Serialized Literary Translation in Hong Kong Chinese Newspapers: A Case Study of The Chinese Mail (1904-1908)

The early twentieth century witnessed the boom of Chinese newspapers in colonial Hong Kong, and their contributions to the development of printing media in China has been acknowledged. Meanwhile, China experienced one of the great 'waves of translation' in the late Qing period, and Pollard observes that 'in the first decade of the twentieth century there occurred in Chinese language publications the rare phenomenon of translated works of fiction exceeding in number original works of fiction' (1998:5). It is not sheer incidence that many of the translated works were initially serialized in the Chinese newspapers. While the translations in these newspapers, especially those in Shanghai, have gained increasing attention, the translations in Hong Kong Chinese newspapers around the turn of the twentieth century have remained largely unexplored. This paper aims to address a veritable research gap, to cover the specific development and is embedded within the larger body of research into journalistic translation that has burgeoned in recent years, both in the West and in China. The Chinese Mail will serve as the case study to show some characteristics of serialized literary translation in Hong Kong Chinese Newspapers in the beginning decade of 20^th century.