Cui, Feng and Li, Defeng, eds. (2022): Medio-Translatology: Concepts And Applications. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 156 p.

Medio-translatology, proposed by Chinese scholar Tianzhen Xie, is a theory of translated literature that has been influential in the field of Chinese Translation Studies since its emergence in the 1990s. At the core of medio-translatology lies the concept of “Creative Treason,” which highlights the nature of translation. “Creative Treason” refers to the unavoidable deviation or departure of the translated text from the source text. This deviation takes place at the translating stage and is influenced by other stages in the broad sense of the translation process, including the initiation, production, dissemination and reception of the translated text. It is not only caused by the new meanings imposed on the translated text by various participants, such as the sponsor, the translator, the publisher, the mediator and the reader, but it is also influenced by the social and cultural factors of the target language context. More importantly, this deviation can be either intentional or unintentional, distinguishing the notion of “Creative Treason” from the concepts of translation as manipulation (Hermans 1985), rewriting (Lefevere 1992), adaptation (Krebs 2014) and imitation (Chan 2017). These concepts emphasise the intentional intervention during the translating stage to serve specific purposes, while “Creative Treason” occurs naturally or automatically throughout the whole translation process, intentional or otherwise. Medio-translatology provides not only a fresh understanding of the nature of translation, but also sees translation as a political, cultural and literary activity in the target language society. In this sense, medio-translatology extends the boundary of the traditional Translation Studies (TS). Though traditional TS and medio-translatology share a similar viewpoint, there are some differences between the two concepts. Traditional TS are known for their “staggering interdisciplinary nature” (Shuttleworth and Cowie 2014: 184) and “engage in dialogues with literary studies, communication studies, linguistics and so on” (Valdeón 2017: 185). In contrast, medio-translatology, originating from comparative literature and being born in the Chinese context, argues that the foreign literature translated into a native language can be seen as part of the literature of the nation who speaks the native language, that the history of the literature of a nation can be structured to include the foreign literature translated into the native language and that the incoming and outgoing translations in a nation should be treated as different translation actions because they have different purposes, readerships and translation strategies. Medio-translatology “[…] bears resemblance to the descriptive and systemic approaches to translation studies; however, it is a notably Chinese theoretical framework for its understanding of translation and its responses to the issues in the Chinese literary scene” (p. 66). Medio-translatology pays less attention to linguistics-based translation problems, which are a crucial part of traditional TS. This edited volume is organised into a three-part structure consisting of eleven chapters. Part I (Chapter 1) provides the background information needed for the reading and understanding of the other chapters. Tianzhen Xie spent over two decades developing and explaining this theory. Sadly, he suddenly passed away in 2020, just as he was getting set to further his work. To honour his academic contributions, the editors of the book invited 10 established scholars, all of whom are Xie’s close colleagues or former students, each to write a chapter to offer their perspectives on medio-translatology. Part II (Chapter 2 to Chapter 7) discusses the development of medio-translatology. Chapter 2, authored by Qiyi Liao, highlights the potential impact of medio-translatology on China’s traditional approach to translation, which has been based on the principles of “Faithfulness, Expressiveness, and Elegance” as set forth by Yan Fu, a prolific Chinese translator famous for introducing Western ideas of the late 19th century into China. In Chapter 3, Ying …