Abstract:Names in A Dream of Red Mansions imply the characters’ personalities and their destiny by the author’s artistic manipulation. At the same time, these names reflect the values, love and hate and writing intention of the writer. So far, there are two English versions of the book: one is Yang Hsien-yi’s version; the other is Hawkes’s version. Due to the influences of different cultures, they use different methods to translate the book. The thesis is to discuss the connotation and translation of characters’ names in A Dream of Red Mansions, and focuses on contrastive study of name translation in the two versions. Also, the thesis explores the advantages and shortcomings of different name translation strategies. 

Key words: translation of names; A Dream of Red Mansions; comparative research

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. About Chinese names-2

2.1 Development of Chinese names-2

2.2 Culture Investigation of Chinese name-3

2.2.1 Relationship with history-3

2.2.2 Relationship with politics-3

2.2.3 Relationship with culture-4

2.2.4 Relationship with custom-4

3. Meaning of characters' names in A Dream of Red Mansions-5

3.1 Classification of these names-5

3.2 Connotation of these names-6

4. Comparison of methods of translating names in different versions of A Dream of Red Mansions-7

4.1 Hawkes’s version-7

4.2Yang Hsien-yi’s version-8

5. Advantages and disadvantages of two versions-9

6. Conclusion-10

Bibliography-12

Acknowledgements-13