the emotions, morality, aesthetics and values of the Chinese and the Chinese nation. However, in order to give full play to the international communication power of this unique sub-genre, we need to do a good job in the literary planning and text planning of foreign translated works at the macro level, and systematically launch Chinese literary works according to the genre, but also need to pay attention to the selection of translation strategies for coming-of-age novels at the micro level, highlight the literary characteristics of coming-of-age novels, and strengthen their educational functions, which is also one of the important strategies for the mainland to build a discourse system and translation discourse resources for translating foreign translations in China (Geng Qiang, 173).