Translating Chinese pop fiction

This paper questions the assumption that pop literature is easier to translate than high literature. It uses a real-life example, namely, the translation from Chinese into Catalan of Chun Sue's autobiographical novel Beijing wawa as a case study. It is argued that translational difficulties arise not only because of its wealth of culture-specific references but also because of the characteristics of the author's literary style, where most of the appeal of the novel lies for the original audience. Cultural referents in the source text are identified and the suitability or unsuitability of using different translation techniques are discussed, taking into account both authorial intention and the expected target reader knowledge of the original culture.