Rewriting Chinese Women through Western Eyes: A Postcolonial-Feminist Re-reading of Pearl S. Buck’s All Men Are Brothers

This study examines Pearl S. Buck’s English translation of Shui Hu Zhuan (All Men Are Brothers) through a contextual, paratextual, and textual lens, with particular focus on her ideological positioning as a Western female translator depicting Chinese women. Grounded in postcolonial feminist theory, the research aims to explore how Buck’s bicultural identity and ideological stance influenced her translation choices, especially in the representation of gender. A qualitative methodology is employed, integrating contextual biography, paratextual commentary, and close textual comparison with later translations by Shapiro and Jackson. Findings indicate that while Buck adopts a largely literal and foreignizing translation style, she does not mitigate, and in some cases amplifies, the misogynistic portrayals present in the source text. Her lexical choices, such as translating neutral or mildly critical Chinese terms into morally charged English equivalents, suggest an orientalist and gendered interpretive framework. These translation decisions appear to reflect not only a commitment to linguistic fidelity but also implicit cultural biases toward Chinese femininity. The study concludes that Buck’s translation reinforces Western-centered ideological narratives, casting the translator as an active participant in shaping cross-cultural representations. The findings underscore the importance of critically examining the translator’s positionality in literary translation. This research contributes to discussions on symbolic power in translation and calls for greater ethical and gender-sensitive awareness among cultural mediators working with texts from historically marginalized contexts.