Pan, Weizhen2019-11-282019-11-28b71496671http://hdl.handle.net/1885/186941This study explores connections between the first Chinese translation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (hereafter Alice in Wonderland or Alice) and the development of modern Chinese language in the 20th century, especially in the 1920s. It discusses how Alice, the endearing little girl from Oxford, became a literary witness to changes in the Chinese language and literature. In the 20th century, China experienced a momentous sequence of events: the abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and the establishment of the new Republic in early 1912, the founding of the Communist Party of China in 1921, the Japanese invasion in the 1930s and the subsequent Civil War, which ended with the defeat of the Nationalist government in 1949--to name a few. These events precipitated drastic social and political changes and were accompanied by changes to the Chinese language, and moreover, efforts were made to introduce a unified National Language and to promote vernacular written Chinese. The interconnections among these events are important factors in the development of modern Chinese. The first Chinese translation of Alice in Wonderland was published at a transitional point for the Chinese language: a time when scholars, linguists and writers were passionately debating various aspects of the Chinese language and suggesting changes. This thesis discusses why and how translator Chao Yuen Ren used his translation to trial different ideas raised during these debates. It investigates the context of a number of Chao's translation decisions, as his experimentation was directly related to issues raised during the language debates, not only about written Chinese, but also about spoken Chinese--an area that is yet to be fully explored in the study of Chao's translation of Carroll's works. It argues that the legacy of the first Chinese translation of Alice goes beyond its literary brilliance because it was (in Chao's words) a 'philological document' of the development of modern Chinese language. In addition, this thesis discusses how Chao's translation influenced other Chinese writers and editors who were enthusiastically experimenting with vernacular written Chinese as a preferred literary medium. Through the prism of social and political changes and different personal circumstances of these writers, Alice travelled different literary journeys. However, this thesis argues that the combined effect delivered by these Alice variations underscores the legacy of the first Chinese translation of Alice, making it an important piece of the bigger picture of the development of modern Chinese literature as well as translation and the cultural history that awaits further investigation.en-AU201910.25911/5ea95814eb908