Living on the Edge of Two Worlds
Reflections on My Experience as a Bilingual Writer
A few years ago I decided to write online more regularly. Equally fond of English and Chinese, I thought I could write in one language and then translate it to another, so I’d have two articles published in two places, reaching two groups of audiences. How convenient!
Wrong.
I could never translate between my Chinese writing and my English writing. I noticed that I was adapting to different worldviews in their respective language to relate to the audience.
Let’s start by examining how a hero’s story is told.
A Hero’s Journey Told in Two Languages
A typical English hero narrative, summarized by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), goes like this:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder:
fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won:
the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
