Adult Translators and Child Readers

A Case Study of The Wind in the Willows in Chinese Translation

Abstract

This article studies the variations in translating the same text for the child reader. By comparing three contemporaneous Chinese translations of The Wind in the Willows and analyzing the different approaches to translating and packaging the Chinese books, the article discusses how the image of childhood held by translators, illustrators, and publishers affects the linguistic choices and cover designs and how these choices reflect on the relationship between adult translators and child readers.