MTSK_037 _ MARTIN TEE SUVI KIRBLAS: JUDGE DEE / KUMARI VAIM IN WOO FENG / ENDEL LEPP’S STUDIO / Culture’s Representation in Van Gulik’s Transcreated Novel The Chinese Maze Murders: A Multimodal Corpus Approach _ Sage Journals 10.01.2024 / MeMoMu 26.10.2026
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21582440231223481
Judge Dee in Woo Feng’s Studio.
Note. Reprinted from Van Gulik (1997). Copyright 1957 by N. V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve The Hague – Netherlands.
Judge Dee in Woo Feng’s Studio.
Note. Reprinted from Van Gulik (1997). Copyright 1957 by N. V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve The Hague – Netherlands.
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Example 1 describes the scene of Judge Dee’s first meeting with Woo Feng the suspect and painter, and Figure 3 is the illustration that depicts it. In the Chinese version, “阎罗王,”“神佛,”“观音菩萨” and “菩萨” are all cultural concepts of Chinese religion and folklore, and they are represented as abstract non-material cultural elements in the text. While in the English version, abstract non-material cultural elements such as “阎罗王” are “translated” and transformed into concrete material cultural elements of “Chinese painting representing the Black Judge of the Nether World” instead of being represented as individual abstract cultural concepts. In other words, “drawing about the Black Judge of the Nether World” is different from “working on a picture representing Black Judge of the Nether World” as the former is centered on “Black Judge of the Nether World” and the latter is centered on “picture.” For English language readers, recognizing a concrete material Chinese-styled “picture” would be easier than recognizing an abstract null-equivalent Chinese folklore concept in English, so the reader’s reading fluency will not be damaged even if they have trouble perceiving “阎罗王.”“A picture representing the Black Judge of the Nether World” and “pictures of Buddhist saints and deities” are represented as material cultural elements in English, and the illustration highlights them with visual images. /.../
Example 1 describes the scene of Judge Dee’s first meeting with Woo Feng the suspect and painter, and Figure 3 is the illustration that depicts it. In the Chinese version, “阎罗王,”“神佛,”“观音菩萨” and “菩萨” are all cultural concepts of Chinese religion and folklore, and they are represented as abstract non-material cultural elements in the text. While in the English version, abstract non-material cultural elements such as “阎罗王” are “translated” and transformed into concrete material cultural elements of “Chinese painting representing the Black Judge of the Nether World” instead of being represented as individual abstract cultural concepts. In other words, “drawing about the Black Judge of the Nether World” is different from “working on a picture representing Black Judge of the Nether World” as the former is centered on “Black Judge of the Nether World” and the latter is centered on “picture.” For English language readers, recognizing a concrete material Chinese-styled “picture” would be easier than recognizing an abstract null-equivalent Chinese folklore concept in English, so the reader’s reading fluency will not be damaged even if they have trouble perceiving “阎罗王.”“A picture representing the Black Judge of the Nether World” and “pictures of Buddhist saints and deities” are represented as material cultural elements in English, and the illustration highlights them with visual images. /.../
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Viive Kaplani ooper „Martin Tee suvi Kirblas“ jõuab Opera Kyrbla lavale 2027. aasta 20. augustil. Enne esietendust saab ooperit inspireerinud dokumentaalfilmi 2020. aasta sündmustest Kirblas näha 25. septembri Kürbla Käbifilmide Festivalil. Autor/allikas: KÜKÄFF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r65rcAHqMew
#MartinTeeSuviKirblas #Donggao #RobertVanGulik #KumariVaim #EndelLepp #MeMoMu #UproarInHeaven #OperaKyrbla #KülaooperArmandonia #EndelLeppFashionHouse #Lääneranna #PisaraidEiUsu #SuurPluss #UneSaisonEnEnfer #RoosadVuplidJalga #Ämblikutädiööklubi #PiinlikOlukord #SarvikpütiKättemaks #PostitantsukonnGruppMeediakontsern #LendabMesipuuPoole #HowToExplainADeadHareToKajaLotman #WhoTheFuckIsJanarSõber #KumariImedemaa #PLAYBUNNY102026 #MEEZ102026
„Martin Tee suvi Kirblas“ on Eestis kasutatav kultuuriline, irooniline ja kohaliku eluga seotud väljend, mis viitab Lääneranna valla tegelasele ja endisele abivallavanemale Martin Teele (sündinud 1984). /.../
“(…) Long ago the master took his lute, left his place of birth and crossed the seas. Now I too have left a distant land and travelled hither with my lute. Long ago when the master arrived at Mito, [the resident Chinese monk] Zhu Shunshui had already passed away. Now I arrive at this same spot, and the master has likewise passed on to eternity. Alas! It is indeed wondrous that those of identical circumstances and identical interests, though separated by great distances and many generations, can match one another so well, but how difficult is it for them to meet each other at the same time and at the same place so that they can share their affinity! When I think of this I can’t help shedding tears of sadness (…).” (Translation by Piet Rombouts)
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* https://www.leidenspecialcollectionsblog.nl/articles/unpublished-works-of-robert-van-gulik-the-collected-works-of-chan-master-tung-kao
“(…) Long ago the master took his lute, left his place of birth and crossed the seas. Now I too have left a distant land and travelled hither with my lute. Long ago when the master arrived at Mito, [the resident Chinese monk] Zhu Shunshui had already passed away. Now I arrive at this same spot, and the master has likewise passed on to eternity. Alas! It is indeed wondrous that those of identical circumstances and identical interests, though separated by great distances and many generations, can match one another so well, but how difficult is it for them to meet each other at the same time and at the same place so that they can share their affinity! When I think of this I can’t help shedding tears of sadness (…).” (Translation by Piet Rombouts)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21582440231223481
