Translating the Literature of Marginalized Nations and the Construction of a National Culture in the People’s Republic of China

The founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was the first time in history that China had been consolidated as a country of independence and territorial integrity (unified except Taiwan, Hongkong, Macau and other regions). It also marked the climax of Chinese national consciousness (see Section 12.1 for detailed discussion). Sino-foreign literary relationships also underwent changes in due course. In 1951, all the elite translators attended the First Conference on Translation and in 1954, a National Literary Translation Conference was held. From then on, literary translation gradually became an integral part of the cultural blueprint of this emerging nation.