One concept that exists in translation studies is the idea of domesticating versus foreignizing translation strategies, or in other words, the extent to which you want to adapt the translation to the culture of the target language, vs deliberately highlighting the cultural 1/

gap between the source text and the speakers of the target language. Interestingly, fan communities moderately to strongly prefer foreignization strategies, whereas professional translation leans towards domestication. Some people seem to think one is better than the other, 2/

but, personally, I think each has its benefits and drawbacks.

Domestication strategies, of course, make the text easier to digest the text in the target language. However, critics, including a lot of people in various fan communities, say 3/

that this imposes the target language's cultural norms onto the text, and object to domesticating translations for that reason. Instead, they prefer foreignizing strategies, because that preserves the original culture of the text more, and is therefore more "authentic" 4/

However, in my opinion, foreignization has its drawbacks too. First, by rendering the text more alien, it often does a worse job of recreating the experience of reading the text in the original language, because the text does not typically appear alien in its original language 5/

Second, it may lead to the opposite problem: exoticization. I think we can see this happening in fan communities too, which sometimes wind up fetishizing the culture of a text's origin--the most obvious example of this is how some anime fans fetishize Japan 6/

or Kpop fans with Korea. Weirdly, this can lead to certain words or concepts from the origin culture being adopted and in the process taking on meanings or connotations in the target language that don't exist, or are less prominent, in the original language. 7/

eg. I don't speak Korean, but I'm fairly sure "oppa" is far less sexualized in Korean than it is in English. Sometimes, it can feel like people want to use foreign concepts, hate localization, etc., because they want to have an imagined proximity to the source culture 8/

On the flip side of fetishization, there is also more "negative" exoticization, which happens a *lot* in broader anglophone discourse on China. Because my own experience of anglophone discourse on China is heavily dominated by this type of exoticization 9/

I was initially reluctant to do anything but a domesticating translation. When a lot of your time observing and participating in discussion on China involves seeing waves and waves of stereotyping and dehumanization 10/

making sure everyone knows all the relevant ins and outs of Chinese culture doesn't seem as important as just getting people to see Chinese people as people. Moreover, westerners often use superficial knowledge of Chinese culture *to* dehumanize Chinese people 11/

For instance, many obnoxious expats (I've experienced a lot of these), upon learning about the concept of "face," use it as a lazy explanation for everything and to dismiss Chinese people's behavior, even when the behavior in question is how a lot of humans 12/

in any culture would have behaved, because it's a natural reaction to the situation. (Hence, my ongoing reluctance to explain the concept of face in my translation footnotes, because the vast majority of the time just having empathy for another human being is 13/

sufficient to understand what's going on, and me explaining what face is just seems like it would unnecessarily estrange the reader from what they're reading.) /14

Other examples of people taking a concept or feature of Chinese culture or society and wildly misapplying it while possibly completely failing to remember Chinese people's humanity in the process include /15

include how some western commentators seem to think all of Chinais explained by some combination of authoritarianism, nationalism, brainwashing, and Confucianism. Or who think that it makes sense to apply the Mandate of Heaven to modern Chinese politics 16/

One benefit that domestication has is that by making a test more accessible and familiar to readers, it helps the reader empathize with what it says and makes our common humanity more salient, whereas highlighting cultural difference highlights, well, difference 17/

Of course, that doesn't mean that the criticisms of domestication are wrong--domestication does flatten cultural particularities and prevent the audience from confronting their own cultural assumptions. 18/

It can even be a manifestation of cultural hegemony--pretty much everyone with some distance from anglo-american culture but interacts with it on a reasonably frequent basis has experienced how, for instance, we are often expected to be fluent in 19/

the nuances of anglo-american culture and history and conform to their values but they can be totally ignorant of ours. The fact that anglo-americans are seldom forced to confront cultural difference, especially on equal terms 20/

(when this happens, who is typically the one that has to defend themselves?) almost certainly contributes to this. So I'm definitely *not* saying that domestication better than foreignization tout court. I'm simply saying that there's a tradeoff, that each has certain virtues 21/

and certain vices. In fact, as I began to internalize the fact that I wasn't translating for all those people who constantly dehumanize Chinese people, whose brain vomit I still see on a regular basis, and stopped acting as though I was, I began to warm to foreignization 22/

Because, in fact, I really like Chinese culture, language, and history, and enjoy sharing it in my small way. My guiding philosophy for my translation began to shift toward a more balanced approach (though to be honest, I think the philosophy shifted more than the practice 23/

I wasn't doing all that much domestication in the first place. Amusingly, some people took my initial comments about translation aims to be far more true than they actually were, which goes to show that perception > reality.) 24/

Anyway, the take home is, different translation strategies have different virtues and drawbacks. Additionally, that's why multiple translations of something existing is a good thing! No single translation can do everything at once /end