Understanding and Translating Chinese Martial Arts

The present book features some introductory discussions on martial arts for the international audience and highlights in brief the complexities of translating the genre into English, often from a comparative literature perspective. Martial arts, also known as Kungfu or Wushu, refer to different families of Chinese fighting styles over many centuries. Martial arts fiction, or Wuxia literature, is a unique genre that depicts adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Understanding martial arts and the Chinese culture and philosophy behind them creates an intriguing experience, particularly, for non-Chinese readers; translating the literature into English poses unparalleled challenges for translators not only because of the culture embedded in it but also the fascinating martial arts moves and captivating names of many characters therein.



Dan Jiao is Executive Chair of Henan Provincial Research Centre for Shaolin Kungfu Translation and Full Professor of College of Foreign Languages, Capital Normal University. Her research interests cover linguistics and translation studies with a special focus on translation of Chinese Wushu.


Defeng Li is Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Macau. He has researched and published extensively in Translation Studies as well as Second Language Education. He takes a keen interest in data-based empirical translation studies, cognitive and psycholinguistic investigation of translation processes, and curriculum development in translation education.

Lingwei Meng obtained his Ph.D. degree in English Literature at University of Göttingen. He is Postdoctoral Researcher at Zhegnzhou University and Lecturer at Henan University of Technology. His major research interests include martial arts tourism, travel writing, and tourist guidebooks. He has published a couple of articles with regards to literary tourism. He is Author of The Mythology of Tourism (Peter Lang, 2018).
Yuhong Peng is Assistant Instructor at Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College. Before joining UIC, she worked at several tertiary institutions as English teacher, In-house Translator/Interpreter, and Project Assistant. She takes great interest in language pedagogy, translation studies, and intercultural communication