Open access
Culture’s Representation in Van Gulik’s Transcreated Novel The Chinese Maze Murders: A Multimodal Corpus Approach
Abstract
The Chinese Maze Murders, a Chinese culture-based detective novel transcreated by Dutch sinologist Robert Hans van Gulik, represents Chinese cultures multimodally and reconciles Chinese-English cultural gaps effectively. Figuring out what cross-cultural functions and contributions of illustration-text multimodal combinations in The Chinese Maze Murders make would be inspiring for effectively promoting and applying multimodal ways in Chinese-English cultural translation. Yet, there is a scarcity of translation studies investigating it directly. This multimodal corpus-based study first identifies the different culture-representing features of the illustration-text multimodal combinations in the Chinese and English versions of The Chinese Maze Murders quantitatively, and then proposes the fundamental functions and contributions of illustration-text combinations that could facilitate cross-cultural translation qualitatively. The corpus textual statistics show that the Chinese version comprises 23.04% material cultural elements and 76.96% non-material cultural elements. While the English version comprises 36.58% material cultural elements and 63.42% non-material cultural elements. The different type-allocation of textually represented cultural elements in two language versions is regarded as an operating result of the mechanism of illustration-text multimodal combinations. Based on further retroductive corpus statistics-derived example analysis, it is argued that illustration-text multimodal combinations could facilitate cross-cultural translation in (a) transforming abstract cultural elements into concrete cultural elements, (b) integrating cultural elements as “meaning wholes,” and (c) visualizing cultural implications. This study sheds new light on the cultural functions of illustration-text multimodal combinations in translation, which provides practical implications for mitigating the cultural incommensurability of Chinese-English translation.
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/.../ Lastly, illustrations provide additional complementary visual information for those remaining non-material cultural elements in English to mitigate cultural meaning comprehension barriers caused by the textual translation. Through the implementation of the three-phase multimodal switching operation, the representation of culture is effectively managed in cross-language contexts.
Example 1 exemplifies how this cultural function works, and the cultural elements are highlighted with underlines.
Example 1.
Chinese texts:
……那时他正画着一个阎罗王……那些画全是神佛一类；尤以观音菩萨画的最多，有些一像一张的，有些却是有别的菩萨随伴着的。
English text:
……working on a picture representing the Black Judge of the Nether World……It were all pictures of Buddhist saints and deities. The goddess Kwan Yin was very well represented, sometimes single, sometimes with a group of attendant deities.
Example 1 describes the scene of Judge Dee’s first meeting with Woo Feng the suspect and painter, and Figure 3 is the illustration that depicts it. In the Chinese version, “阎罗王,”“神佛,”“观音菩萨” and “菩萨” are all cultural concepts of Chinese religion and folklore, and they are represented as abstract non-material cultural elements in the text. While in the English version, abstract non-material cultural elements such as “阎罗王” are “translated” and transformed into concrete material cultural elements of “Chinese painting representing the Black Judge of the Nether World” instead of being represented as individual abstract cultural concepts. In other words, “drawing about the Black Judge of the Nether World” is different from “working on a picture representing Black Judge of the Nether World” as the former is centered on “Black Judge of the Nether World” and the latter is centered on “picture.” For English language readers, recognizing a concrete material Chinese-styled “picture” would be easier than recognizing an abstract null-equivalent Chinese folklore concept in English, so the reader’s reading fluency will not be damaged even if they have trouble perceiving “阎罗王.”“A picture representing the Black Judge of the Nether World” and “pictures of Buddhist saints and deities” are represented as material cultural elements in English, and the illustration highlights them with visual images. As Figure 3 illustrates, Judge Dee on the left is looking at paintings on the wall, and Woo Feng the suspect and painter on the right is painting. The paintings on the table and the paintings on the wall show readers what “Black Judge of the Nether World” (阎罗王) and “Buddhist saints and deities” (神佛) look like respectively, visually enhancing the reader’s cultural comprehension by visible cultural signified. The visual enhancement of material cultural elements not only specifies the signified of textual description but also evokes the reader’s cultural schematic construction of the story scene. “Goddess Kwan Yin” (观音菩萨) and “a group of attendant deities” (菩萨) are kept in their original form of non-material elements in English, and their figures are sketched in the illustration. Though the sketches of “Goddess Kwan Yin” and “a group of attendant deities” in the illustration are simple line drawings, they still provide enough additional visual information for readers to substantialize these two non-material cultural elements in mind. With the synergy of illustration-text combination, cultural elements in example 1 are well represented in English based on the three-phase switching operation, and possible cultural meaning recognition gaps caused by purely textual translation are bridged by illustrations to the utmost extent.
Figure 3. Judge Dee in Woo Feng’s Studio.
Note. Reprinted from Van Gulik (1997). Copyright 1957 by N. V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve The Hague – Netherlands.
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